Expired listings – Price your home right – Price it on the zeros
As I’ve been working expired listings, I’ve found that frequently the pricing is wrong. This is the most common reason that homes don’t sell. Most agents and consumers realize this. Some home sellers do, but a lot of them do not. What they may not realize is that the home is in the correct price range, but is priced wrong. The real estate agent is to blame for this and I am amazed at how many people get this wrong.
The basis for this is a classic psychological pricing strategy.
To learn more about this theory visit Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing.
The classic pricing example is used in infomercials where I’m sure you’ve noticed that almost all products are priced at $19.99. People think, “Hey it’s less than 20 dollars.” This backfires on you in real estate pricing. The reason for this is because of the way home buyers shop for homes. This tactic probably works great in Best Buy when your wife won’t let you spend over a $1,000 for a TV, that one for $999.99 looks really good.
People don’t shop for homes like they shop in Best Buy. You can’t walk into a store and see hundreds of homes lined up right next to each other. Shopping for homes is started online. In fact, 87% of homebuyers begin their search online. How do you search online when you look for a home? Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com all have searches from blank to blank. Do you type into the search a price range of $250,000 to $299,900 because you don’t want to spend $300,000?
Several individual agents use an IDX feed on their website allowing you to search for homes. This search function is designed with price range options to select such as $250,000 – $300,000, not $250,000 to $299,900. My point is, very few people are searching any other way.
When my wife and I were actively looking for a new house, we were looking for homes between $250,000 – $300,000. I would sort with the $300,000 homes on top. During the market conditions at the time I wanted to get a great deal. My wife, who wanted the lower mortgage payments and gets stressed over money, would sort with the $250,000 homes on top. If your home is listed at $249,900 isn’t going to even show up on our list. It might be the perfect home for us.
I’m not sure why other agents price homes that way. I’d like to hear from them. If your home was priced like this and it didn’t sell, is it possible your agent could be making other marketing mistakes as well? If you would like to talk to someone who can help you sell your home that has not sold, please call Mike Henderson at 303-949-5848. I would love the opportunity to have you interview me as your next agent. Even if you don’t choose me or decide not to put your home back on the market, at least you will have a good idea of your present situation and options after speaking with me.






