How to Use your Competition to Sell your Property!

Behold: The Buyer Desirability chart!

This chart can help Sellers price their homes correctly, against their active competition! Good thing there's currently LOTS of it...our Orangeville market alone has over 5 months of inventory at the moment with the average DOM at 34. Sellers need to have a competitive price to stand out. This tool will help you understand the price at which a Buyer is willing to pay, and where your home should end up in the marketplace.

How to use this chart: The left column represents features and benefits of the home.

The right top column represents listing price and goes from Higher to Lower.

We want to look at a property that we are comparing to our own, and see where it falls on this chart. Does our home have more or less features and benefits? If it has more, the Seller can justify a higher price and thus receives one star on the desirability scale, a Buyer might potentially pay more for a home that has higher value. If the home offers more and is priced the same as a comparable property, it receives 2 stars. If the home has more and is at a lower price, that home becomes the obvious choice for a Buyer. This is a listing that will attract the most Buyers and sell quickly.

Now look at the expired list areas. If we price our property higher than a house that is relatively the same, and has not yet sold within the average DOM, that property will likely end up on the expired list. The same goes for a home that is priced high and offers less than the comparable properties, or a home that is priced the same but offers less features and benefits. The only way a home that offers less will sell is if it is a lower price than the comparable properties.

Buyer Desirability Chart:

Features & Benefits	Higher $	Same $	Lower $
More	*	**	***
Same	EXPIRED List	*	**
Less	EXPIRED List	EXPIRED List	*

Pricing AGAINST active listing competition will allow a Seller to use their competition to help sell their house. Keep the average DOM (days on market) in mind when using this strategy, as its a good measure of whether a homes list price is realistic, or if the Buyers and the market have spoken and rejected the Sellers overly ambitious price.

Feel free to print out this chart to perfect your pricing strategy, and remember to not only price your property where it will actually get sold, but become the obvious choice in the market!!