Key Market Elements and the Benefits of a Competitive Market Evaluation – How to Sell Your Oahu Home (Part Two)

In part one of our series on “How to Sell Your Oahu Home When It Failed to Sell the First Time,” we left off our discussion on how to properly price your home. I stated that proper pricing was probably the most important of the three elements in selling your home (Price, Product and Promotion).

Three Key Market Elements

As we said, the market is the collection of all the buyers and sellers competing for each other within any area. What should you be looking at when you study the market? Let’s look at the three key elements.

• What have homes similar to your home recently sold for?
• What are homes similar to your home currently listed for?
• What is the average market time of both groups?

Proper Pricing: Seller Fantasy vs. Seller Reality

Again, the crystal ball does not hold the answer! To break this down we are really dealing with fantasy and reality.

The Fantasy is what sellers in any given market hope that they will receive for their property. When studying the asking prices of homes you will often find sellers are truly dreaming about finding that recent lottery winner. The Reality is what price sellers are actually able to receive from real live buyers. These are homes that have successfully been sold.

Which is more important? Unless you’re willing to wait for a very long time to sell, you should focus your attention on the reality and not the fantasy. So why look at the active listings at all? This number will give you an indication if prices are moving up, staying constant, or heading downward. If prices are trending upward you may be able to price your home slightly more aggressively than if the market is trending down, or sideways.

The Benefits of a Competitive Market Evaluation

The last number you should be concerned with is how long it takes to sell a home. This number will tell you how long the average seller had to wait before selling. If you wish to sell faster than the average days on market there is only one sure way to accomplish this goal and that is to adjust the price. By adjusting the price, you will encourage buyers to purchase your home over other comparable listings.

So where do you get this information? A good real estate agent should be willing to provide you with a detailed report called a Competitive Market Evaluation. This report is generally free but be careful. Many agents have the ability to create a suggested price page on these reports. These suggested price pages can often lead to disaster.

How? Some agents will manipulate the report to create an inflated recommend price just to take your listing. A professional real estate agent will provide you with this information and guide you through the pricing process. To review a free, updated CMA, please give me a call at 808-216-7300.

One Quick Last Note on Pricing

If your home fails to receive very many showings, this is a clear indication that the home is overpriced and should be immediately reduced. On the flip side, if you have many showings but still no offers, this is clear indication that there is something wrong with the next “P” – Product! 

If you had your home on the market and it got a lot of showings but no offers, I can help. I will professionally stage your home for free when you list with me. Using Stage It Hawaii, an upscale staging company with over $140,000 in furnishings, I will help you make your home look like a model and it will generate the emotional excitement that is needed for buyers to bring an offer.  

If your home went off the market and you want to bring it back on, WHY would you list with a Realtor that does not bring you a new approach to selling? Call me anytime for a free consultation at 808-216-7300. My approach will make a difference. Stay tuned for Part Three on “How to Sell Your Oahu Home When It Failed to Sell the First Time” – The next blog will talk about product – your home.