Monday, September 10, 2018

Fair Market Value For Home Sellers


When it comes time to sell your home home sellers should have the expectation their home should sell for fair market value. It is almost impossible to sell your home for more than fair market value.  And even if you do find a buyer willing to overpay for your home, most likely a bank appraisal will be ordered.  In many cases a buyer will not, or cannot purchase a property for more than the appraised value.
As a home seller, your success lies in getting your home priced right, which is in the range of fair market value.  When your home is priced at fair market value it receives a large amount of interest from qualified buyers.  Hopefully selling your home in a reasonable amount of time at asking or very close to asking.
As the price of your home pulls away from market value and is priced higher and higher far less interest is garnered by qualified home buyers.
When the price starts to extend past fair market value and the home is overpriced it will linger on the market exceeding the average days on market for similar homes. You will also notice your home will get very few or no showings.
Once a home has stagnated on the market you will probably have to have one or more price changes to get the home at or slightly below fair market value to regain interest of the pool of qualified buyers.
Listing your home at fair market value from the start has many advantages.  It can even be the difference between your home selling or not selling.
True Seller Story of A Seller Misunderstanding Fair Market Value
Last year I had a home seller who wanted to retain my services,  Unfortunately they severely overpriced their home well past fair market value. 
They listed their home at 350k when I told them and showed them that fair market value was $290-315k with a marketing price of $320k because of a rapidly appreciating market.
The first weekend of open houses approached.  The sellers were excited thinking they would be flooded with offers,  Which I warned them that I think attendance would be low and I wasn’t expecting offers due to the overly high asking price.  Well 6 couples cam over two days of open houses, with weeks of no showings.  Then a small price change and more of the same. 
They finally came to me and asked me where they needed to price the house.  I suggested a significant price change to 320k.  We immediately received offers at 290k and negotiated, both offers and the negotiations stalled at 305k.  Third offer comes in and starts and $290k and we negotiate to $305k and negotiating stalls.
At this point it has become clear to my sellers.  They commented how they noticed each buyer started at $290k and ended at $305k.  They followed up by saying that this seems to be what buyers are willing to pay for their house….. again fair market value is what a group of qualified buyers will be willing to pay on the open market!!
No matter what you think your house is worth you need a buyer to step up and pay your price.  Without a buyer your home remains unsold.
Unfortunately if they had priced it right from the beginning they would have sold for 5-10k more.  But they let the home linger to long on the market.  It also cost them on buying a new home as interest rates and prices rose through the 7 month process.


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