Microeconomics 101: Supply and Demand
Recent posts on Sweet Digs Seattle:
- Green Lake Price Cuts: Dips Near The Water
- Big, Flat, Education “Hill”: Closed Sales
- Old Growth Playground Out Back: Past Sales Seward Park
For anyone that has suffered through a microecon class you know the basic rule that as demand decreases and supply increases price goes down. The Seattle PI featured an article today titled “Home sellers trying it all to hook choosy buyers” about all the shenanigans people are going through to unload a property these days.
People are offering a listing at a lower price than comparables in the area, or offering to finance part of the purchase price, or giving the buyer’s agent a bigger commission, or even bonus furniture is used to try to cut down the days on market. This is apparently all in vein:
“presentation, not incentives, is the most important factor in getting a house to sell, said Susan Peters, an agent with RE/MAX Mutual Realty, in Ballard.”
I must say I’m not so sure about that. The truth is that everything sells for a price. Yes, a home that is staged, sparkly clean, beautifully photographed, has curb appeal, and smells like fresh baked cookies will sell for more than a stinker with peeling paint and dark listing photos. The issue is that sellers often don’t want to accept the lower price for their beloved shack and they also don’t want to go through the time, effort and money it takes to make the house pristine for selling. So when it sits on the market for months and months, in my opinion it’s still about the price, bottom line. That said, since recent news has scared some flippers away (or they can’t get financing anymore) normal people who are still buying homes to live in are shying away from the fixers:
“The houses that are selling are the ones that are impeccable and priced right,” he said. “It used to be maybe you could get by with one or the other.”
Some times it takes a while for sellers to accept that they can’t make the killing they thought they would on their property.
