Sell Your House Fast Charleston SC: Seller Mistakes To Avoid (Pt 1)

Sell Your House Fast Charleston SC: Mistakes To Avoid To Sell Fast And For Top Dollar

Although the current market is pretty hot, if you want to sell your house fast Charleston SC, then here are some tips to ensure you can.

Despite most of Charleston being in a Sellers Market, getting your home sold quickly is no sure bet.

sell your house fast charleston sc Over the next few days I will post reasons home sellers overprice their home, mistakes they make when determining their price and the detrimental effects of chasing the market.

If you’ve read my blog, you will see that I have been tracking the numbers for the greater Charleston SC real estate market, down to specific cities, MLS areas, as well as neighborhoods.
One thing I am constantly seeing is that by the numbers, most of these areas are (and have been) Sellers Markets.

Yet, the Average Days On The Market (DOM) numbers in some cases are higher than what you would expect.

If we are in a Sellers Market, homes should be flying off the market, right?

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That is not always the case–for any market area you will always find homes that have been on the market longer than the Average DOM.

And it is not unusual to see homes that have been listed for way longer.

Of course, you have to have some homes listed longer than the Average DOM, that is what helps to make up the Average DOM number.

In some cases, it can be explained by distressed sales–foreclosures, short sales (there are still some short sales out there), and homes that need work (handyman specials). There are also new construction homes waiting to be completed.

But more often than not, it is simply a case of homes being overpriced to begin with, and then chasing the market. This even applies to a Sellers Market–despite the buyer demand for homes, buyers will simply not overpay for a house.

What’s worse, an overpriced home is often invisible to home buyers (more on that in a bit).

sell your house fast charleston sc

 

Selling Your House Fast Charleston SC: Chasing The Market (pt 1)

The most critical aspect of your listing is setting the list price correctly. Get this wrong, and you could end up chasing the market.

It is equally important that you set the price correctly from the start.

The graph above shows what happens when you start off overpriced. You actually end up selling for less than if you had priced correctly to begin with.

Do you really want to spend more months on the market to sell for less?

Why Homeowners Overprice

sell your house fast charleston sc

 

A common mistake sellers make when overpricing a home is simply ignoring what the market dictates.

For some reason, they think their house will be the exception.

Here are some common reasons sellers are willing to start off overpriced, From Blanche Evans from her RealtyTimes.com article “Why Sellers Overprice Their Homes”:

They feel entitled to make a profit


• They don’t want to bring money to closing


• They feel their home is superior to other similar homes


• They want a return on improvements and repairs


• They want to buy a bigger, more expensive home


• They want to pay off credit card and student loan debts


• They want to pay for college, retirement or some other financial goal


• They think buyers want to negotiate

 

They think real estate agents can get it sold for more if they just work harder

Did you notice that not a single one of those reasons has anything to do with the current market value of the home?

However, this line of thinking is a recipe for disaster. Bottom line, if you want top dollar for your home, then you need to price it right from the start.

As Bill Gassett says on his Maximum Real Estate Exposure Blog article “Why Home Sellers Get Their Price Wrong”:

“The risks involved with overpricing a home equate to one thing – lost money! History shows us over and over again that homes priced right from day one sell for more than those that need a price adjustment.

“I can always come down on my price later” is a common quote that most Realtors have heard hundreds of times.

The belief that some sellers have that they can always come down on price later is a poor one. Sure you can come down later, just don’t think you will be getting top dollar.”

Mistakes Homeowners Make When Determining Price

Determining the best price to start at is not so simple. Pricing a home is one of the most challenging jobs a Realtor has to do.

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The Market Says This Is Your House….

 

It requires trained eyes and experience, and there are many ways to still miss the mark.

It’s no wonder that so many home sellers get it wrong.
In fact, statistics show that when home sellers try to determine the market price for their home, they are wrong 80% of the time.

 

 

 

sell your house fast charleston sc
…But This Is How Sellers See Their House

 

This is the primary reason so many FSBOs do not sell and end up listing with an agent.

Statistics also show that agents can get the price wrong 50% of the time.

There are several reasons for this, which I will discuss in detail below.

 

 

The best resource for determining a homes fair market value is a professional Appraiser. They get the value correct over 80% of the time.
So, why the big discrepancy?

Check in tomorrow for the second part of my post. In the meantime, if you want to sell your house fast Charleston SC, then bee sure to visit my Pam Marshall Realtor website.

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