It’s clear from the buildup of inventory, and in many cases increased days on market, when we’ve transitioned into a buyer’s market.

When this happens, the prices we’ve historically applied to listings based on closed sales, often reflecting stale data, aren’t correct for our current pricing strategy. The data that we need to be looking at in order to properly position a listing is the current list of active listings (or “unsold”) listings today.  Certainly if there’s a comparable property listed for sale that isn’t selling, common sense would dictate to list lower than that in order to be chosen by a buyer.

This same approach should be applied to current listings lacking activity.  It doesn’t matter if the house across the street sold last year for X, because that’s no longer a good metric to price by.  Although this is often frustrating for some sellers to hear, it’s even more frustrating to wind up chasing the market down as a result of listing too high.

The sooner a seller accepts the reality of the current market, the quicker their house will sell and likely for the highest price.  I’ve heard from several sellers that if they reduce quickly, say after several weeks, the market will perceive them as desperate or that it is a “fire sale.” It’s important to realize a quick reduction is the smartest move to make. The longer a listing sits on the market, the less money it will ultimately realize in the end.

It’s important to consider these realities and have these conversations early. The more information we have, the more strategic you and your agent can be in maximizing your success.

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