Question: We received a full price offer
on our home the 2nd day we had it listed. We now think we may have
listed it too low. Your thoughts?
Answer: Versions of this column have
appeared before. It is still true. And for many, still relevant. Perhaps
nowhere is this phenomenon more clearly illustrated than in the case where a
seller receives a good offer right away.
The annals of
real estate are well stocked with stories of sellers who refused to take a
good, but not perfect, first offer, and who then waited a long time before
finally accepting something else at a considerably lower price. The Sellers
first thought is almost inevitable. "Did we list it too low?"
"If someone will offer this much so soon, maybe we should wait a while and
see if we can get more." As an antidote to the ill
effects of the "curse of the first offer", this observation might be
kept in mind.
The
fact that an offer is received early in the listing period -- even in the first
few days -- doesn't mean that the property has been listed too low.
Today, a good buyer's agent will
have electronically entered a "profile" of his client's needs and
price range into the system. Then, whenever he logs on to the MLS, he will be
notified if a listing has been entered that matches that profile.
We all know that there is
typically a bit of a dance in the pricing and negotiating for a property.
Sellers, with the concurrence of their agents, will usually list their property
for an amount that is both higher than what they believe its value to be and
higher than what they would be satisfied to receive. Why? Because they know
that buyers almost always want and expect to pay less than the listed price
The final point is that potential
buyers learn quickly of the existence of an appropriate new listing. Thus, a
flurry of activity at the outset of the listing does not necessarily imply a
too-low price; rather, it reflects the efficiency of the system. Don’t
be greedy, take your good offer and run to the bank with the profits.
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