Later, when you decide to drop your price, your house is "old news." You will never be able to recapture that flurry of initial activity you would have had with a realistic price. Your house could take longer to sell.   Even if you do successfully sell at an above market price, your buyer will need a mortgage. The mortgage lender requires an appraisal. If comparable sales for the last six months and current market conditions do not support your sales price, the house won’t appraise at the contracted price. When the appraisal comes in at less than the sales price, there will be three choices available at that time; the buyer will have the option to pay out of pocket for the difference in price, which is unlikely; you will have to reduce the sales price to the amount of the appraisal or your deal falls apart. Your house could go "back on the market" at the adjusted price and the whole process begins again.   Once your home has fallen out of escrow or sits on the market awhile, it is harder to get a good offer. Potential buyers will think you might be getting desperate, so they will make lower offers. By overpricing your home in the beginning, you could actually end up settling for a lower price than you would have normally received if it were price right from the start.

Which agent should you choose?

   Most people would choose an agent who seems willing to listen to your input and work with you. This is an agent that cares about putting the most money in your pocket, right? This is an agent that is willing to start out at your price and if you need to drop the price later, you can do that easily, right? Ask yourself, is this really what you  think a qualified responsible agent would do? You say, after all, everyone else does it! The truth is that you may have just met an agent engaging in a questionable sales practice called "buying a listing." He "bought" the listing by suggesting you might be able to get a higher sales price than the other agents recommended. Most likely, he is quite doubtful that your home will actually sell at that price. The intention from the beginning is to eventually talk you into lowering the price. Why do agents "buy" listings? There are basically two reasons since taking over priced listings is detrimental to both the listing agent and the seller, alike.  Advertising dollars would be lost as well as valuable time in the marketplace, not to mention the inconvenience to you, as the seller for the possibly, unneccessary, longer period of time on the market. A well-meaning and hard working agent would feel pressure from a homeowner who has an inflated perception of his home’s value and feel responsible for the lack of offers. On the other hand, there are some agents who engage in this sales practice routinely. Listings that are priced too high are not shown.  The first few weeks that a listing is on the market are the most crucial.  As a new listing agents scamper to alert their buyers of it.  That is the time that it will have the probability of the highest offering price, but only if it is priced relatively close to other properties that have recently sold.

Please complete the following information for a FREE Comparative Market Analysis of the property you are considering selling. This offer applies to properties not currently listed for sale with a Broker and for which you are the legal owner. Please note: This offer applies only to properties in the Las Vegas / Henderson / Boulder City areas of Nevada.  Your request will be submitted to me for processing and analysis. Please supply a valid email address and phone number to allow me to contact you in response to your request. Thank you! Please click the link above to complete the form to request information or call me direct at 702 454-5304.

LIBERTY REALTY, Barbara Murphy, Realtor