If I Knew Then What I Know Now...

"If I could turn back time...You walked out that door I swore that I didn't care
But I lost everything darling then and there..."  Well like Cher, you can't turn back the hands of time, but you haven't really lost everything. Equity is only money, and if you think about it, equity isn't money either; more like ink in the shape of numbers on paper. Oh, sure we had clung to those numbers. Like a King in his counting house we counted out our money. "Saving" was easy. Just wait a few months and change the numbers on the spread sheet by a few percentage points.

Since 1989 I've talked to people who say this about real estate: "If I knew then what I know now...." Some years they'd be buyers, some years they'd be sellers, and some years were right to be a renter. We probably did know more than we admit, we just didn't believe what we were seeing and hearing. Today we have a chance to redeem ourselves using a new found trust in the evidence. Before you enter the real estate market as a home seller, know this: HOMES SELL IN LESS THAN 60 DAYS WHEN  PROPERLY PRICED.

I'm telling you today what you need to know to avoid the implications of taking an action without being aware of what's happening. You can look in any neighborhood in Dane County and find the evidence to support this statement: Price according to sales in the last six months and you will negotiate an offer in 60 days or less. Price according to what you wish for and you will stay on the market until you adjust to the price supported by recent sales. Plan on this: a home properly priced will sell for 95-97% of the asking price in less than 60 days. Miss the price and you may take more than six months to get 89-94% of your first price...after a long time trying.

Give or take a few days and percents, I will bet you a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut that the numbers for January through June will be consistent in any market area in Dane County.

McFarland over $299,900:

• Avg First Price: $386,117
• Avg Last Price: $378,783
• Avg Sold Price: $362,083
• Sale price as Percent of last asking Price: 96%.  Sale price as percent of first price: 94%
• Cumulative days on the market on average: 163 Days.
• Average Days on the market after last price change: 53

Blackhawk Neighborhood, Middleton Schools:

• Avg First Price: $724,900
• Avg Last Price: $609,780
• Avg Sold Price: $584,374
• Sale price as Percent of last asking Price: 95%.  Sale price as percent of first price: 87%
• Cumulative days on the market on average: 289 Days.
• Average Days on the market after last price change: 50

Apparently the people in Blackhawk and McFarland who negotiate accepted offers have one difference--Blackhawk owners are more patient; they held on for nearly eight months and the McFarland owners got down to their proper price in half that time.

If you follow this concept of pricing where the evidence supports and not at what you hope for, you will get where you want to be with a lot less time invested. In fact, you will also be able to say "I'm glad I knew what I knew when I needed to know what I know now." You don't have to hire me to use this strategy, but I do like my Krispy Kreme HOT NOW.

Best wishes--no luck involved, this is just math.