Through The Eyes of Buyers

  In my last post I commented in general on the matter of pricing a property to sell. This has become an increasingly important component in successfully marketing your home to potential buyers and one of the key reasons for that is the Internet.

  Today’s buyers have a tremendous amount of information at their fingerprints and are well informed. You’re reading this blog for example and I presume you are doing so to amongst other things, expand your awareness and to be better informed. Most buyers today for real estate (80+%) and other items spend countless hours online looking for and at the products or services they are contemplating purchasing. Shopping for real estate is without question one of the first online frontiers that consumers flocked to. Here in Canada http://www.realtor.ca/ receives 3 million or more visitors a month looking at properties that are posted on the various Multiple Listing Services (MLS®) of real estate Boards across the country. Everything is there, room and overall house sizes, community and tax information, photos, prices and more. Buyers get a very good picture of what’s out there. They can tell if the same home comes up for sale month after month.  They can compare property listings and get a good sense of their relative values, quickly determining in their own minds at least, which ones are priced right and which ones appear to be over-priced. The bottom line is there’s no fooling anyone and sellers shouldn’t kid themselves alone or with the help of their REALTOR®, into thinking they are going to be the lucky ones and find that one unsuspecting or uninformed buyer that is going to over-pay them for their property. In our local market, essentially 1 out of 3 properties listed for sale actually sells so with that amount of inventory to choose from, nobody needs to overpay for anything.
  If you are contemplating the sale of youe home this spring I encourgage you to begin the process by looking at your property through the eyes of a potential buyer(s). Buyers obviously have expectations they want met and this goes far beyond just the colour of the walls or the overall appearance and condition of the home.
  More to come….