[Here’s my typical rant about the real estate market that preludes many of my blog posts:] So what’s been going on lately? Well, plenty of talk about the double dips (in fact, we covered some of that while ago…). There’s been plenty of talk about regional bubbles and busts, and countless data showing signs of a weakening market. But that’s all just talk. Let’s get down to brass tacks here.
Do you remember a little thing where the government would actually give you money if you bought a house? It was that thing that ended back in April—er, no—you couldn’t submit applications after April and deals were still going through for most of the summer? Do you remember that? It was a little thing called a Homebuyer Tax Credit and it was offered to New Homeowners and Move-up, Move-down, and anyone in between that were trying to purchase a house in the spring. Once that bad boy expired (sometime in July?), the phrase “double-dip” was getting thrown around like a hot potato.
The stimulus definitely worked.
Bastioned by monetary incentives, people went out there and bought houses despite a generally unattractive buying atmosphere. It almost worked too well, because after the stimulus expired people stopped buying houses at the same rate. Sure it may have bolstered confidence in the market for a brief period, but it was ultimately a short-term fix. The real road out of recovery is a much longer, rockier one with a gradual, yet steady, incline.
[Here’s my schpiel about what to do now:] So now what do you do? How are you supposed to sell a house now that government isn’t gently pushing people out into the market to shop? It’s simple: DROP YOUR ASKING PRICE!
We’ve been over one of the main and most important rules for selling a home FSBO probably a thousand times. (I could recite this thing in my sleep.) You have to price accordingly and accurately. An overpriced home isn’t going to sell and despite what your home was worth before the crash, it is a different price now.
It’s a bit harsh, I know, but desperate time call for what: Lower Prices.
I’ve run across another article online detailing how to appropriately price now that homes are no longer selling at their Spring rate. Home Selling is like baseball: good fundamentals are the key, and you can never rehearse or practice them too much. So read up avid seller and price appropriately!
Tags: Asking Prices, Choosing the Proper Asking Price, Pricing Your Home
