How many days on the market is ideal, when selling your house?: Part 6 of 8 - How To Effectively Price Your Home For Sale

DOM - Days on Market Trends in Contra Costa County

First off, I'd like to apologize for not updating more recently.  Simply put, my personal and professional life filled my days and nights.  We're back to smooth sailing and ready to hit it again. Thanks for following.   Again, if you find value in the information presented here, please forward, share, and make comments.  It helps me keep the flood gates open!

Is 45 days to get into contract too short or too long? YES! Wait, no!...Maybe!  How about 4 1/2 days? The answer to this question depends completely on the seller's willingness to price their property appropriately as well as the motivating factors behind the sale of the home.  

If the trend of DOM is decreasing, it means that buyers are snatching up houses more quickly than in the recent past, further reducing inventory and increasing demand.  How much weight should be put on this data when establishing the sales price of your home?  That is the real question.  Let's dig a little deeper.

Immediately below is the averages days on the market for single family homes in Contra Costa County for the past year.  Note the trend.  Also, keep in mind that these are averages.  One stubborn seller can skew any of this data pretty dramatically.

Graph 1 ~ Average Days on Market for all of Contra Costa County

The past year in Brentwood specifically:

Graph 2 ~ Average Days on Market for Brentwood, CA

If you've had your finger on the pulse of real estate of late then you know that home prices have been going through the roof.  Looking at the above graphs illustrates one reason why.  Although Days On Market is more of an indicator than a cause, it is an important indicator when it comes to establishing demand; a function of price. .  Again, remember mind that these are averages.  In today's market it is not uncommon for homes to go on the market and come back off in as little as "Zero Days on Market."  

Side note:  I don't know why any listing agent would advise a seller to pull their home off the market after less than one full day is beyond me.  There are reasons to do this, but few and far between.  I advise, as many ethical agents do, that leaving your home on the market for at least two full weekends (reviewing offers the Tuesday following the 2nd weekend) give adequate exposure.

Wishing you well in your real estate endeavors.  Thank you in advance for remembering me when the topic of real estate arises, and THANK YOU SO MUCH all the referrals.

Andy Blasquez ~ The last Realtor you'll ever need to look for.
DRE# 01826135

www.andyblasquez.com

Email me at andy.blasquez@gmail.com
Click here to reach Macky Hensel.

Please Follow me on Twitter and Re-Tweet these blogs.
Please Add me as a friend on Facebook 
Finally, please comment or ask questions.  Other readers may be wondering the same thing.  I love the feedback, critical or otherwise, and love the interaction: I love this job.

Thank you always for your support.

Real Estate Trends: Short and Long Term Trends in Home Prices: Part 4 of 8 - How To Effectively Price Your Home For Sale

Graph 1 - Median Homes Prices in Contra Costa Counter over the last 10 years. (Quarterly)

"How Do Pricing Trends (Market Pricing Trends) Affect Home Prices?"

If you get nothing else from this post, get this: Market pricing is NEVER a function of only one variable.  While looking at trends, remember what happened with pricing and what might happen with pricing is not the only data to look at in order to establish a realistic price to list your property.

Market Pricing Trends:

What is a trend, and why do trends matter,...or do they?
A trend is "A general direction in which something is developing or changing." An analysis of trends gives buyers, sellers, and their respective agents an idea of where the market is heading. A Comparative Market Analysis is completed with the understanding that based on what happened in the past we an excellent indicator of what will happen in the future.

Graph 2 - Median Homes Prices in Contra Costa Counter over the last one year. (Monthly)

How long is a trend? A trend might be a two year period, or a two week period depending on the market.  Looking at graph 1, you can see that the last four bars; 1 year (the previous 4 quarters) is relatively stable as compared to the 9 previous years.  However, broken down into months graph 2, we see that there's been a 27% increase in median home prices: Hardly stable. Looking at one without the other could cost you!  Why the big increase in prices, then a big drop, then a rise again?  There are several reasons....OK TRILLIONS of reasons.  And the end of the day, however, simply be aware of trends and price your home accordingly.  

How to price your home if home prices are dropping?

Don't price your home at the top of the market.  This often results in what we call "Chasing the market" as the sellers is forced to drop their asking price over and over and over in order to find a buyer.  Simply pricing the home realistically would have prevented that.  I personally know of a homeowner who was offended by a particular offer...only to accept an offer 15% lower less than a year later.  That's money on the table in my book!  

How to price your home if home prices are increasing?

If trends are looking up, don't base your price on dated transactions or you'll again be leaving money on the table.  Determine your motivating factor for moving.  Do you have to sell now?  Could you list the property realistically at the top of the market and see if you get an eager buyer?  Sure!  But be realistic.  "Can't I just pull it off the market if it doesn't sell...then put it back on again later?"  Yep!  But I don't recommend it.  Multiple Listing Services show a property's listing history, and some might look back (as the market continues to change) and think, "Hmmm...why didn't this sell back then?  The price looked right."  leaving doubt in their mind.

Ultimately, be realistic.  Follow the ideas in this post and the expertise of your local area expert...and you'll do phenomenally well.

Part 3 of 8 to come!

As always, I'll leave you with this tip:

There are countless Real Estate websites online now with dozens more on the way.  These sites DO serve a purpose.  They are a wealth of data.  However, "Zestimates" and the like are solely based on just that...data, which can be close to accurate...or way, way off.  No...that house up the street didn't sell for 30% of market value!  It was probably public record of a 2nd lien that was defaulted on. These sites pull data from various sources and do a very good job at combining that data and provide a free service to it's users.  That said, their not vested.  Use your Realtor.  Use a Realtor you can trust.  If you have questions about how to find one...call me...  or just read this post.

Until next time, and thank you in advance for remembering me when the topic of real estate arises, and THANK YOU SO MUCH all the referrals.

Andy Blasquez ~ The last Realtor you'll ever need to look for.
DRE# 01826135

www.andyblasquez.com

Email me at andy.blasquez@gmail.com
Click here to reach Macky Hensel.

Please Follow me on Twitter and Re-Tweet these blogs.
Please Add me as a friend on Facebook 
Finally, please comment or ask questions.  Other readers may be wondering the same thing.  I love the feedback, critical or otherwise, and love the interaction: I love this job.

Thank you always for your support.