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Priced to Sit - I Mean Priced To Sell

October 18, 2007

Priced to sell? Nah, this home is priced to sit on the market for months on end. The seller refuses to believe it is worth any less. Take it or leave it. The real estate broker just wants the listing and doesn’t care if it’s overpriced. Worse yet, they may not even know how to price a home. But it’s a really great deal - it’s priced to sell baby!

Come and view our lovely 2 bedroom 2 bath home. We haven’t bothered to clean it up or De-clutter at all. It just seems more realistic this way. We wouldn’t want to trick you into buying our home. We believe in Au natural. Now accepting highest and best offers.

Have you ever wondered why a home would be marketed as Priced To Sell? Join the club. Like the for sale sign wasn’t obvious enough. Does a consumer really have to be told that the home is being priced to sell? Of course not. It makes no sense. If anything, it’s a sign of desperation.

When I was a newbie, many moons ago, I was encouraged to use this terminology in some of my real estate advertising. Never did it dawn on me that those three words could be a disservice to my seller client. A savvy buyer could easily sense the desperation in that phrase. And, if my memory serves me correctly, that’s exactly what happened to me. On a few occasions, buyers would swoop in and offer low ball offers just waiting to get a desperate seller to counter. Luckily, my sellers stood their ground but what a learning experience it was. It’s not easy being green.

On top of the Priced to Sell advertising lingo, isn’t it amazing how many of these priced to sell homes are really messy? Dirty windows, cluttered rooms, messy kitchen etc… First impressions mean everything. If your seller client won’t tidy up, hire someone to do it - or just do it yourself.

Overpricing your home and not cleaning it up is a recipe for disaster. If your home is priced realistically from the beginning, you will never have to use those three dreaded words again - Priced to Sell.