You Don’t Want to Chase the Market…

October 23, 2008  By: Karen Huntoon

Things change, kids grow up, jobs transfer us to new places and all of a sudden there’s a house that needs to be sold. In our current Truckee real estate market, sellers are often asking us what they need to do to get their homes successfully sold. [Illustration: If sellers fall behind a market with falling home values, they can end up chasing the market down, because home values are always falling faster than their price reductions].

The first thing a seller must do if he wants to sell his house is to price it correctly for the market we are in. Many of the homes that aren’t selling are priced too high. According to MLS data, the median sales price for single family homes sold in Tahoe Donner during the 2nd QTR,  dropped 13.8% from 2005 to 2008.

If you need to sell your property now, it is important to price “on the money” right from the start. Chasing the market is not the position you want to be in when you are trying to sell your house. In other words, you don’t want to be two steps behind the market. You want to be slightly ahead and if you want your house to sell it should be priced better than your competition.

Pricing a home for sale is not an easy task for anyone. It’s tough to be objective because a house represents so many things to each person. It is often said that sellers are the last to know when it comes to the value of their home and buyers, on the other hand, are often ahead of the game. Buyers know the market better than most sellers and they are aware of the risks involved in today’s market and they gauge the price they’ll pay accordingly.

When it comes to pricing your home for sale, we give you individualized and objective information so that you can make an informed decision. In addition to determining the right price for your property, based on an in-depth analysis of comparable active and sold listings, we will also create a marketing program for your home. We utilize Internet resources, print advertising, open houses, virtual tours and more. We work hard at creating a win-win opportunity for everyone.

The state of our current real estate market has provided some excellent opportunities for new buyers to invest in the Truckee real estate market and it can also be a good time for others, who already own, to sell and buy a bigger or different place while the prices are so good.

Our goal is to help you sell your home for the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time and to help find good investments for those who are ready to make purchases.