Anthony: Do you change the price now or do you wait until after the first of the year? Many, many realtors are struggling with this right now because there are more listings that are sitting on the market over the last month or six weeks that aren’t selling. Many realtors are asking themselves, what do I do? Do I ask the seller for a– suggest another price adjustment or ask for another price adjustment? I don’t know if that’s the right wording, but do I go for another price adjustment or do I just wait until after the first of the year? I want to talk to you about all this because this is a bit of an odd time that we’re in the market and it’s been an odd time for about eight weeks, some would argue three years, but you guys get my point. It’s been definitely different for the last couple of months as this market has an adjustment, goes through a big adjustment here.

A couple of things I want you to think about that will help you in this decision. This came up a training the other day and I answered this question. Had a group meeting with our top realtors on Friday. We did a Q&A, and this came up a few times. I wanted to talk to you about it all. Anthony  here with a question on real estate. With my little guy, Mr. Grant Man. Grant, say, hi.

Grant: Hi.

Anthony: All right. Here’s the deal. If you have a listing that has been on the market 4, 5, 6 weeks and it’s been at the same price for at least 2 or 3 weeks and it’s not selling and you’re getting no showings, and you look at the comps and you’re like, “It still is a little bit high compared to what has recently sold.” Not the summer solds. Remember, the late spring of this year and summer solds, those aren’t good comps now. That was the absolute peak of the market. That 2022 peak, which was similar to the summer of ’05 peak, that’s behind us now, that’s not coming back. Someday it will, someday we’ll beat those prices, but for the next couple of years, as we go through this adjustment, those prices aren’t happening.

Look at the comps in the last 60 to 90 days and actually say to yourself. Don’t get caught up in the listing. I brought this up at the meeting we had. Don’t get caught up in the listing and the pride of the listing and, “Oh my God, this is so amazing.” Look at it like it’s numbers. Is it truly worth what it’s listed at or is it a bit on the high side compared to the cost? If you think it’s a bit on the high side compared to the comps, I would adjust the price now because these next couple of weeks we’re going to have a busier couple of weeks. That’s my prediction. I think that activity among buyers is going to increase over the next couple of weeks.

If you look at it and you say, “Yes, it’s priced really well.” You look at all the comp it’s priced right in line or hopefully a little bit less than the comps, and you’re getting a few showings here and there. It’s not getting a ton of showings but it’s getting some showings and it seems to be priced pretty well, if the seller can wait, wait the five weeks till after the first of the year. If the seller’s in a rush and the seller’s highly motivated to sell, and you look at it and you’re like, “Eh, this thing’s a little high,” then get the adjustment now. Talk to the seller about the adjustment now because we just went through really a very slow six weeks and you got to remember midterm elections, falls are slower anyway.

For how many years have I been telling buyers? Buy in the fall, sell in the spring. Now obviously, if they’re doing both, that’s too– easier said than done. The school year is an issue, but I’ve been saying for over a decade because it’s the truth that buying in the fall is a better time than buying in the winter and spring. Buyers pay a premium when they buy in the winter and spring. They do, and they don’t quite get that. They think that we’re being salespeople when we tell them to buy in the fall, but they don’t get it.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand because I could do a whole other rant on that. If your listing, if you look at it and you’re like, “Eh, it could come down a bit and it’s getting no activity,” lower the price right now. Maybe not right now, I’d probably do it Tuesday or Wednesday so that it hits the system Wednesday or Thursday because these next two weekends I think we’ll be busier with activity. I don’t believe we’re going to go from the middle of October to the beginning of January and just constantly be as slow as it’s been. Slows spells that are this slow don’t usually last more than three weeks.

We’re at week six, but the midterms and all that stuff has an impact. The holidays. Remember, this was the first Thanksgiving in three years that people could actually go where they wanted to, hang out with who they wanted to and they didn’t have to worry about who was vaccinated, who had COVID, who didn’t have COVID and all this bullshit. This was a very busy Thanksgiving holiday which was three weeks after midterms. This slowdown has been strong, but remember, now you might hear that and go, “Then I’ll just leave my listing the same.”

Keep in mind when you adjust the price, they run back through the system. They run back through the system and any adjustment less than 5% is generally a waste of time. We have a whole blog on this. I’ll put the blog in the comments and it shows how much the adjustments should be. It talks about the percentage amount and then it talks about how homes are listed and homes sell in brackets. You got to be at the next bracket in order to get more buyer eyes looking at your property. Yes, Judy, little man’s over here. Grant, say hi, again.

Grant: Hi.

Anthony: I want everybody to think about that. You get a seller that isn’t that motivated to sell. If you’re getting a few showings here and there, then leave it. Ride it out five more weeks and see, and then drop it at the beginning of January, 1st or 2nd week in January when buyer motivation will go up dramatically. By the way, I want to want to point that out. We’re going to see dramatic increase in buyer motivation. There’s no way in hell, no matter what market I’ve seen, we’ve never had buyer motivation stay low indefinitely. It doesn’t work like that. It goes in spurts. There’s going to be a busy spurt here for a couple of weeks with buyer activity. Then it’s going to die out around Christmas and those buyers that are serious will score around then because that’s when there’s less buyers out but that’s another point.

Beginning of January, you’ll see a definite increase in buyer motivation, but there won’t be enough listings to sell to them. That’ll be a frustrating period for realtors. Then, we get to early March, things will start clicking again. Market will take off again for five, or six months before we enter part two of this, which I’ll talk to you about that at later dates. I hope that makes sense to everyone on what to do with your listing. I know that that’s a little bit of a confusing thing and there’s a lot of realtors that haven’t dealt with this. There’s a lot of realtors that haven’t dealt with their listings not selling.

There’s a lot of realtors who thought that everything they touched turned to sold and it was just them and they were just magical and they were amazing. You’re in for a rude awakening if you’re one of those realtors that felt that way because now we’re getting faced with a real real estate market. What we were in for the last two years was fairy tale land for listing agents, fairy tale land and you’re not going to see it for a long time. You’ll see multiple offers increase again, a bit for a couple of months in the late winter, early spring, but what we saw in early ’22 and in ’21 was fairy tale land for listing agents and fairy tales don’t last forever. All right. Grant, say bye to everyone.

Grant: Bye.

Anthony: Say my dad’s got to do a workout.

Grant: My dad’s got to do a workout.

Anthony: That’s right. P90X time, folks, chest and back. Have a good day, guys. Happy home selling. I hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving and I appreciate your support in following me here on Crush-It.