The First 10 Days:
Sellers Get Maximum Value for their Homes
Statistics from SmartCharts, a real estate statistics engine, show that buyers in Northern Virginia pay the maximum Price Per Sq Ft (PPSF) for homes in the first 10 days. Northern Virginia’s 2020 sales show that homes sold in the first 10 days, had a PPSF 14% higher than homes that sold in 60+ days.
“After 10 days, today’s buyers start to think there is something wrong with a home, or that it is over-priced, so they wait. Once a buyer pool takes a pass, it is like herding cats to get them back. As the home sits on the market, it gets stale and loses approximately $1,000 per day. A seller’s best bet is to go under contract with a buyer in the first 10 days.”
Perfect buyers pay the most for a home and with today’s technology they move fast. These buyers are looking for homes of a certain, size, condition, style, age, price range, school district etc. When a perfect buyer finds a home that fits most, if not all of their needs, they move fast because they do not want to miss out (typically, because they already have). In today’s market, it is not uncommon to have bidding wars. In this situation, multiple buyers bid prices up over list price and remove contingencies, like inspections, that can jeopardize transactions. This is a seller’s best-case scenario, higher contract price and reduced risk. It is imperative to sell during this 10-day window.
Targeting the Perfect buyer is easy. Buyers registered by their Realtors receive professional emails with links to custom websites. Sophisticated online targeting tools are used to find domestic and international buyers who have shown an interest in like kind homes. These potential buyers are sent ads about our listings to their news feeds and social media accounts. The ads have links to our listings custom website, that showcase the listings professional photos and information. Renters and neighbors, a great source of buyers, are sent information by mail. All of this is done before the listing even goes live.
Tracking buyers and predicting contracts is done during the Coming Soon period so we can analyze buyer traffic, feedback, and website reactions. Based on multiple reports, we can predict not only if we are on the right price, but how many contracts we can expect. If we have low traffic, people who spend very little time on the website, and the home receives very few favorites, loves, comments or shares on the net, we know we are over-priced and need to launch the listing at a lower list price. This predictive analysis has allowed us to sell 75% of our homes in the critical first 10 days and has given our sellers and us a 97% success rate in 2020. These are big numbers even by our standards.
“In life, you wouldn’t cross the street without looking both ways. The Casey Samson Team doesn’t put a home on the market unless we know the outcome before it is launched active.”
- Prepare the home for today’s buyers
- Price the home for the largest buyer pool closest to the homes true value
- Leverage predictive analysis to confirm you are at the right price
- Ask for highest and best offers with no escalation clauses
- Keep all buyers and agents involved in the process
- Make sure you have back up contracts
2021’s Perfect Storm for Sellers
The Casey Samson Team was ranked by The Wall Street Journals as one of the top VA teams in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, 75% of their listings sold in the first 10 days, 86% in the first 30 and an overall success rate of 97%. Big numbers even by our standards.
Contact Casey at 703-508-2535, casey@caseysamson.com
