SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Home sellers are kicking off the spring real estate season with what might be considered a risky pricing strategy: 40.3 percent say they plan to price their homes above market value, according to the latest Real-Time Seller Survey from Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Redfin agents warn against this pricing strategy, as it usually doesn’t pay off for sellers.
“Buyers this year are far less tolerant of overpricing, and homes that aren’t priced appropriately are likely to sit on the market until the seller is forced to reduce the price,” said Redfin Riverside area agent Paul Reid. “Buyers often interpret a price drop as a sign there is something wrong with the home, leading some to negotiate even more aggressively or lose interest altogether.”
More than half (51.3%) of home sellers surveyed said they plan to price their home in the middle of the range based on local comparable sales, which is wise considering that a home listing gets nearly four times more visits on real estate websites during the first week on the market than it does a month later, according to a Redfin analysis.
“Pricing a home correctly from the start is a critical component of Redfin listing agents’ strategy, and we use the very latest local comparable sales to create our pricing recommendations,” said Karen Krupsaw, vice president of Redfin real estate operations.
In the second quarter, 52.4 percent of sellers were confident that now is a good time to sell their home, compared with 37.5 percent in the first quarter. Nevertheless, home sellers are not free from worry. In the second quarter, 40.9 percent of sellers said they are worried about being able to afford their next home. For the survey, Redfin polled 1,128 active home sellers across 26 U.S. cities.
Whether people are buying or selling, it’s always critical to take the time and space to make the right decision to avoid home buyer’s remorse. According to a nationwide survey from Redfin and conducted online by Harris Poll among more than 2,000 U.S. adults, one in four American homeowners (25%) who bought the home they’re currently in said that they would not buy their home again if they had to do it all over.
The Redfin Real-Time Home-Seller Survey is a companion to the quarterly Buyer Survey and Agent Survey. Click here to view the full report, including charts and graphs. Additional data is also available by contacting press@redfin.com.
About the Q2 2014 Redfin Real-Time Seller Survey
This survey was conducted between April 15 and 18 and survey respondents included 1,128 active home sellers. Respondents spanned 25 metropolitan areas in the U.S., which are: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Riverside-San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York area (Bronx, Long Island, Queens and Westchester), Orange County, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Harris Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Redfin from March 31-April 2, 2014 among 2,027 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact press@redfin.com.
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin.com features all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. Redfin also offers online tools that make the entire process of buying or selling a home easier and more fun. The company serves 25 U.S. markets and has closed more than $13 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.
