Lawrence Park Home Takes 10 Years to Sell

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No, this is not a typo – a house in the Lawrence Park area in Toronto (*) just sold after being on the market since 1998!

I want to share with you the main lesson learned from this unfortunate experience, so that you won’t make the same mistake yourself.

The big question, of course, is why it took ten years to sell a home in the midst of the longest real estate boom in Canadian history. 

The answer, in a nutshell, is that the house wasn’t priced right. In fact, the owners went through a total of six real estate companies, listing their home 26 times on the Toronto MLS and changing their listed price a whopping 34 times!

Without a doubt, pricing your home correctly from the outset is of critical importance, especially in a softening real estate market such as the one we’re in now. The seller initially priced the house “ahead of the market”, and continued to do so throughout the ten-year period. Essentially, the listing price was above what buyers were willing to pay at any given time. 

Real estate agents cannot perform miracles, even during a boom. A house listed at 7-to-10 percent (or higher) above the true market value simply will not sell. Today’s buyers are market-savvy and can find out all the information they need to reach their own conclusions about a home’s value. 

This is always true in any real estate market, whether it be in a large city like Toronto, or in a small town like Wapakoneta, Ohio.

The moral of the story is to pay close attention to the mood of the market. Have your agent do her homework, prepare your home for maximum appeal and finally, DO price your home no higher than 2 to 3 percent of other comparable homes that have sold recently in your neighbourhood.

Or, like the unfortunate seller in Lawrence Park, you might be celebrating a ten-year anniversary, too!

(*) The photo shown above is not the home referred to in this article.

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