Anyone who’s ever tried to sell a property has faced the dilemma of whether they should change the listing price to get more offers. But is this the right move for you and will lowering or upping your listing price affect the sale of your real estate property in White Rock, Langley or anywhere else. Let’s discuss when changing your listing price might not work and what you can do to change that and speed up the sale.
How to Tell When the List Price Is Not Working?
While you may think that the obvious answer to this is “Because it has not sold yet,” you would not be entirely correct. If you follow the media’s stories on real estate, you may build unrealistic expectations of selling your home at a much higher than the asking price. That is where an experienced realtor comes in, as they know the market trends and how best to advise you on price and other vital details.
For example, if your property is in an area where the typical sale time is 30-40 days, not selling your property in the first five days from the listing is nothing to be concerned about. Still, an experienced real estate agent can help you discern the possibilities by using various statistics and key metrics like the number of booked showings, feedback from other realtors, views, and offers.
Signs That You Have a High Asking Price
There are three possible indicators that you’ve priced your property too high and might consider lowering the listing price:
- Little traffic and no offers – very few buyers visit your property and make no offers
- Good traffic with low price offers – buyers visit and like your property but make significantly lower offers than your listed price
- Good traffic with adverse comments on price – buyers visits and like your property by having negative comments about the price
A Right and Wrong Way to Change the Listing Price
Now that you know your listing price is wrong, you should consider lowering it. But you can do this in two ways: the wrong and the right.
The wrong way to change the listing price is to lower it in small increments and see how the market reacts. This indicates indecisiveness, and the slight incremental price lowering will not attract buyers. Also, when the buyers review the listing history, they’ll note the price changes and know that the property is overpriced.
The right way to change a listing price is to drop it at once. This way, you convey the right message to the market, and you can attract buyers who have discarded your property because of its high initial price. Also, my incrementally lowering, you may end up ‘chasing the market down’ and selling for less after 6 months of small price reductions, then you could have by just listing at fair market value.
With the Guy Biggar Team, our customers always get the best possible advice on listing prices, market trends, and everything one may need when buying or selling their property in Vancouver. Get in touch with us today to speak with an expert!