Selling a Kokomo Home is a Balancing Act

There are a lot of things you need to think about when selling your house in Kokomo. Today we are only going to talk about three of these. They are the three most important things every potential seller must consider if they want to sell their home in today’s market in Kokomo or any of the surrounding areas:

1. Supply and Demand
2. Market Value
3. Right Pricing

Let’s look at each of these one at a time:

Supply and Demand:

Regardless of what the product is, if there is more of a product than there are people who want to buy the it, prices fall! And it doesn’t matter whether we are talking about houses, cars, skillets, socks or widgets.

If you take a look at the chart I did a while back for the posting It’s all about competition! I think you will see how Supply and Demand applies to selling a house any where in our area – Kokomo, Greentown, Russiaville, Sharpsville, etc., etc., etc. Look at any price range. The inventory was high!

Example: There were 188 houses for sale in the price range of $120,000-$180,000 in Howard County. A lot of houses! Each month an average of about 21-22 buyers bought houses in that price range. What that means is that if not one more house came on the market, the inventory or supply of houses in that price range was 8-9 months!

Market Value:

Basically, the market value of a home is the highest price a buyer will pay and the lowest price a seller will accept.

Market value is not:

• It is not what you want to “get out” of your house.
• It is not an appraisal done a year or two ago or even six months ago – especially if it was done for a re-finance or home equity loan.
• It is not what you owe on your house.

Remember how many houses are on the market in the Kokomo area? Buyers are out there “comparison” shopping! They are looking for that one house that offers them the most features and benefits that meet their goals and needs for the lowest price.

Right Pricing:

No matter what kind of market – a buyers’ market, a sellers’ market or an even market – an overpriced house will rarely sell for an inflated price. Usually an overprice house ends up  going through several price reductions and listing periods. If and when the house eventually sells, it is usually for less than it would have sold had it been priced correctly to start. Another interesting fact about an overpriced house… It will actually help sell “right” priced houses!

Pricing a house to sell is part science, part math and in large-part market knowledge. You don’t want your house to be overpriced or underpriced, so you need to rely on a real estate professional or an appraiser to do a through Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) or appraisal for your home in today’s market.

Sellers Who Need to Sell, Sell!

Even though supply and demand are out of whack for sellers; if you need to sell, you can sell! The main thing you need to ask yourself is whether you are really motivated to sell. There are a lot of motivated sellers in the Kokomo area:

1. Bank-owned properties (foreclosures or REOs)
2. Pre-foreclosure properties** (short-sales)
3. Builders
4. Divorce situations
5. Bankruptcies
6. Job relocations
7. Everyone else

Where do you fall in that list? Are you really motivated to sell?

If you are ready and motivated to sell your home, call me at 765-513-0354 or email me.

**NOTE:
If you are having financial difficulties and are facing the possibility of foreclosure, please call me at 765-513-0354 or email me. I have extensive training in alternatives to foreclosure. You may be able to keep your house.