Does Price Alone Sell Your House?

The Hawaii real estate market continues to sizzle, with estimates of median single family home prices in Honolulu County toppling $700K by the end of the 2014. Low mortgage interest rates and low inventory have combined to create a supply and demand combo that has created a house-buying fever. Of course, we don’t know how long this run-up will occur (remember the housing bubble, anyone?), but for now it’s clear that if you’re getting ready to sell your house in Hawaii, you’ll likely find yourself in a good place, especially as we’re about to hit the traditionally strong spring and summer months.

But if you are preparing to sell, do you know how best to get it done? After all, even though it’s a seller’s market, not every house or condo gets scooped up merely because it’s publicly available. A quick look at the Oahu MLS shows plenty of properties sitting on the market for 180 days or more. When the median days to an accepted contract is 30 days or less, it makes you wonder what the problem is with the longer listings. So that being the case, it begs the question:

Does Price Alone Sell Your House?

When a housing market is hot, the #1 thing you can do to sell your house is price it right. I bet that if we were to run comps on the listings that have been sitting idle on the market, we’d find that the vast majority of them are simply overpriced.

Yes, there are other factors that can impede a sale: short sales that tire out waiting buyers, REOs that can bring their own set of hoops to jump through, the occasional probate sale (we just acquired a probate property that was delayed a bit), etc. Some properties are in enough disrepair to knock out conventional buyers, but there are still lots of cash buyers out there ready to buy a house in Hawaii (but not at an inflated price!).

If you think your home is priced right but still not selling, then it may be time to look at:

• Staging
• Cleanliness
• Curb appeal
• Any legal of permitting red flags
• Marketing (just listing may not be enough!)

Price It Right

But overall, if you have the above taken care of and are priced properly, then you should be receiving market price offers. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a hot market means that people will bust down your doors just to buy your house. People still want a deal and while buyers do need to start acting if they want to take advantage of current low interest rates, few home buyers are ready to pay through the nose to do so.

The simple matter is this: if you want to shoot for the moon, go for it. After all, it only takes one buyer to say yes. But if it doesn’t happen, then you’ve wasted time and risk making your listing look dated – you could even end up with a lower price overall. The best option is to analyze the comps properly, price it right and sell your house!