How Overpricing Can Ruin Your Dutchess County Home Sale
We understand – you are attached to your Dutchess County house. You have created the perfect kitchen for your needs, your backyard is optimized for hosting, while spa-like master bedroom provides the ideal retreat. This kind of love can ruin your Dutchess County home sale.
When you have spent years lovingly devoted to your Dutchess County home it becomes easy to discount the comps. You “just know” that your home is worth more. And that is what your asking price is going to show.
While emotional attachment is just one of the motivating factors when it comes to a Dutchess County home sale, overpricing is an issue no matter the reason. If home sellers want a successful home sale, beware of the following justification often used when inflating an asking price.
You are an Incredible Designer
Home sellers who believe that they have impeccable taste are often the biggest offenders when it comes to overpricing a Dutchess County home sale. They seem to think that their “eye for design” should be reflected in the price. However, this “eye” often involved “unique” colors and fixtures that a potential buyer will not find as appealing.
When preparing for a Dutchess County home sale, sellers will be better served to update their interior colors to a neutral shade. This way, buyers will be able to see the home as a blank canvas, presenting an opportunity for them to move and make their own.
Exaggerated Differences
Comparable sales (or “comps”) provide Dutchess County sellers with valuable insight into how the current market is performing. By looking at homes that are similar to yours and have sold within the last three to six months, sellers are afforded a tool to help them establish a strong asking price.
But it is common for some Dutchess County sellers to overvalue their features versus those in the comps. For example, a deck is a deck so if you have one that is 30 square feet in size but the comp only has one that is 20, this is not a big enough difference to significantly move the needle on pricing. The extra 10 square feet is not going to make or break the deal.
The Market Does NOT Care About Your ROI
It is understandable that Dutchess County home sellers want to achieve a solid return on their investment. And when this desire to maximize profits is combined with emotional attachment, overpricing is sure to follow.
But the reality is: the Dutchess County market does not care about your ROI. Just because you want (or in some cases, need) to sell for a certain amount does not mean that the market will support the number. The bottom line is that your home is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay for it.
Leaving Room to Negotiate
What might be the biggest reason sellers overprice their homes is the idea that it will give them room to negotiate down. However, this could backfire in a number of ways.
First, by overpricing your home you run the risk of not showing up your target market’s Dutchess County home searches. Which leads to your home sitting on the market. Which then leads to buyers starting to question whether or not the home has bigger issues.
To avoid this, it can often better to underprice a home. Doing so can help create attention and with that attention comes plenty of bids. As home buyers try to outbid each other for your home, Dutchess County sellers could find themselves walking away with more money that if they had “overpriced” from the start.