OWNERS LIST, SELLERS SELL!
The Park City real estate market has enjoyed robust double-digit appreciation for many years, along with shorter days on the market for sold properties. In recent years, the length of time that the unsold inventory of active listings is remaining on the market has been growing significantly. This is due, largely, to many sellers choosing to overprice their properties and buyers refusing to pay the higher asking prices.
HOMES ARE STAYING ON THE MARKET LONGER WITHOUT SELLING
The silver bar on this graph shows that homes that are selling are taking an average of 91 days to sell. The red bar shows the cumulative days on the market for listed homes that have not sold. The average number of days on the market without selling is 158. That is about 5 1/4 months on the market without selling.
MULTIPLE PRICE REDUCTIONS ARE OFTEN NOT ENOUGH
Eventually, motivated sellers lower their list prices in an attempt to attract buyers willing to make offers on their properties. If too much time has passed their listings may have become stale on the market. Buyers often assume there must be something wrong with properties that do not sell, or they simply view them as overpriced and move on to others.
Sometimes sellers end up having to reduce their price multiple times to find the right price range to attract buyers. Price reductions of $100,000 or $200,000 are not uncommon. I recently saw a $499,000 price reduction on a more expensive home. Some sellers so overprice their properties that it takes that much of a reduction just to get anyone's attention. Many of these homes still don't sell, even after these huge reductions, because they started way above the correct fair market price range.
MANY LISTINGS EXPIRE WITHOUT SELLING
Many of these listings, even after multiple price reductions, expire without selling. Some have cumulative days on the market of over 1,000 days. The owners have gone through the hassle and inconvenience of preparing their homes or condos repeatedly for showings with no offers to show for it, or only low-ball insulting offers, resulting in no sales. The Park City Multiple Listing Service is packed full of listing histories on individual properties that show this pattern.
The good news is if you price your property correctly, it will likely sell in 104 days, plus or minus. If you overprice it, it will likely not sell, even after one or more price reductions.
I described what I call the Park City Myth (on this page on my website) to help you understand what is occurring in the Park City marketplace. If you're only told some of the data, you may arrive at the wrong conclusion. If you only look at sold prices, year-over-year, we're in a strong rising market with steady appreciation, so why not list high? The myth is exposed when those who rely only on sold price data overprice their properties, causing them to remain on the market for an extended period without selling.
Many owners tell me they want to price their properties high because they can always lower the prices. It is true you can always lower your price, but if your property did not sell as a result of being listed too high, you probably realize now you may have unknowingly sabotaged your chance of selling by overpricing your property.
Once you decide you want to sell your property, select a Realtor who will tell you everything you need to know to make informed decisions when it comes to selling your property. Don't simply look for the Realtor who gives you the highest price for your property. Instead, use the market data to decide for yourself on the right price for your property. This is NOT rocket science! What separates property owners from sellers is this: "Owners list, sellers sell!"