Time on the market & pricing

Everybody says you can only go down in price when listing, you can`t go up, hence the basic incorrect premise when starting off selling is set in stone. Combined with the inexperienced real estate agent providing a "big" start price so they don`t lose the listing, the downward spiral starts.

Michael Matusik, probably the most respected Queensland property analyst in the business, put it in very sharp perspective in his latest article in the Courier Mail 31 July 2010.(full article available by download from my website at www.geoffgrover.com.au) He says that his research shows that the first offer can often be the best offer, the next one 5% below and the third offer often not eventuating.

The question is asked as to why buyers and sellers pontificate over small sums relative to the total offered price and try to hold their positions? Over time, these sums become regarded as trifling, and almost a laughing matter in retrospect of a few years duration.

Is it a macho thing where one can`t seem to be giving in? It all puts in clear perspective the skills of an experienced real estate agent in enabling relativiites to be examined rather than claiming moral ground and a perhaps phyrric victory! It is, after all, a win-win scenario we are all seeking.

Residential properties are in essence a place to enjoy living in and to hold relative value, not a speculative investment to make money at the expense of fellow man (and woman), and those that seek that journey are destined to be very lonely people indeed and to stuff up their sale process to their extreme detriment in the meantime - my advice if you are this way structured, please don`t give me a call to sell your property, even though my record shows I perform at a level way, way above the industry average - check out my report card at www.geoffgrover.com.au.