What does the price have to do with selling, in Yardley, Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County?

Median price per square foot vs. Days on market Yardley, PA

How important is the price, when you are selling a house in Bucks County? I have recently worked with 2 sellers, with houses in a couple of different market areas that I service, that tell a great story about how important price really is.

Interestingly enough, both houses were contemporary. Both houses were in very nice neighborhoods. It happened that one of the homes was in Lawrence, New Jersey, while the other was in Lower Makefield Township. Both houses were very similar, with regards to age and updating.

Here is where it gets interesting. When we listed the New Jersey house, the seller indicated that she was not particularly motivated. She was looking to downsize, but was willing to wait to get a price that she was comofortable with. She ackowledged that her price was high, given recent activity, but at the time, she was willing to wait for as long as it took,to get the price she was looking for. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania seller, who was also looking to downsize, appeared to be somewhat more motivated, as that seller had already decided on where theywere going.

Based on our original listing price, which was higher than what I initially suggested, the New Jersey house remained on the market for a long time. By the time I listed the Lower Makefield Township house, the New Jersey house had been on the market for many weeks. Shortly after listing the Lower Makefield house, the seller in New Jersey became significantly more motivated. She and I discussed what she would need to do to sell her house, so she could move on with her life. I suggested a new listing price. Within several weeks of adjusting the price, we recieved a great offer on the house which the seller was thrilled to accept.

Unfortunately, the experience with the Lower Makefield house was not as successful. The seller’s initial price was somewhat higher than I suggested. The feedback consistantly indicated that the price was too high. The house needed updating, which was reflected in the price concerns.

According to the market statistics, the average days on the market, for homes in the most expensive quartile in Lower Makefield is 201 days. Unfortunately, the seller was not able to understand the critical nature of pricing, so instead of reacting pro-actively to what the market was telling them, they looked for external reasons to explain what was happening. Must be the marketing approach, the realtor, other realtors, buyers can’t really afford their house. As realtors, we have heard all the explainations. We even had an independant appraisal done, but the seller was not comfortable even reducing the price to match the appraisal. They wanted to give themselves room to negotiate.

Basically the marketing strategy was similar with both houses. Once the New Jersey house was priced correctly, we had lots of showings, very positive feedback, and within a relatively short period of time, a great offer. The seller has already moved into her new home, and is totally thrilled, while the Lower Makefield Township seller, is still frustrated, confused and pondering their situation.

I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of sellers, and it still amazes me that there are sellers who just don’t understand how critically important the price is. This has never been more true, than it is right now, given very challenging market conditions. Certainly there needs to be a consistant marketing effort, including professional photography, virtual tours, strong on-line exposure, etc. However, without a doubt, the single most important decision that sellers need to make, is the price. The house absolutely most be priced agressivley and correctly.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Lower Makefield Township, Selling Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.