I’ve been selling real estate in Park City for almost 23 years and have been through several boom and bust cycles. Each feels different and today’s real estate market presents its own challenges. This past ski season brought a warm winter, and buyers of ski condos did not visit, which is one of the reasons we saw a 16-year low in condo sales in Quarter 1 of this year.
This blog summarizes real conversations I have had with real clients this year. These stories illustrate what is happening in our market and how best to navigate it, whether you are planning to buy or sell a home in the Park City real estate market this year.
Question: I was considering listing with an agent who is an “Instagram Influencer” who has a significant number of followers and reach on their platform. I think my property has a good chance of selling this way.
Answer: Our real estate collective utilizes social media to promote our listings and has sold a few this way. Social media seems to work when someone who is connected to us sees and shares your property with someone they know who would be a good fit. We recently had the experience of posting a video on Instagram that went viral. It received over 1 million views and 17,000 likes, 525 comments and 16,000 shares.
Guess what? All that attention did not garner one offer. The people who commented were not in the market for a $5 million home in Park City. We focus on proven targeted marketing strategies. We want your home to be the star, not us.
Question: My neighbor’s property sold for $1,850,000 two months ago. It is smaller than mine, doesn’t show as well, and the remodel is not nearly as extensive. Do you think I can get $2.5 million for mine?
Answer: There is no question that your condo is superior. Would a buyer pay $650,000 (35%) more for it? That seems like a stretch. We recommend utilizing the new MLS status available to us called “delayed marketing.” This allows us to advertise your property in a limited scope to Park City agents, and they, in turn, can notify their clients about your property. It allows us to “test” the list price without accumulating days on market on the MLS or other sites such as Zillow and Realtor.com, and without wide syndication. We are starting to utilize this strategy when the list price is not clear or the timing is not right.
Question: I own a ski-in/ski-out condo at Canyons Village. Do you think I should list it now?
Answer: We are currently in “mud” season, in between our ski and summer seasons. The town is pretty empty and buyers are sparse. We would recommend the “delayed marketing” approach described above. This will allow us to get the word out about your listing without racking up days on market when there are few buyers in town.
Question: My listing is getting thousands of views on Zillow and several “favorites” and “saves”, yet showings are sparse.
Answer: Many of the Park City area buyers are relocating from other areas or looking for second homes. They are starting their search online before their planned visit. It’s great news that your home is garnering attention and saves, and this should lead to showings once the market picks up.
Question: I want to sell my condo, but I know that there are some deferred maintenance and code violations. What is the best way to handle this?
Answer: In 2020-21, we had a rapidly appreciating market and buyers were willing to take on deferred maintenance and projects, knowing the market would appreciate enough to support those investments. Today, appreciation has leveled off and buyers are nervous about over-investing in improvements. They want a turnkey property that functions as intended. In fact, buyers are pickier today than they have been in years.
To sell your property as quickly as you can and for the highest price, you should repair anything that is broken before going to market. Otherwise, be prepared to take the risk of scaring off a buyer because there are too many required repairs, or to drastically renegotiate the price.
Question: I don’t “have to sell” and want to make sure my property fetches a price that will pay off my mortgage and allow me to purchase my next property in cash.
Answer: Buyers determine value based upon recent sales that are similar to your property. What you owe, how much you need, what you paid for your property and what you spent improving it do not determine the value. Likewise, realtors do not determine the value of your property. It is our job to ascertain a list price that will make sense to a buyer. But the market can sometimes prove us wrong. If you are underpriced, you will get multiple offers. If you are overpriced, you may or may not get showings and you won’t get offers.
Question: Why can’t we price our home on the higher side? Won’t a buyer make an offer if they like the home? Won’t the buyer just write a lower offer?
Answer: In our experience, when the average list/sale price is 95%, buyers are hesitant to write offers below 90% of the list price. They will just think you are an unrealistic seller and move on to a different property. Getting the list price right is essential. The data shows that the longer you are on the market, the lower the price you will get. If you overprice your home, you will actually lose both time and money.
It will be interesting to see how things evolve in Quarter 2. I’ll post another Q & A to let our readers know if things have changed. In the meantime, if you have questions about your home, any of the experienced, excellent realtors at Inside Park City Real Estate will be glad to have a conversation with you.