Does Price Trump All?

I’m having an interesting discussion with some other real estate agents via Twitter today. 

Question posed: Why do houses not sell?

Answers included: “price, condition, location, or obsolescence”, “prizzle for shizzle” (don’t ask), “1. price. 2. no one knows it’s for sale. 3. price 4. price 5. price” the tongue-in-cheek response “It’s the agent’s fault!” and a late response of “surly seller will not allow showing.”

The scenario is this: A house is on a hill, a sweet little home in perfect condition - next to a junk-laden property.  The neighbors just cut down their trees, so their junk is highly visible from the home.  The home is not selling.

So what do you do?

Me?  I think there’s three major factors: Price, Condition, and Location.  You tell me - which is easiest to fix?

Not much can be done about location.  Condition - well, we can work on that.  Perhaps in this scenario, a wall could be built to block out the view - that might help somewhat, although it would be expensive.  The question is, will constructing a wall be more expensive than the price reduction required to sell the house in its current state?

Let’s go back to the “it’s the agent’s fault” response.  There’s some truth in that.  In my listing presentations, I talk about the three P’s - price, product, and promotion.  I think you need the right price for the right product - aka, your home - and the right promotion, or marketing.

What is beautiful is that as a home seller, you are completely in control of the first two.  You determine your home’s condition, and your agent can’t set or change a price without your agreement.  Certainly, I have opinions on the subject, but in the end, both of those things are under your control.  So if the promotion is bad, then yes indeedy, the house can fail to sell.  But then again, if the price or the product is incorrect, then it can fail to sell as well.

So which is it: Price, Condition, Location, or Promotion?  Could be one or many of those things.  Is it anything other than those things?  I’m going to go ahead and say NO.

tags: , ,
Equal Housing Opportunity Realtor
Applied Real Estate Technology