Lisa's Blog

At almost all of my listing presentations, home sellers are resistant to "aggressive pricing". They prefer to list higher & reduce the price in a week or two if there are limited or no showings. Subsequently, they "chase down the market", never being the the pricing leader. My last equity sale listing, 16 Korite in RSM, was aggresively priced & we received 8 offers in 5 days. I hope this story will drive home the point!

From the OC Register, Aug 5, 2009-

Realtor Genelle Geronsin thought if she priced a 3-bedroom house a few blocks north of Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa aggressively — at $399,000 — it would fetch 15-20 offers and sell for something in the mid-$400,000s.

Guess again!

She wound up with 68 offers. And the price? Not at all what she figured.

“I can tell you it went for almost $100,000 above asking,” said Geronsin, who will be able to reveal the exact amount when the sale closes in a few days.

The house was not bank-owned or a short sale, and the community does not have many of those, she says. “It is a neighborhood where people tend to stay a long time.”

The 1,268-square-foot home at 3099 Warren Lane was only on the market 3 weeks — a set deadline — and all the bids were sealed until they were opened with the seller, Geronsin says.

“There were actually three offers higher than this offer that we did not take,” she said. The seller wanted to focus on the whole  financial picture, from FICO scores to what contingencies potential buyers would be willing to remove, in settling on a buyer.