Have you noticed those beautiful for sale signs sitting a little longer in your neighbor’s yard these days? It’s been an interesting start to the year in real estate. I am seeing some listings fly right off with multiple offers, and others sit stagnant.

In case you missed my last quarterly blog, linked here, we have exceeded pre-pandemic levels of housing inventory here in Central Florida. In 2023, we saw a 92% jump in inventory compared to 2022. And so far in 2024, we have seen an 89% increase in inventory from this time last year.

In fact, unsold inventory is rising across the country, with Florida leading the way with a 65% increase. What does that mean? Some listings are sitting.

While it’s still very much a seller’s market, it is no longer 2021 or 2022. The rise in inventory coupled with those pesky elevated interest rates, have led many buyers to exit the market, and the ones that are still in the game are overly cautious of condition & price.

In May, we saw over a third of existing home inventory in Central Florida experience a price reduction, indicating that sellers may have unrealistic expectations about their home values.

There are three potential pitfalls to over pricing your home.

Sellers think there is no harm to a price reduction. And while sometimes price reductions are absolutely necessary, especially if your house isn’t receiving offers, let alone showing requests, price reductions should be a fallback strategy because they have drawbacks.

Price reductions can make a buyer think one of three thoughts:

What's wrong with this house?
Let's wait and see if they lower the price more.
Let's put in a low-ball offer to see how low they will go

Listen to the market when determining a price. If you over price your property, you may end up getting less for it than it was actually worth to begin with.

If you are thinking about listing your home in the near future, reach out to me. I’d be honored to draft up a market analysis of your home & discuss the buyer & seller trends I’m seeing. And, of course, I’d love to hear what your housing goals are so we can come up with a plan to reach those goals together.

Are Zillow zestimates accurate?

Oftentimes, homeowners rely on Zillow’s zestimate as the golden rule when it comes to value. Zillow's zestimate can be a great indicator of general value. However, their algorithm is simply that, an algorithm. It can't possibly compute specifics of your exact home & the specific buyer trends in your micro market.

But let me tell you a story about one of my most recent sales. When I first went on a listing appointment at 1447 Rushing Rapids Way, I drafted up a Comparative Market Analysis, as I always do. I took sold comps in the neighborhood, made adjustments for location, size, value, garage bays, etc. Just like an appraiser would do. I firmly believed, after doing my calculations, the valuation of the home was somewhere between $625,000-$649,000.

Then I looked at Zillow, to see what they said. I always do this AFTER I compute my analysis because it’s a fun game to see how close, or in this case far apart, me & Zillow are.

The zestimate of this home was only $565,000!

Together, the seller and I decided to list the home at $625,000, hoping it would lead to multiple offers and potentially we could land closer to $650,000.

Well did our marketing plan work! We ended up securing 5 offers, which pushed the sales price to $663,000!! And we were lucky enough to secure a cash buyer, so we didn’t even have to worry about the appraised value.

The house just closed this week $98,000 OVER the zestimate. Making it the highest sale in that neighborhood to date of that particular floorplan.

While oftentimes, zestimates are much closer to value than in this particular case, sometimes they can absolutely be off. If you’re thinking of selling your home, don’t leave any money on the table. Talk to a local REALTOR that understands your particular market & the buyer trends and ask them to draft up a CMA (comparative market analysis).

And if you’re in the Central Florida area, I’m your girl!