Price it Per Square Foot...

We all work as hard as we can to get a property sold.I do not know a single agent that wants a listing that they can not sell. We spend upwards of $1,000.00 on marketing efforts have generated many showings but no offers. What’s next?

Recently one of my Santa Cruz Real Estate Agents poised this question to me. She felt had done everything within her power to get the house sold. The seller could not lower the price any further. If they dropped the price any further, they would have to bring money that they didn't have to the closing table.

The sellers needed to sell their Santa Cruz home, the home had not sold, the sellers were angry and blaming the agent.
One of the things we discussed in this situation is to do an update on Santa Cruz market statistics. For example, if there are currently 60 properties listed in their neighborhood and price range and 10 of them sell each month, this means that in order to sell their property, the sellers must be in the top 17 percent of the properties on the market each month in terms of the price, condition and the location. With this many showings and no offers, they're continuing to fall in the bottom 83 percent that are still listed each month rather than in the 17 percent that sell.
The next we talked about ways to explain the seller’s choices, about ways to explain the current market conditions, detailing why certain Santa Cruz homes have sold, and others had not.
The final step is to outline the seller’s options:
1- They can adjust your price.
2- They can update the paint and the fixtures to make the house more appealing.
3- Or if they absolutely must get this price, you can take the property off the market and wait for the market to improve.

"It's your house and it is your decision. What would you like to do?"
Furthermore, it's often useful to either take the sellers out to look at the competition or to pull together a slide show of the interiors of the properties that went under contract or that are currently on the market. Sometimes the reason a property is not selling is that buyers can afford to be choosy. Everything else, unless it's way below market value, is languishing on the market.

Another idea is to do a price-per-square-foot comparison. Remember to choose comparable sales where the lot size and the improvement size are within 10 percent of the seller's property. Failure to do this will yield inaccurate results.
Some Sellers need to see a “picture” of their choices. If that is the case the next step is to make three pricing lines: one for sold listings, one for current listings, and one for expired listings. In most cases, the sellers' current price falls in the price range where most of the listings are expiring. Take the time to explain to your Santa Cruz home sellers that homes in the range between $170.00 and $200.00 per square foot have gone into contract in 60 days. Properties priced between $210.00 and $280.00 that failed to sell and are expired listings currently. Your property is priced at $265.00 per square foot.

Telling the sellers that they can leave their home on the market at $265.00 per square foot, and that it will probably stay on the market, or they can reduce their per square foot price which will increase the odds of selling. The choice is the sellers, the agents job is to give the sellers the information so they can make a choice based on facts, not emotions.


Are you interested in Santa Cruz Real Estate,Buying or Selling Homes in Santa Cruz? Feel free to email me at Contact Me and I will be happy to provide you with information,listings and a FREE market analysis.