The sweet spot is the place on the bat that makes baseballs change zip codes.
I am a passionate lister, and I have argued forever that everything matters in the listing praxis – but nothing matters more than the listing price. And: As you may have noticed, I could go on forever about pricing, but there is one idea that matters to me above all others:
The sweet spot.
Deny me sports and gambling metaphors and I could not write, but metaphors inform by their manifestation: If you know your business – if you have a true empathy for the machine of your praxis – you know where the sweet spot is.
In real estate pricing, the sweet spot is here:
I arrive at a number that, when I see it, I say, “But of course.”
And at at the listing presentation, the seller says, “But of course.”
And on listing day, all the experienced Realtors working that area look at their hotsheets and say, “But of course.”
And the buyers who see that house on the first few days of the listing all say, “But of course.”
The sweet spot is the number that everyone knows is right-on-the-money, as soon as they see it.
What’s the benefit? A bird – or six – in the hand. If you hit the market in the sweet spot, your seller should have one or more excellent offers to work with right away. When you get the price just right, everyone knows they have to jump or miss out.
And the benefit of that is to surface the optimal offer. I believe that a well-represented home should incite multiple offers overs its first weekend on market. I list on Thursday early morning, just after midnite, to maximize my debut on saved searches – thus to invoke reactions like “Must see Saturday!” As I’ve noted, I disclose the state of play for cash, conventional and FHA offers in the Private Remarks (Realtor-only) section of the listing.
My objective is to identify the highest, safest, soonest offer. The FHA offers will all be higher, even allowing for the closing-cost contributions, but FHA borrowers often need even more help crossing the finish line – and their loans are the most likely to fail. Cash is king, of course, with limits to the regal discount. The high bids and the low ones can conspire to reveal what is often the best option – conventional financing combined with a thirst for that property and no other.
I want the biggest money I can actually get as soon as I can get it – but the deal has to close. Cash closes and it closes fast – or not at all. Financed offers close slowly, and every conditional outcome under the sun gets a brand new chance to fail with each new dawning day. Well-qualified financed buyers with sprightly lenders – represented by an agent who understands why he needs to take away my seller’s fear of delay and its disasters – are how you get the house that five other buyers wanted.
That’s the sweet spot hunting for the sweet spot: Not the biggest number on page one of the purchase contract, but the optimal result for the seller in money, time and peace of mind by the time escrow closes.
That’s empathy for the whole transaction – I promise I’ll get to it! – all expressed in the listing price. I cut to the front of the line in the MLS on Day Zero by being perfectly priced. I’m Sale Pending by Day Five. And I’m closed just like that.
Everything matters when you list, but nothing sells like the right price. Find the sweet spot – the number that makes every head nod at once – and you’re halfway to the closing table.
