The first half of this decade represented the ideal time to be a home owner. If you just sat on your home, appreciate rates were so robust as to probably have doubled the value of your home with the exception of a few states in the country, notably Colorado and Texas. If you decided to sell, it was often like stealing candy from a baby. Buyers were foaming at the proverbial mouth, prices were skyrocketing and offers rolled in on just about any property out there. As we head into the later years of the decade, the leverage in the market has switched to the buyers. Prices are down, appreciation rates are flat and selling a home can be difficult. If you need to sell, there is a particular way to go about it.



With the market swinging back to buyers, selecting a listing price for your home can be difficult. Market analysis may suggest a range of prices, but it can be hit and miss as to whether such a range is a reflection of what people are willing to pay now and in the next few weeks. Nonetheless, you should determine your initial listing price from that range of prices in your area.

Once you have listed the property, you need to closely watch your traffic. Are you getting requests to show the home? If not, you need to bump the price down a bit. Once you have, give the new price another couple of weeks and see if the requests for showing the home pick up. The ?right? frequency of requests is entirely dependent on how long you are willing to wait to sell the home. For most people, the right listing price is the one that produces one to three showings a week.

Make no mistake, the key to selling your property is to get people to request viewings. Curb appeal, unique features and so on are only relevant if prospective buyers are actually coming to view the property. Adjusting your price per the above strategy is one way to make sure that happens.