The morning was uneventful until:
"How much do homes sell for?"  asked the caller.
"A heckava lot more if they've got a view of the mountains than near the
freeway."
"No, you know what I mean," she said.  "How much below the asking price do they usually go for?"
Good question.  It's the type of question, for some unexplainable reason, that usually comes in bunches.  If we get one this week, we'll get six more by the end of the month.
Some homes never go on the market.  They are priced right and frequently are sold by word of mouth.  Others sit unsold for months.  On average, however, analysts say homes historically sell for about 10 percent less than the original asking price - yet even that depends upon the market and specific
neighborhood.
That rule-of-thumb is still close, but the gap has probably narrowed.  The
challenge in arriving at an exact list-sold percentage is some local statistics include only the listing price at the time an offer was made, not the listing price when the home originally hit the market.  Therefore, the list-sold
percentages available are only an indication of what price was officially
offered by a buyer and the price eventually accepted by a seller.
There is no indication of how much, if any, the home was reduced from the time of its initial listing date until the sale was closed.
For example, there were 4,886 three-bedroom, single-family detached homes sold in King County, Wash., the past six months, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Association.  The average listing price was $286,832 and the average selling price was $282,828 - indicating that those homes sold for
approximately 98 percent of the listing price.  However, there is no data
showing if the asking price of those homes was reduced even 24 hours before an offer was written.  The listing price stated was the price being used at the time the successful offer was written.
A home will sell for what somebody will pay for it.  That is a simple fact sellers often underestimate.  If a home is priced too high, it is going to sit - not sell. You must keep it in the bracket the market can bear.
I committed that sin more than a dozen years ago and found myself in the
position of having to finance two homes at the same time.  Had I listened to my competent, veteran agent, I would have avoided many hurdles and an overlap of mortgages.  But I was stubborn because our former homes sold for prices we had put on them -- which could have been lucky or informed
decisions.
The average person usually sells only one or two homes in a lifetime.  It is
important to price them right for two reasons.  First, the best market for a house is in the first three or four weeks.  It usually does not pay to adopt the philosophy "we'll bring the price down if it doesn't sell" if you would be happy with the lower price anyway.  When something's fresh and priced right, it's usually going to sell sooner than later.
Second, if the price is totally out of line, potential buyers have the tendency to dissect all of the home's shortcomings.  It's human nature. I'm sure you heard things like:
"The guy is asking $20,000 more than virtually the same house next door.  But this roof leaks, the rug's stained and the electrical wiring needs updating.  He'll never get that kind of money for that place -- even if it were in great
condition."
I believe that a good agent earns a large proportion of a commission by
producing an honest, informed selling price for the client.  It's worth that much in one or two (in my case, six) extra mortgage payments that have to be made if the house does not move.
Had I been able to take those extra payments and plop them down on my
current home, I would have saved years of interest payments!