Selling Your Home? Be Prepared to Compromise?
May 8th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
The buyers in Chicago are smart. They’re educated about the local real estate market, and know that in today’s housing market they’re in control, even in top city neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Streeterville.
What does this mean? It means that if buyers want an old roof re-shingled, sellers might have little choice but to either pay to have the job done or knock some money off their asking price. If buyers want a specific closing date, sellers may have to rearrange their own plans to accommodate it. And if buyers want the plasma TV to stay, sellers might have to say goodbye to their TV, even if it’s a favorite.
This is what selling a home in a buyer’s market is all about. This story on the Chicago 77 blog does a pretty good job of explaining why a real estate market goes from a seller’s market – which we saw in the city in the early 2000s – to the buyer’s market we have today. The blog’s author puts much of the blame on negative press. It’s hard to feel upbeat about the housing market when the media are filled with gloomy stories about the future of residential real estate.
It is possible, though, for sellers to move their homes fairly quickly even in a buyer’s market. As I mentioned at the top of this post, it’s all about compromise. Today, sellers must be willing to set the right price for their homes. They will not get as much for their residences as they did just one year ago. That’s a fact of this market. Those sellers not comfortable with this may have to wait out the buyer’s market.
Pricing a home right is always crucial to making a sale. But today’s market is even less forgiving of price errors. Sellers who insist on setting an unreasonably high price will find that their home attracts no serious offers. The odds are good that these sellers will finally agree to lower their asking prices, but only after they have wasted precious weeks or months of sales time and probably end up getting less than what what they would have had they priced their property correctly in the first place.
It’s important in today’s buyer’s market to work with a Chicago REALTOR® who knows the local market. This REALTOR® can help sellers set the right asking price in a buyer’s market, and can help homeowners move their homes as quickly as possible.
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