Selling in the Fall Market!

Real Estate This Week

Host Stephen Gaskway and real estate expert Kevin Sears discuss effective strategies for selling a home during the fall market. The conversa

Key takeaways

• Overpricing a home by even 10% above market value can significantly scare away potential buyers and lead to longer market times.
• Fall curb appeal can be enhanced through seasonal touches like planting mums, pumpkins, or corn stalks and maintaining clean lawns.

Main topics

• Fall market selling strategies
• Realistic home pricing

Notable quotes

The smarter you are about pricing, the quicker the home will sell, the quicker you'll get the money.

Conclusion

Success in the fall market depends on an educated seller who prioritiz

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:03) This is Real Estate This Week with Stephen Gaskell. 17 years on air and online, helping you succeed in buying, selling, and investing in property. The best real estate strategies out there just for Speaker 2 (0:20) you. Speaker 2 (0:24) Welcome to Real Estate This Week. Hi again, I'm Stephen Gaskway, and I'm delighted you're here as we look at selling your house in the fall market. A great time to sell, because in the fall, buyers are serious. They want a house, maybe your house. So let's talk about home seller strategies designed to help you nail it this fall. Joining us once again for our fall market series is Kevin Sears, broker associate at Sears Real Estate, La Macchia Realty in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the past president of the National Association of Realtors. Kevin is also the past president of the Massachusetts Realtors. Kevin, welcome back to Real Estate This Week. Steve, it's great to be back with you. Thank you. I am so glad you are here, especially as the fall market is starting to heat up. So, Kevin, tell me, first of all, if I'm selling my house in your market, can I expect a fast sale at a great price? Or, since I kind of missed the spring and summer, will it be difficult? Speaker 1 (1:36) Well, Steve, that's a great question. And timing, it really all belongs to what's best for the consumer. And if you're looking to sell... then what you need to do is contact your local realtor and figure out what the market dynamics are for you in your neighborhood, in your town, in your community. And once you have a full understanding of what's been happening, then you can be educated about how you price your home to make sure you can sell. And so if you listen to your trusted professional, your local realtor, and they advise you on the price, they have their thumb on the market, they know what's happening. then you can expect good things. But if you're going to be unrealistic about the pricing, then it could sit on the market and it could take you longer and it could add some frustration to a process that is certainly complicated, but very manageable. Well, Speaker 2 (2:25) Kevin, when you advise people not to be unrealistic, I think what we're talking about is if you tell me my house could sell for around $400,000 and I say, well, let's ask $750,000. That's what you're talking about, right? Speaker 1 (2:43) That's an extreme example. But, Speaker 2 (2:45) you Speaker 1 (2:46) know, Steve, even if the value, you see the value at $400,000, if you listed at $450,000, I mean, that's more than 10 % above the value price. You're going to scare away some buyers. You're going to think that you're unrealistic to begin with. And then you're going to sit there and then you're going to try and catch up with the market. You know, simple economics, there's a time value to money. And the smarter you are about pricing, the quicker the home will sell, the quicker you'll get the money and you won't be incurring all the expenses that go along with a long, drawn-out process and delayed closing. Speaker 2 (3:20) Absolutely. And, you know, those sellers should remember that it's not just the buyer who's going to be looking at that price. It's their realtor also who knows exactly what that house should sell for. 100%. Speaker 1 (3:35) So many buying consumers, they hire their own realtor to be their buyer's agent who have a fiduciary to them. And they're going to show them what is happening in the marketplace. They're going to let the buyers know what your neighbor's house sold for. So it's a very educated buyer group that's out there these days. So you just have to be equally as educated and smart on your end. I'm not saying to give the house away, just be smart about it. what you're doing in order to sell. Speaker 2 (4:03) Absolutely. So Kevin, consider that I am a realistic seller. What can I do to sell my house for the best possible price in the shortest possible amount of time? Speaker 1 (4:16) Well, yeah, I mean, there's several things that can be done in it. It all starts with making sure that you have