How To Attract Multiple Offers In Any Market – Part 2
The Holy Grail Of Getting Multiple Offers
As I discussed in part 1, getting multiple offers is the only way to get the highest price for the vast majority of homes that come on the market.
Getting the highest price for a home is not possible when it’s overpriced for the market.
Period.
So what’s the best strategy to pricing?
Love Me Do
For this we want to consider the psychology of buying. Most every shopper, regardless of what they are shopping for, looks for the best value/price balance. This is true for any commodity.
The good balance between price and value must be present to get the buyer’s attention.
Knowing this, the seller must create the perception that the value of their home for the price is superior to 
other similar homes on the market. This appeals to the logical side of the buyers mind.
With the home priced correctly, it presents the best chance of being “loved” by buyers who see it. Once buyers love your home and connect with it emotionally they are more willing to compete to get what they are emotionally attached to.
Emotions aren’t rational or logical. Anyone who has been in a relationship can attest to this.
When I receive offers on my listings, it’s often that the buyers agent says “my buyers just LOVE your seller’s home!”. It happens all the time.
This is where we want buyers. We want them to love your home.
Loving a home is easier when buyers see it.
The only way they see it is to get them through your door.
The only way to get them through your door is through their perception of value otherwise, no matter how clean your granite counters are, they won’t see them.
When a buyer loves your home, they will pay more for it and will compete to get it. This is what drives the price up above where it would normally be and certainly higher than if you attempt to price it there in the first place.
Value Pricing Your Home
How can a seller create the perception of value for buyers? By pricing the home where buyers in that price range cannot ignore it.
This creates an entire line of questioning, and fear, in the mind of the seller.
Who determines what the best price is? What information is that based on? I don’t want to sell at that price, how can you assure me that we won’t sell too low?
The Auction
Some years ago I watched something I couldn’t believe. One of my neighbors decided to move from Rocklin to Seattle for a job change. She came to me and said that although they loved me they were going to use another approach to sell their home. They decided to auction it off.
At the time, I was shocked. Auction your home?? Are you crazy? Well they were..like a fox.
When the house went on the market, our street, Cormorant Circle, turned into a traffic nightmare. The sellers scheduled two days of showings and left town. For those two days, there must have been 200 people going through the home.
The house was priced $200,000 below market value. This is an extreme example and not necessary to get the highest price however it’s what they chose to do.
This house sold for $25,000 above the comparable sales for the market at that time. This was not the best house in our neighborhood. It was clean but it wasn’t spectacular.
The sellers, through courage and subsequently value pricing, controlled the perception of the buyers and sold for the highest price of any home comparable to it in the neighborhood at that time.
They appealed to the perception of value and the competitive nature of buyers and won. As you can see by this example, just because your initial listing price is low doesn’t mean that’s where you’ll sell. In fact it rarely means that.
The lesson here is that a good pricing strategy puts the seller in control not the buyers. A seller is able to control the perception of the buyer when the price of the home is seen as a value.
Put Yourself In Control Of The Buyers
When your home is not perceived as a value, you put the buyers in control. You won’t grasp their attention, they won’t come to see your home and they won’t fall in love with it no matter how nice it is or how valuable it is to you.
If you were selling it to yourself, which is actually what happens when you overprice your home, this would be great but you’re not trying to do that. You’re trying to sell it to someone else, someone you’re trying to reach.
This is done, initially, by pricing your home to get attention. Then we let the buyers fight over it and without fail, 
the seller wins.
When you create an air of value, your home will sell for the highest price. Buyers will flock to your home rather than you chasing them with price reductions.
Overpriced homes attract indignant buyers who think, rightfully so, that they have the upper hand on the seller.
Indignant buyers think they can nickel and dime you for every little repair. Rest assured, they will do it without question. They think that you’re lucky they are buying your home and it damn well will be perfect when they move it or they will not close.
Buyers who feel like they are getting a good deal will not do that. They will feel fortunate that you chose them to work with. They will be afraid to ask you for repairs for fear you’ll cancel on them. They don’t want that because they feel like they got a good deal to begin with.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have easy to work with pliable buyers? It will save you money and stress all the way through the escrow process.
Stay Tuned for Part 3 – What To Do With Those Multiple Offers Once You Get Them!
Buying or selling a home in Rocklin? If so, I’d like to help you. Please call or text me directly at 916-532-7653 or click here, for my contact page.
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