New Rules For A New Market

10/06/2005

Well, word is out. The market is not what it was and with the impending death of the Seller’s market we’ve enjoyed for the last several years, comes a new set of rules for would be Sellers. Rule #1: If you have your home listed, just to see if you can get a big price (trying the market on for size) do yourself a favor and cancel your listing, because those days are gone.

Rule #2: If you need your home sold and you’ve been listed for 60 days or more and had no offers – it’s time to reduce your price. (If you’ve had no showings – you need a drastic reduction)

Rule #3: Time is not your friend any longer. During a Seller’s Market you can overprice your property and given enough time, the market will catch up to your price. Not now! The prices are beginning to slip away. The longer you’re on the market the smaller your price will be.

Rule #4: Get used to competition. With almost 25% more listings on the market to compete with and approximately 18% less sales than last year, you need to be one of the four best-priced homes on the market in your price range.

The long-term picture is fairly optimistic. This market correction should last only 18 to 24 months and I would suggest that prices will drop between 10 to 20 percent during that time, before beginning to climb again. My guess is, prices will be back to 2004 levels by the end of 2008 and from there a steady climb until the next correction.

Bottom Line: If you need to sell – you need to get competitive with your price NOW. If you don’t need to sell – don’t waste your time in this market.

Till next time, this is Rob Thompson saying, “Good Luck and Good Selling!”

Rob Thompson has been helping families make the right real estate decisions since 1985 and continues to due so with his team of professionals in the communities of the 416 and 31 corridors.

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