How to Price a Home to Sell in Danville CA

A Danville homeowner put their house on the market just before the Christmas holidays. It was priced to set a new benchmark in the neighborhood due to extensive upgrades and remodeling.

The owners thought it unlikely the house would sell during the holidays, but they were leaving town for a couple of weeks and wanted it shown as much as possible during that time. When they returned after the first of the year and after getting the feedback from agents and buyers, they lowered the price. A few weeks later, they lowered the price again. A few weeks later, they were in contract.

Before putting the house on the market these owners knew:

• They were pushing the price point
• The local Danville market real estate trends (especially their neighborhood)
• They would move the price within a range to get the home sold and were willing to move the process along expeditiously.

In short, they were prepared to be proactive on pricing to find the market sweet-spot in a real estate market that was still correcting.

How to Price a Home NOT to Sell in Danville or San Ramon

A San Ramon condo owner wanted to sell early last fall after owning for only a year. The owner had a set price in mind and did not want to even entertain offers at a lower price. An offer came in about 6% lower than asking. The owner wouldn’t counter. The owner leased the condo to wait for the market to improve. Today, similar models in the complex are selling for about 20% less than the offer made.

A Danville home owner wanted to sell and move to another community about 40 miles away. The owner wanted to price the house about $100K higher than the exact same model a block away that was in better repair and had more upgrades. The owner was also stuck on paying as little commission as possible.

The home was placed on the market overpriced. It’s been 8 months. The home is now priced about right (about $250K less than the original overpricing desired). If the owner had priced it right eight months ago, they probably would have sold the home and saved $50K to $70K. Additionally, they could have taken advantage of the wide disparity in declining property values between Danville (about -6%) and where they wanted to move (-33%). But, the house still languishes on the market (not our listing) and investors are now gobbling up properties in the other community.

Both of these owners could have leveraged purchases on the buy side to more than make up for any pricing on the sell side.

How to Price a Home to Sell

• Know YOUR market
• Be prepared to be proactive on pricing
• Find a agent that will tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear.