Are you considering selling your home? Deciding to put your home on the market is a big decision from getting it ready to sell, interviewing top real estate agents, deciding on a price and ultimately reaching buyers.
The Hilton Head real estate market has returned to normal corrections over the last few years. Home prices are in-line with normal values and demand. Basically, we are back at “fair market” value.
This article will focus on pricing a higher end home (over the $500,000 range) correctly from the start. Newer inexperienced realtors will typically try to figure out the listing price by using the old “price by the square foot rule”. This is more revelent in lower end home market but not in the upper end retirement and second home market. A professional experienced realtor will take into account the homes strengths, location, weaknesses and the competition. She will study the current inventory, the under contract inventory, days on market and the sold properties within the last 180. It isn’t about just comparing square footage and this is hard for some sellers to understand. The retirement or second home of buyer isn’t looking at the square foot price; they are considering the lifestyle they are choosing, the condition of the house, location, etc. While they may tell me their realtor they would like 3 or 4 bedrooms, they aren’t really paying as much attention to the square footage as they are to the design and how they see themselves living in the house. Pricing a home too high will make the home sit on the market for an extended time and stand out from other similar homes. What happens is that agents will use the “higher” priced home to potential buyers to show the value of the homes correctly priced.
As I relay to my higher priced home sellers: if your home is sitting on the market while other homes in your neighborhood are going under contract, one of 3 issues are happening: 1) You are stuck on too high of a price 2) The marketing is sub-par or 3) the house has a glaring issue that needs corrected.
You hire a top professional for a reason. Your goal is to get the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time. Beth Drake has years of successful real estate experience in listing properties in the Hilton Head and Bluffton, SC market. Selling one of your biggest investments deserves an experienced Hilton Head Island realtor. Put Beth Drake’s professionalism to work for you.
Click here to read Beth’s article Merchandising Your Home.
