As someone who has been in the real estate business on Hilton Head for the past 29 years I have to ask myself this question daily. Markets are ever changing. We have to ask our self, “Are we adjusting with the market?”
The example I think about is the stock market. To think that you would call your stockbroker and direct him to sell your ABC stock for $80.00 per share is absurd. It might have been worth $80.00 a year ago, but it might be worth $90.00 today or it may be worth $40.00. What you always ask your stockbroker is what is ABC worth today. The same is true for real estate.
It is important to realize that one agent does not make the market. The market is made by buyers and sellers. Our job is to interpret the market.
I recently had a seller say to me, “All you are trying to do is lower the price to where it will sell.” I told him he was correct. I told him I was trying to find the price at which his property would sell. I do not know what that number is. However, I do know what that number is not. We had his property listed at $599,000 for 6 months and had not had a single offer. That should tell us something. What we need to do is find out where we are today. It doesn’t matter where we were in the past.
I recently had someone tell me that I had set the price on their home. I told them I set the price based on the market conditions at that time. However, the market conditions have changed. That argument doesn’t hold water because you would never call your stockbroker and say, “You’re the one who told me it was worth $80.00 per share.” He would say it was worth $80.00 the day I told you that, but market’s change. I think we forget this and need to be reminded daily that the market changes.