Why Listings Expire in St. Pete, Tampa And Anywhere
Expired listings cartoon, from LeRoy Houser site
Some listings don’t sell during the listing period for a variety of reasons, including:
1) market conditions (oversupply of homes available for sale);
2) property condition;
3) listing period too short;
4) uncooperative owner or tenant;
5) overpriced; or
6) poor marketing effort.
Except for the uncooperative owner or tenant, the major reason listings expire is almost always price. If there is an oversupply of homes on the market, the price should have been reduced. If the property condition is poor, it was probably overpriced. A short listing period calls for a low price.
Three most important words
We’ve all heard of three most important words when it comes down to sale or purchase of a home: location, location, location. Well, let me introduce a new concept: price, price, price! Simply put, if you price your home too high it will not sell and might even become an object of unpleasant remarks.
Statistically if you get 10 or more showings a month but no offers, you are about 5% overpriced, if you get only around 5 showing per month, your home is overpriced by at least 10%.
over 300 listings expired this week in Pinellas!
Why are there overpriced listings?
1) Sellers often have emotional attachment to their home and do not want to logically accept its’ market value. They feel that their home is better than others and therefore should sell for more.
2) Listing agent failed to prove the market value to the seller, or was too excited to get a new listing and took it overpriced.
3) Seller owes more that the home is worth and hopes to break even, regardless of the market conditions, so lists it higher.
4) Listing agent did a poor job gathering information about the market and comps in the area.
There could be several more reasons, but the truth is listing agents are not supposed to take overpriced listings, and sellers should not list their homes above market value.
Why is it bad to list your home high?
After all, you should have room for negotiation and you can always go down when the offers start coming in, right? Wrong and here’s why:
1) If your home is overpriced and 5 other homes in your neighborhood are priced right, the buyers won’t even come to look at yours.
2) By overpricing your home you are only benefiting your listing agent. They will get calls from the sign and internet then move these leads to other homes after the buyers find out the home is overpriced.
3) It will stay on the market for months and will drive you crazy keeping you in constant anticipation, worry and eventually making you frustrated over the situation and upset with your listing agent.
Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog by The HOME Team
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