How to avoid selling your property at a lower price

property

The sale of a property - apartment, villa, or any other - requires good preparation. Often we find sellers who rush into the search for takers without prior preparation. This often results in successive drops in the initial sales price and long waiting periods.

How to avoid this?

• 1. Take into account the characteristics of your property

You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the property you wish to sell. It is better to start with a fair price than with a price that is too high and then has to lower it later on, at the risk of damaging the image of your property.

The most common strategy to determine the selling price is to refer to the price (per square meter) of past transactions in the city, the neighborhood, or the street. But you should not forget that even within a street the price can vary significantly. Here are the main factors that influence the price of a property 

the surface: small apartments have a higher price per square meter than large apartments

the position of the property

the condition of the property: a property that needs work should be offered at a price lower than the cost of the work

supply and demand: the presence (in large numbers) of similar properties may cause a drop in the selling price

The challenge is to offer the property at a fair price to attract a maximum of potential buyers.

• 2. Highlight the assets of your property for sale
• Here are some common-sense rules that can help you maximize your selling price:
• take care of the presentation
• prepare your sales pitch
• choose your visiting hours wisely
• prepare all the documents 

concerning the charges: a low property tax and low co-ownership charges are also assets to allow the seller to better negotiate with the buyers.

Finally, in order not to have to lower the price, the seller should not be in a hurry to sell his property to pay an inheritance or buy a new apartment, for example.

• 3. Be flexible and realistic during the negotiations

1. Be realistic about the expected price:
2. Be flexible and calculating:

Note that you should not only focus on the price. Also, analyze the payment terms (especially if the sale will involve credit). Candidates who have the cash to buy outright tend to be more bearish than those who need to pay in installments or buy with credit.

Overpricing because you have "time"

Sellers who aren't in a hurry often decide to test the market by listing their homes at a high price and waiting to see where the market goes. But in most markets where home prices are dropping, waiting it out may cause you to lose money.

"It's key to price properly right away because you have a greater chance of selling if you're just on the market," says Wendy Sarasohn, senior vice president of The Corcoran Group in New York. "Everybody wants something that's brand new, not been shopped around, and not on sale."

TIP: Sell your home faster and possibly for more money by pricing your home based on current home values.

Chasing the market

If you list your home too high, to begin with, you may find yourself making incremental price drops but never quite catching up with the market.

For instance, Thompson has had a listing in Phoenix for a year that the sellers insisted on putting on the market for $250,000, even though comparable homes in the neighborhood were selling for around $225,000. Four months and no showings later, the sellers finally decided to drop the price to $225,000. However, home values had declined significantly in those months, so the reduced price was still four months behind the market. Since then, the sellers have been reducing the price of the home about every three months but never catching up with their competition.

"When a home has had multiple price reductions, it appears not only to be stale but that there's something wrong with it," Sarasohn says.

TIP: List your home competitively, to begin with. If you don't get any bites, don't hesitate to lower your price. Work with your agent to reevaluate market conditions and determine the fair market value of your home.

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