Winning and losing strategies for home sale asking prices

Sept. 5, 2014

Irvine Renter 20 Astute Observations

Home sale asking prices impact how quickly a house sells and how much a seller obtains in the sale. Higher is not always better.


I sold more real estate in 2011 and 2012 than most people sell in their lifetimes. As manager of a flipping fund operating in Las Vegas, I bought and sold more than 50 properties during that two-year stretch. As a seller I can to a few conclusions about how to get the best price.

First, start with a high but reasonable asking price. It doesn’t pay to error on the low side. Establishing comparable value is more art than science, and someone in the market may believe a property is worth more than you do. You can’t get top dollar is you don’t ask for it, but that being said, the price must be reasonable compared to recent comps, or nobody will bother looking.

I sold a number of properties quickly at what I thought was a high price. Perhaps the buyer felt they were getting a bargain too, but since I was out-performing my proforma, I was happy to sell it quickly, and I didn’t worry that I was selling it too cheaply.

Second, be prepared to make a significant drop within two or three weeks of hitting the market. It does no good to let a listing get stale by leaving an overpriced property on the market, particularly if nobody is looking at it. Your initial price drop is generally the largest. It signals to the market you’re a serious seller but doesn’t convey a sense of desperation like a large price drop after 120 days does.

Source: http://ochousingnews.com/blog/winning-losing-strategies-home-sale-asking-prices/#ixzz3CV2EcOtp