With Terry Story, a 31-year veteran with Keller Williams located in Boca Raton, FL
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During this week’s Real Estate Roundup, Steve spoke with Terry Story, a 31-year veteran at Keller Williams, about how the novel Coronavirus and implications for its spread are affecting the real estate market. In addition, they talked about how realtors properly price properties.
The Stories Of Two Sellers
First, let’s start with a story about how the novel Coronavirus directly impacted a seller. Terry shared the story of a seller living in California’s Bay area. “He had his house up for sale. Before the Chinese New Year, he went home to China and ended up in the Wu Han province. Obviously, he got stuck there, meaning he couldn’t set a closing date on his house.”
The house was under contract. And, though the seller had a letter of intent for the buyers to sign in order to close, he couldn’t get back to do it. “But ultimately the buyer stepped up to give the seller a little wiggle room, considering the circumstances,” Steve pointed out. Still, stories like this could pop up more and more.
Terry also shared the story of a seller who notified her office on a Friday of a seller who decided to go for a week-long cruise despite having a closing scheduled for the coming Tuesday. “The buyers were flying into town expecting to stay in a hotel while moving into their new home. Now, they have to wait a week for the seller to get back.” In this case, the seller was in the wrong. The parties came to an agreement, saying the buyers could move in in advance. Unfortunately, the buyers discovered a huge roof leak in the home, which created another problem.
Both of these stories provide an important lesson. As Terry pointed out, it’s critical to really look at your calendar and check for any vacations or other planned trips before setting a closing date. You don’t want travel plans messing up your closing.
How Realtors Price Properties
Realtors have to consider a number of factors in order to properly price properties. The first thing to look at is comps. “You want to price in the direction that the market is heading,” Terry said, “and in real estate, the market is basically always trending up or trending down.”
But the trick is really determining whether the market is moving up or down. One factor to consider when figuring this out is days on market: are they rising or declining. Terry spelled it out, “If they’re rising, prices are softening.” But you also need to look at price adjustments: how many adjustments are you seeing before a property sells? These are two leading indicators for house prices.
Additionally, realtors need to consider the price category of a property. “For example, homes in the million-dollar and up category are going to be moving differently than homes under $200,000”, Terry said.
If you’d like to learn more about buying or selling a home, see Keller Williams.
