The 3-P's of real estate

In an earlier post - June 28th - I wrote about the 3-C's of real estate - Condition, Clutter and Cleanliness. those are all about the house itself. Now, let's discuss the 3 P's of real estate - Price, Patience and Perseverance - all of which are more about dealing with the market and two of which are really about the sellers attitudes (your attitudes). Certainly, all three within the control of the sellers.

In the current market price is the king, it beats everything else except the one thing that can't be changed anyway and which will forever remain the ace in the real estate deck - location. You used to hear location, location, location. Now you are just as likely to hear price, price, price. If the price isn't right, even a great location will not get the job done but itself. So, it is extremely important to get a good realtor and then heed his/her advice on price. Setting the price too high initially will stretch the process out and will require lots more of the other two "P's".

The second "P" in the 3-p'S is patience. Even if priced correctly, in this market it may be months before you sell. I am advising clients to expect 9 to 12 months, longer as the price point goes up. The amount of current inventory is at an all time high, so buyers are somewhat overwhelmed by their choices and many just put off making a choice, while trying to see them all. Our company supplies us with a marketing inventory report that looks at the inventory by price band and by township and/or City/Village locations; and, it also looks at what has sold over the last three months in each area, in those price bands. The report then has a calculated number that equates to the number of months it would take to sell off the current inventory in that area based on the rate at which homes have been selling in each price band. In many of the reported areas and price bands the numbers are above 24 months. In the Birmingham area, for instance, in the price band for houses above $600,000 the inventory is enough for 5 years of sales. To view a complete set of those reports go to my Web site - http://www.themilfordteam.com and chose Real Estate Statistics from the left hand menus. Look for the County Market Reports. Obviously patience is going to required in most cases in this market.

The final "P" in the 3-P's of real estate is perseverance. While you could sit back and be patient in a rather passive way, the ongoing work that it takes to keep your house on the market and ready to show requires active participation and, often. lots of perseverance. Keeping the house ready to show every time you leave it can get old fairly fast. Dealing with pets and/or kids on short notice, so that the agent who is sitting out in front of your house and calling in a showing request takes lots and lots of perseverance. Rushing around to get the house ready to show, only to find out later that the buyers wouldn't even come in because they didn't like the color of the brick, takes an enormous amount of perseverance. Yet, persevere you must (sounds like Yoda doesn't it?), in order to sell in this market. Some definitions of perseverance might be paraphrased thus - " the struggles required to overcome all obstacles and achieve a goal." The goal is fairly clear here - sell the house. The obstacles may seem to get bigger as time goes on and the struggles can leave you feeling fairly tired of the whole process, but persevere and reach your goal.