The Market Has Changed and Sellers Who Are Still Pricing Like 2021 Are Going to Feel It

Buyers have more inventory to choose from right now than they did two years ago. They have more negotiating power. They have less urgency. The conditions that made aggressive pricing and fast multiple-offer situations the norm have been replaced by a market where buyers are comparing options carefully and walking away from listings that do not present genuine value.

Erice Wingate works on the financing side of transactions and sees the consequences of seller pricing mistakes play out regularly. The right conversation happens before the listing goes live not after the days on market have accumulated.

Why Overpriced Listings Hurt Sellers More Than They Realize

The reference point most sellers return to is the wrong one. What the neighbor received two years ago. What an online estimate showed last spring. Neither reflects the market that exists in their neighborhood today and pricing based on either almost always produces the same outcome.

When a listing comes to market priced above where motivated buyers are willing to engage those buyers simply move on. The first two weeks of any listing generate the most attention from buyers who are actively watching the market and move quickly when the right property appears at the right price. Price above the market and those buyers pass without a second consideration.

Days on market accumulate. Once a listing has been sitting a specific and persistent assumption develops among every buyer who encounters it. Something must be wrong with the property itself rather than the price. That perception is difficult to shake regardless of how good the home actually is.

The seller who overpriced eventually cuts the price anyway but from a weakened position after market time has worked against them and often with buyers who expect an additional discount on top of the reduction because the sitting time has already revealed motivation. The final net result is frequently worse than correct day-one pricing would have produced.

What Actually Works in the Current Market

Price it right from day one. Correct pricing generates activity and activity generates offers. In a market where buyers are comparison shopping a property priced to reflect actual current conditions stands out immediately from inventory that is sitting. That early activity is what produces the best seller outcomes not a strategy of holding out for a buyer willing to pay an inflated number.

Think beyond the price cut when flexibility is needed. A seller credit directed toward the buyer’s closing costs or a rate buydown often does more for the buyer’s monthly payment than a price reduction of the same dollar amount and it keeps the recorded sale price higher in the process. The math of those two approaches produces different outcomes and understanding the difference before making the decision produces better results.

Erice Wingate can show exactly what a seller-funded rate buydown does to a buyer’s payment compared to an equivalent price drop side by side. That comparison changes how the concession conversation happens and is worth having before the next price cut rather than after more market time accumulates.

Know your local market rather than reacting to national headlines. What is happening in your specific neighborhood’s inventory and days on market is what determines how your listing should be priced and positioned. National data describes average conditions across millions of transactions in dramatically different environments and does not tell you what a buyer competing for your specific property today is actually willing to pay.

The Conversation Worth Having Now

If you are selling or you are an agent with a listing that has been sitting message Erice Wingate. She will run the numbers on what a buydown does to a buyer’s payment compared to a price drop so the decision is based on actual figures rather than assumptions about which approach produces the better outcome.

Sources

NAR.realtor
MortgageNewsDaily.com
ConsumerFinancialProtectionBureau.gov
FannieMae.com
Investopedia.com