Old habits die hard and so do old ideas about pricing. The world has changed for anyone who wants to move fbeyond offering a house for sale to collecting a check from a buyer's mortgage lender. There is a power greater than seller expectations and buyer excitement involved and I call that power lender restraint.
In 1988 the Realtor world preached pricing according to sold comparables in order to attract interest and achieve a value supported appraisal. We kept on with that mantra while the system switched gears and appraisals became rubber stamps. Eventually pricing had nothing to do with recent sales and everything to do with pricing according to exagerated asking prices.
We've been operating under the "new" guidelines for long enough to know that correctly priced homes attract attention. Evidence in the Dane County market proves that the buyers come forward and make reasonable offers on homes priced right. . If the asking price is not supported by real good and recent comparable sales your chances of negotiating on an offer are slim to none.
So, why are we leaving room to negotiate? I don't know. There is no negotiating with people who don't submit offers. Yes there are people who, regardless of the evidence, will submit offers that are lower than evidence supported fair market values. Value will always be subjective. However, if the evidence shows that an appraisal for $465,000 is impossible but $450,000 is definite, pricing at $465,000 and leaving room to negotiate is futile. It worked in 2005 but it's as out of style as a leisure suit today.
Our best chance of getting full price is pricing exactly in line with recent sales. Expecting buyer entusiasm for our property to result in substantially more dollars is an unreasonable expectation.
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