Stix ‘n Brix

I was a lucky little boy. My father and two big brothers all took time to play with me, and in the process taught me the skills of boyhood: Football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and more. They were my first, and best, coaches.

One of the most important baseball skills they taught me was how to field a ground ball. Retrieving a small, hard object that’s rapidly bouncing and rolling in your general direction is a major challenge for a five year old, and the secret to success involves doing something that’s counter to an already well-developed instinct for self-preservation: You have to put yourself in front of the ball.

Try to grab a grounder from the side as it passes you by, and it’s sure to take an errant bounce just as you reach for it. Chase it down from behind and eventually you’ll catch it, but by then even the slowest base runner will have circled the diamond and be trading high-fives with his team mates. No, if you want to make the play, you’ve got to put yourself in that nasty little sphere’s path and wait for it to come to you.

Real estate markets often move like ground balls. They jump in fits and starts, but in pretty much one general direction. The probability that you’ll price your property perfectly when you first put it on the market are a slim as your chances of grabbing a grounder from the side. The faster the market is changing, the more likely you are to miss.

Chasing the market from behind doesn’t work either, though pricing below a rising market can be a necessary evil if a quick sale is critical. Trying to extract the highest price in a declining market, however, is a ticket to disaster. Like chasing that grounder, every time you stop to grab it, you  find that it’s moved just beyond your reach. You may eventually catch it, but you’ll lose significant time and money.

Far better to get in front of the market. For sellers in rising markets this is easy and fun. Just price at a slight premium to the market and wait. Chances are the higher price will more than cover your carrying costs.

But sellers in a declining market find this a lot harder to do, like a little boy putting his body in the ball’s path. It takes guts, but it’s the only way to make the play in time. Sellers in a down market need to ask themselves “Do I want to take a little less now, or a lot less later?”

Do you want to sell your house? Get in front of the ball.