How Pricing Affects the Time to Sell Your Home

It’s important to understand how pricing affects the time to sell your home. Once you have done your homework on the market, you’ll have an idea what your home is likely to sell for in today’s market. But please be aware that the price you initially ask for your home will have a great effect on what it ultimately ends up selling for, and how long it takes to sell.

The relationship between pricing and timing is crucial and should be carefully considered before you list your home. Fair market value attracts buyers while overpricing repels buyers and usually costs sellers a lot of both time and money. Sellers often view their homes as special, which tempts them to put a higher price on the home. The thinking goes that they want to leave “some room for negotiation,” or that “they can always come down later.”

Overpricing may prevent the very buyers who are most likely to buy the home from ever seeing it. Most buyers shop by price range, and look for the best value in that range. If your home is overpriced during the small window in which your home will be receiving the most attention from prospective buyers, your home will take longer to sell and will usually sell for less than it would have were it priced correctly when it first came on the market.