Nothing sells real estate except for the right price.

All the print advertising in the local newspaper doesn’t work.  Display ads in the weekly rag don’t work.  Fancy glossy brochures and full color full page spreads in the dream house magazines don’t work either.  All the weekend Open House tours in the world don’t work.  Big time real estate companies definitely don’t work.

Tons o’ photos on the MLS don’t work, even    a shot of the beautiful ocean blue doesn’t work.  Except for this one; I wanna rush out and buy this house immediately.  Who cares about the price?  Just gander at those fine-lookin' power lines.

So what works?  What sells real estate on the Monterey Peninsula today?  One word sums it up – price.  Doesn’t matter if the market is the slowest it has been in a dozen years or even if an atomic bomb just went off - a house still will sell quickly if it is priced right.

So what is the right price?  There is no scientific formula to arrive at the right price.  But I know it if I see it, that’s for sure.  Even lots of other real estate agents know it.  I’ll also know in about 2 weeks if any offers come in.  No offers – not the right price.  A few offers coming in close to asking then those offers are the right price.  Even better are multiple offers outbidding each other and going above the list price.  Now that’s the real price and the right one at that too.

It seems that the market sets the right price and the market is a group of folks willing, ready and able to buy.  Establishing the right price to target that market makes sellers and listing agents happy.  In other words, set the price to support the market.  For an example: list a gazillion dollar home in a gazillion dollar neighborhood and the market will come sniffing around.

List a million dollar house in a $300,000 neighborhood and … well, that is so wrong and stupid too.   Sure it worked back in the heady days of 2005 but the last time I checked my calendar, we’re about halfway through the year 2014.  No wonder it’s still on the active list after 365 days. 

I wrote a commentary about the right price in May of 2008.  Six years later, it still flies.