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Wow! -- In spite of all the gloom and doom over the 'burst-bubble housing market', it sounds like the RE market has recovered and is booming in .... Nashville, Phoenix and El Dorado Hills, Ca. -- Things are moving-up here in Destin also, but, are not yet to the 'bidding war' stage. Therefore, the notion of listing lower than you are willing to sell for sounds duplicitous and risky.
If someone is willing to bid the price-up to pay what you actually want, I'm not sure why you don't believe you could simply list the house at that price ... or slightly above to begin with. I guess it's kind of a 'lost leader' marketing strategy that may work, but, really aggravates people in the process. (ie; 'oh yes, that's the price, but, we don't have any at that price ... if you really want one, here is a higher price).'
Perhaps you could list the house at the lower price and include a provision that 'at that price, the buyer pays all closing costs!' That would accomplish the same thing, but, would be more up-front ... and would not leave you liable for a RE commission if a 'bidding war didn't develop.
Price is only one part of the package.
Goofy terms demands derail just as many deals.
In our MLS, if a seller declines a full price offer, the listing agent must notify the membership. I.e., in the Agent Remarks, I may enter, "Seller has previously declined a $400,000 offer," on a $400,000 listing.
If someone is willing to bid the price-up to pay what you actually want, I'm not sure why you don't believe you could simply list the house at that price ... or slightly above to begin with.
Good point. Is someone willing to put in an above listing price offer of XX, but they aren't willing to put in an offer of that much if the price is higher to start with? Seems odd.
It's done to get quick showings and competing offers. And yes, it works...at least here right now. An overpriced home might only get 1 market price offer. A market price home might get multiple offes, the buyers know it so start pricing a few $K above list and easing up on the other terms.
Now, pricing WAY below market value is probably not advised, but I've seen it work too. A listing for $325K closed at $375K, right above market value. Our MLS requires the sellers to increase the list price if they get an above price offer that is not accepted.
Real estate is LOCAL. You have to go with what's working at home. My city might be different than yours.
Edited to add: We are seeing a lot of listings that come on the market Thursday, Open Houses Sat/Sun and the instructions that all offers will be presented Monday at 5pm.
It is rare for a realtor not to proclaim that ...their... area has a red hot real estate market.
I'm not a realtor, just a buyer who has spent the last 6 months looking for a house in Nashville. It might be different in the outlying suburbs, but I can speak with experience that close to downtown in the area we were looking (zip codes 37212, 37205, 37209) if the home is priced correctly it sells quickly. It seems there is a pool of buyers in the same market and inventory is down. We've seen all the houses out there that are either priced above what the comps will support, or have marketability issues and remain unsold through the summer. When a new one comes on the market there is a frenzy of activity, and if the sellers have nailed the price, it's gone in a day or two. It is frustrating for us because we are going for VA financing, so our offers are always going to be weaker than conventional or all cash if there are full price offers.
A co worker couldn't believe that people were paying asking price in this supposedly buyers market. We thought the same thing when we were doing our initial research, and quickly got a slap in the face with reality once we started actually looking. Early on we waited on a couple of houses that were priced at the top of the market, hoping the price would drop or that the sellers would get more desperate once the houses remained on the market past 45 days, but both times the houses went to contract before we could make an offer. After that, we realized that we couldn't play games, if we found a house we liked, we needed to make a strong offer, and even at that we lost out. It got to the point that we'd see a new listing, discuss an offer with our agent, and if he said that they were already getting offers we wouldn't even bother.
Median home price has risen over 30% since last year.
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