Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Luxury real estate sales across the country are slowing down, with a growing number of property listings lingering on the market. As a result, some sellers have begun to reduce their asking prices in the hopes of a fast sale, but others are holding out for a better price even if it means waiting years, rather than months, to sell.
“In most cases, my sellers don’t have to sell,” said Ann MacQuoid, a real estate professional with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. She notes that one of her clients in Park City, Utah, has listed a $10.9 million home for more than 18 months with no buyer found.
The pricier the home, the longer it usually takes to sell, according to data from realtor.com.
The most expensive luxury homes spent a median of 134 days on the market, compared to 100 days for 'all' luxury homes. Meanwhile, the typical home spent just 53 days on the market. Realtor.com’s research team examined the priciest 10 percent of 44,000 listings in the 20 largest U.S. metro areas in February. It reckons that around 9.5 percent of all luxury home listings stay on the market for at least a year.
Still, some real estate expert says it's a bad idea to let listings go stale. If a home is listed too long, buyers may believe there's a good reason for that, for example it may need a lot of renovation work or repairs. As such, many buyers will offer "lowball" offers for such homes. The evidence for this is irrefutable, with Concierge Auctions's data showing that homes which spend an average of 774 days on the market are usually sold for just 77 percent of the original list price. However, those luxury homes which sell in less than 180 days receive 93 percent of the listing price.
John Walton and Stacy Demcher of Keller Williams Jersey Shore say they specialize in "expired listings" that have not sold. Walton says he will typically come in and adjust the price, take new photographs, and rewrite the copy to re-energize a listing and speed a sale. Some real estate pros also recommend taking the home off the market for a short period to try to reset the days-on-market number.
