List Price = Overprice ?

Based on everything you read in the media today, if you are buying a property you should offer (put in your number here)% below list price because in this market, of course, everything is overpriced.

Well, I have a problem with that but it is one that is hard to pin down. The assumption that is made is that every property is overpriced by (cut a number from your favorite media outlet)%. That is true only when you look at averages, not absolutes. The problem is how to pinpoint just exactly what the selling price 'is'. well, that part is actually easy - it is what a buyer will pay and a seller will sell it to that buyer for. Simple. Getting to that agreement is not, however, simple.

What my partner and I have been saying all year to every client is to price it within range of our suggested 'sales range'. This range is a guess, perhaps an educated one but that isn't for this debate. If you overprice and miss that range, you might miss the real buyer and even worse, you will compete with homes that you shouldn't (and in the buyers' mind) don't compete with and will end up helping another one sell.

Traditionally, we Realtors could recommend a purchase appraisal be done on the home. in this market, ironically, I have had buyers say 'yes, but that is just an opinion.' Well, sure it is, but it is one that the bank is going to use to let you have some bucks to buy the home and you bet that they are on the conservative side.

The point is that in our market, there are homes that are overpriced, absolutely, but there are also many homes that are priced well and even some (fewer) that are priced below market price. At the end of the day it takes a buyer to pay for a "market price" to be attached, so let the rodeo begin.