Ask the REALTOR: Since it’s a seller’s market, are you able to price listings higher than their actual value?

Ask the REALTOR® is a regular video series in which I answer your most commonly-asked real estate questions, with a new Q&A posting every week. If YOU have a real estate question for me, drop me a note here.

This week’s question: Since it’s a seller’s market, are you able to price listings higher than their actual value? Here’s the answer in this brief video, and don’t miss the transcript below.

Transcript:

Hi. This is Cari McGee with Keller Williams Realty. Welcome to this week’s episode of “Ask The Realtor.” Every week, I answer questions from buyers and sellers — and pretty much everyone in between — regarding real estate. This week’s question is:

“Since it’s a seller’s market, are you able to price your listings higher than their actual value?”

Not if I want to sell them, I can’t. No.

Here’s the scoop: A house is always worth what a house is worth regardless of the market that’s surrounding it, whether it’s a seller’s market or a buyer’s market.

A home’s value is defined in real estate land as the amount that a seller is willing to sell it for and the amount that a buyer is willing to pay for it. And perhaps with a rapidly appreciating market, like with ours currently here in the Tri-Cities, you might be able to price it for more than you thought it would be worth looking at the pattern of appreciation in your area. However, you should not make a habit of overpricing a home ever because it will just sit there on the market regardless of the surrounding, prevailing attitude towards houses — whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market.

A house is always worth what a house is worth, period. And that is the scoop from me. If you have any other questions, by all means, give me a shout via any one of the methods that follow on the next screen.

And if you’re wondering what the decor is in here, like the balloon behind my head and the little streamers and banners, it was my birthday recently and at the office they decorated it and I appreciate that! It will all be gone next week. [laughs] Anyway, talk to you then. Thanks so much for watching. Bye.