I have talked on occasion in the past about the importance of pricing your property to sell in that it must be competitively priced in order to be "in the market" not just "on the market." Whether the home is $200,000 or $2 million correctly having it priced is the only way it is effectively going to get SOLD!.
In 2010, 30% or roughly 1 in 3 of the properties listed for sale on the MLS® system of the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board (GTREB) sold. In fact for the past six years the number of expired listings has exceeded the number listings that have sold. That to me is a very telling statistic. First, REALTORS® are not doing their jobs in terms of preparing a thorough comparable market analysis in order to arrive at a list price that is consistent with market value and secondly, some sellers just aren't listing.
When I go into a home I have a faily good sense of what the property is worth. At the same time, gone are the days when a REALTOR® can or should, just walk into your home and shoot from the hip, tossing out a price that will ultimately get you the best price within reasonable time frame.
As a Market Value Appraiser (MVA Residential) I put a great deal if time into pricing properties that I am being interviewed by the owners to list. At the same time, no matter how technical or thorough I may be in arriving at a price, it is not a pure science as a property is ultimately worth what a buyer is willing to pay. The thing is if I cannot sit down with a potential buyer that approaches me about one of my listings and demonstrate to them (on paper) why the property is listed where it is, I shouldn't take the listing. A REALTOR® cannot in fact fulfil their fiduciary responsibilities to a seller and or buyer by taking a listing that they know is over-priced. Amongst other things, our code of ethics states: "A Registrant shall demonstrate reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment, and competence in providing opinions, advice or information to any person in respect of a trade in real estate."
In recently securing a listing, the sellers informed me that I had given them the lowest price out of the REALTORS® they had spoken with but I also provided them with the most compelling listing presentation as to why they should list at that price. That's not the first time I have been told this nor will it no doubt be the last. Conversely I also lost a listing recently where the listing REALTOR® gave them a price $200,000 or 30% more than my evaluation. Due to the fact that the pricing of properties is not a science, my analytical work may not always be spot on but I'm not 30% off either.
I am going to spend more time discussing the matter of pricing in future posts as it's a critically important component regarding successfully selling and buying property. In the meantime I am going to leave you with this one thought. As a professional full-time REALTOR® I do not consider myself to be a "sales person." Our roles have and will continue to change dramatically in the years ahead. Similar to a home inspector, lawyer, accountant or other specialist in a given field, we are "service providers." We are held accountable to render conscientious service to clients and customers and there is a difference between those two parties as well. More on that later.....