THE PRICE HAS TO BE RIGHT

The best advice I can offer a seller for any home in today's market is to price it right and it's even more important with Short Sales. Pricing a short sale correctly involves choreographing a delicate dance between bringing in an offer and getting the bank to buy into that offer. Price it wrong, and the home goes to the bank. After getting the buyer to "buy" in on a property now we also need the price to be attractive to the Short Sale Bank, the Buyer's Lender & the Seller. Because short sales can take a minimum of 3 months to close from listing inception, the price should be based on pending sales, which will become the comparable sales at closing. Banks will generally accept an offer priced within reason of comparable sales. A buyer and seller can arrive at a mutually agreed price, but the buyer's lender will hire its own appraiser to determine market value. This means the home will need to appraise in line with the comparable sales. Pricing too low is rarely a problem. But if it's priced too high, it won't appraise, and either the buyer will need to foot the difference in cash or the pending sale will blow up. Some types of short sales are subject to deficiency judgements and Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act, which means sellers need to get the highest possible price. Attractive pricing will encourage multiple offers, and multiple offers tend to bid up the price. Pricing it right is a little bit of an art but it's getting done everyday. Off to my real job, Presson.