Pricing and Affordability

Pricing your home correctly is probably the most important factor in selling your property within a reasonable amount of time. Don't be greedy! The key thing to remember is that people searching for homes are also greedy. For people who've been on both sides, this must ring true. When buying, we always complain of high prices. When selling, we are always trying to get the highest possible price. So, greedy seller and greedy buyer combined = no sale.

Realtors think that by running their CMA or Competitive Market Analysis, they are giving you something you couldn't figure out yourself. That is probably true for highly customized single family homes. Not for a condo in a development with two other similar condos up for sale and ten similar condos that have recently sold. This is why I think CMA is stupid and it was stupid of Foxtons to try and convince me otherwise: I can figure out the fair price of my condo by the criteria listed above, and skip the Foxtons sales pitch at 10:30 am on a Saturday morning.

However, putting our condo on the market at a fair price, was a mistake. We did not attract a single buyer. Thankfully, it took us only two weeks to figure that out. Once we've dropped the price a whopping $15K, we started to get interest. So, was it because 'it's a buyer's market'?

People drop the expression 'buyer's market' all too often. In my opinion, it's a buyer's market due to vast amounts of inventory available to them. There is just one small catch - the prices have not come down enough to align with the rising interest rates. It's like this: you can look all you want, but you can't actually afford it! Wonderful. Where does it leave us?

Not in a very comfortable zone. We are aiming to attract young professional couples, since our condo is exactly what such an archetypal couple would want. It is clean, modern, spacious, inviting, bright and in perfect location for NYC commuters. Our generation X or Y couple doesn't have any kids yet, but might be thinking of them. The couple shops at Whole Foods, Trader Joes or in the worst case scenario Stop&Shop. The couple has an SUV or a luxury car. The couple is either moving away from the urban NYC to the 'urban' suburbia or it is looking for a better location within NJ. And thankfully there are many such couples. But can they afford it?

Hard question, and I don't know how to answer it. If we were the aforementioned couple, we couldn't. We can only afford our next property because our current one appreciated at a 33% rate. Lucky us! Unlucky first time buyers, who totally deserve to live in our awesome condo, and not the typical 1980's NJ abode with wall to wall shag carpeting and mirrored closet doors.