”If we price it right, we’ll get multiple offers quickly and the highest possible market value” This is what real estate professionals will tell you when advising on pricing strategies for selling your home these days. However it’s a common thought that in the real estate realities of today, homes just wont sell at or above the asking price with multiple offers. So to prove once and for all if this is fact or fiction we went through the data for Andover and surrounding towns to uncover the truth at our local level, and you may be surprised at the results and what this can mean for you.
In Andover according to data from the MLS, in 2010 of the 284 completed single-family home sales, 48 homes (16.9%) sold at or above the original asking price. Now, 16.9% may not seem like a high percentage, but it still proves the statement and it got me curious to see what the numbers were like for the 2005 sales year, which is considered to be this markets high point for sales. We found on 368 completed sales, 24.18% of the homes (89) sold at or above original list price. So in times of higher demand, this situation seems to happen more often. Next we thought we’d take a look at the surrounding towns of North Andover, and Boxford for 2010 to see if the theory holds true and sure enough we calculated 14.2% of the homes in North Andover and 14.4% of the homes in Boxford did indeed close at or above the original asking price.
Now this may seem obvious, but when digging deeper into the Andover numbers, what was most interesting was the amount of time the homes took to be sold. Again, looking at the 2010 data, homes that sold at or above asking price sold on average in 23.25 days while homes selling below asking price took 100.05 days, that’s 3.3 times faster.
If you break that down its about 2.5 months faster which could mean fewer mortgage and carrying costs, possibly prevent a foreclosure process, or help to make a deal happen on the next home. The numbers held true for the 2005 market year, however the gap between them was smaller. Homes selling at or above asking price sold in 34.3 days versus 66 days for the homes that did not.
In conclusion, it is true that homes do sell at or above list price in today’s market and these findings lead me to believe that in times of lessened demand, pricing the home appropriately to begin with is more critical than before, as the results of not selling quickly will mean much longer market times and all the possible pitfalls that can come of it.
Authored By:
Ron Carpenito– Real Estate Consultant / Owner
Ron Carpenito on Google+
