How to Get the Highest Price for Your Home

There are many marketing strategies a Realtor utilizes when pricing a property.  We are currently experiencing a very low inventory of houses, and one effective strategy is to price the house slightly below the anticipated sales price. When pricing a house like this it will generally create a frenzy and bidding war, and will usually mean you will end up with a sales price far above the listing price. 

One recent example of this pricing strategy is a home I listed last week in Tarzana that just went into escrow for more than $725,000. The house was listed at $599,000. I purposefully recommended to the seller to list the home below the market, and this created a buyer frenzy. We had over 200 agents come to the brokers open house last Friday and at least that many visitors to the public open house on Sunday. We even had a neighbor stop in who was quite upset with us because she thought we were lowering the values of the houses in the neighborhood. On the contrary, we knew that the price would be driven up and would sell for a lot more. 

It proves that you cannot really underprice your house because the market will correct to the right price by the buyers. 

After the weekend, we had 22 offers. This shows that there are a lot of buyers out looking for houses, and with very few properties available, a well-priced listing is getting a lot of attention.

Sellers are often hesitant about this pricing strategy and are afraid to do this because they feel when they get an offer they have to take it, but they don’t have to take the offer. Sellers also think that they have to price their house high because they think they will get lower offers, and need to leave room for negotiating. 

This is not the case, because the listings that are priced too high often sit on the market for too long. We tell prospective buyers that the sellers will not be reviewing any offers until after the first brokers and public open houses. 

A skilled agent will know how to work with multiple offers to get the most money possible.  There is an old saying, “A house is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.”  This is so true.  So, work with your real estate agent to strategize a good listing price. In the long run you will get the most money for your property by following this advice.