Why Listing Your Home High When Selling May Not Be the Best Idea

April 25, 2024

When selling a home, a seller will want to get as much for their home as possible. I don’t disagree with that, and in fact, at TK Homes, one of our top goals when selling any home is to net you the most money at closing. Interestingly, our strategy to do this is not necessarily listing your home for higher than we think your home could sell for. For the purposes of this blog, I want to discuss some of the drawbacks of listing your home too high.

We put a lot of time into the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) we do for clients, which in turn helps us to determine a recommended list price. At the end of the day, we will always give our professional opinion on price, which is something we do well, but it is ultimately up to the seller to determine the price they want to list at. Recently, we have seen some sellers that have chosen to list high.

One of the things we have seen when a property is listed high is a high number of showings but no offers. Seeing many showings is exciting, but if it doesn’t amount to offers, then that is usually telling us that something is wrong, which in most cases is the price. Another thing you will see when a home is listed too high is that it is sitting on the market. In this situation, it does not usually go under contract the first weekend, and it takes longer to sell. Then, there is the whole if a house is sitting, it becomes stigmatized, and buyers could start to wonder what is wrong with it. At this point, many buyers feel they can come in with a lower or even a lowball offer because the property has been sitting. This often can result in the home selling for less than it might have if it wasn’t originally listed as high.

Some sellers may also feel the emotional toll a house that is sitting and not selling can take on them. They may be asking the questions: “Why isn’t my home selling? What is wrong with my home?” For some people, that can be very stressful. Selling a home can be stressful enough on its own. At TK Homes, we try not to add more stress, especially stress that is avoidable!

I am definitely not saying that a seller should not ever list high. I am just giving information on what to expect in this type of scenario. It is important to have the right expectations. It really comes down to a seller’s motivation for selling. If a seller doesn’t mind having their home sit on the market, or if they want to try out a certain price for a while to see if they can get it, then listing high may make sense. However, it is important to understand the risks with starting your list price high.

So, at this point, you may be wondering what a good listing strategy is. Check out our blog next week and read about one of the recommended strategies we use to net our sellers the most for their home.

To sum things up, every seller’s motivation and situation are different. At TK Homes, we would be happy to sit down with you and help you decide what the best pricing strategy is for you. Our main goal is to do everything possible to net you the most at the closing table. If you are interested in selling, contact a TK Homes agent today!

~ Written by TK Homes REALTOR® Mary Smith