The Problems Caused by Starting at Too High a Price

then Waiting Too Long to Drop the Price on Sarasota Real Estate.

    We all want to believe our Sarasota home is worth more than it probably is. It's a natural reaction. So there's a tendency to price your Sarasota real estate property too high, thinking that if it doesn't sell, you can always reduce the price later."  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

    Even if you do manage to get an offer at an "above market" price, your buyer will likely need a mortgage. The mortgage lender will require an appraisal. If comparable sales for the last six months and current market conditions don't support your sale price, the home won’t appraise and your deal will fall apart. You can try renegotiating the price, but only if your buyer is willing to listen. At that point, any trust he had in you, and/or his own Realtor who suggested that he accept that high price, is gone. Says one respected real estate agent, "your home will most likely have to go back on the market and that will be a painful exercise.

    Once a sales contract falls through and the home goes back on the market, it is harder to get a good offer. Many Sarasota Realtors aren't anxious to show homes that have been on and off the market. They suspect that you'll be just as unreasonable a second time around, demanding a price that won't fly. Worse, those Realtors who do show your property may bring potential buyers who think that by now you'll be desperate, so they will make only &qout;low-ball" offers.

    When you accept reality and drop your price eventually, your house may have become ""stale on the market." Those first people to see the home will be Realtors on a Broker's Tour." If they decide your home is over-priced, they simply won't show it to prospective buyers because they can find much better deals for their clients than your home represents.   Understand this. Even if they could convince a buyer to make an offer on your home at its inflated price, the deal won't go through because when the lender orders an appraisal of the property it won't "appraise." At that point not only have you lost the sale nut that Realtor is in trouble with his or her client for having talked them into trying to buy an overpriced home.

    Listen carefully when your listing agent explains why your home is worth what his Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) says and not more. Ask questions, if you wish, to assure yourself your Realtor used truly comparable properties in arriving at the value of your home, but pay attention. Competent Realtors know what properties are worth on the market now, not what it may have been worth a year ago or 6 months ago.

    If, for example, you overprice your Sarasota real estate property at first, you will quite likely get less when it finally sells than you'd have received if you had accepted the professional judgment of your Sarasota real estate professional. The old saying "Get it Right the First Time" is real important in real estate pricing.