Is It Time To Lower Your Price On Your Charlotte, NC. Home?

As we approach the beginning of the school year and Labor Day summer unofficially ends for most of us. In the Real estate business it begins to slow down a little with school and holidays around the corner. So, as I look back on the year and the way the market is trending; a conversation that is had by just about all Realtors at this time with sellers are should you lower the price of your house? I am a believer in pricing a home correctly form the onset so as to avoid the discount price. In the past few years with the market being a highly favorable buyer's market I was checking adjustments every 30 days or so to see if I was priced correctly with the current market conditions or not. And I would advise my sellers to either modify their price or keep it the same depending on what the homes in the area were doing. Now we are in a more balanced market and average homes are selling in a little over five months keeping us in a balanced market. But it still goes that this time of the year the buyer pool is smaller than it was in the spring. Most people with families or children going to school moved before school started to take advantage of not having to transfer their kids out of the school once they closed. So historically you are dealing with a smaller pool of people looking to buy a house in Charlotte, NC. That said I decided today to see how many homes were on the market in just Charlotte and then break it down by days in stock to see how many may be on the market too long and look to see why. Currently there are 2684 homes actively listed for sale in Charlotte. Over half of those homes have been on the market for less than 60 days. The other half mostly fell in the 60 days to 120 days on the market. Not all that bad because they are between 2 to 4 months. But 282 of the homes have been on the market in Charlotte for greater than six months. 282 is not a large number unless you are one of those people in Charlotte whose house has not sold yet. Looking at the homes I noticed over half had issues with poor or no descriptions or no photos of the inside or just a photo. Some were just plain overpriced. Which leads me to why would you take an overpriced listing? That is a topic for another blog post. My point here is that your Realtor may come to you and say let's lower the price of your house it is after labor day and the market is slowing down and there are not as many buyers out there. But the question you need to ask yourself is: "is it the price or the house or the agent not doing his job?" I am a believer that there are reasons houses do not sell and why some sell quicker than others. Some of it is listing of the home at the right time and having a willing and able buyer there and ready for you. Others is that you have the home priced right and with a good description and photos. But before you decide to lower the price ask yourself: 1. what are the comparable homes in my neighborhood or area of Charlotte listed for and sold for recently? 2. How are the photos of my house? 3. How many showings did you get and what was the feedback? 4. Did I address the concerns from the feedback? 5. Did I get any offers? 6. Was the house easily accessible for showings? 7. Did the Realtor market the home liked I wanted him/her to? 8. Did the house show well? Answering these questions can help you decide if you should lower your price or not. Sometimes you have a house priced right and it is just bad luck and location that hinder it...But before you decide to lower the price on your house look at these questions and answer them honestly. This will tell you if you are overpriced or not. Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Coldwell Banker United Cell:704-519-7895 ddicecco@cbunited.com www.davedicecco.com