One of the questions that I get asked by almost all sedona real estate buyers and sellers is “what percent of the listed price are homes selling for”. Buyers want to know how much they should offer, sellers want to know how much negotiating room they want to leave themselves. Conventional wisdom says that the longer that things, including homes, are up for sale, the lower the price that they will eventually sell for. For the most part this conventional wisdom is true. However when you look at the chart below, you will no doubt be surprised, just as I was, that on the average, single family homes in Sedona that sell in the first 30 days in 6 of the last 9 years, including YTD 2012, sell for less money than they sell for in the next 30 day period. After 60 days on the market conventional wisdom does come back into play and on the average, the longer a home is on the market the less that it will sell for. I haven’t quite put my finger on the anomaly of the first 30 days sales price other than there are some sellers that are so ready to sell, that when they get that first offer, they jump right on it. Sometimes the first offer is the best offer, or so they say.

The chart below represents cumulative days on market. That means the total days that a home has been on the market through listing expirations and change of brokerage companies.
 
selling price compared to listing price
 
The next chart below shows the percentage of homes that sold in the 30, 60, 90, 120 and over 120 days on market time periods. So not only do sellers get less money for their home after it has been on the market for over 120 days, over 60% of the sellers of single family homes in the Sedona real estate market in the last three years have done so.
 
time on market for sedona homes sold 2004 to 2012
 
Bottom Line: For buyers, sometimes you WILL get a great buy on a home when it first comes on the market, and certainly for those homes that have been on the market over 120 days. Sellers finally are ready to sell and they do it for less money. For sellers, by being more aggressive on your listing price to begin with you WILL put more money in your pocket, and sell your home in less time. Sound Good?