Value Range Marketing (VRM)

I think it’s wise for a seller of Las Vegas real estate to look at the value of their home as a value range, as opposed to just the appraisal value. The reason is simple; it creates reasonable expectations for the seller. When everyone is able to be reasonable, everyone has the opportunity to be pleased with the outcome.

The goal of VRM is to create a broader base of potential buyers!

I recently had a client selling a house in the Green Valley Ranch area of Henderson, Nevada. It was a beautiful house, a former model home. The most recently “sold” comparable properties in the subdivision sold for anywhere from $350,000 to $380,000. The most recent “active” comparable properties on the market were listed at prices ranging from $390,000 to $425,000, some of those asking prices being completely ridiculous. Knowing the activity that was taking place in the subdivision, I proposed the Value Range Pricing idea. I believe the property to be worth $370,000 on a bad day and $390,000 on an absolutely perfect day, both possibilities being completely reasonable considering what other properties had sold for. If my seller accepted an offer anywhere in between, it should be considered fair. The question was, how “fair” was it going to be?

We ended up getting multiple offers on the property and settling on a sales price of $385,000. Letting prospective buyers know the seller was serious about selling made a huge difference in the amount of showings, resulting in a multiple offer situation. The seller having reasonable expectations about what to expect, allowed them to make a decision they can live with for the rest of their lives.

There are some criticisms of this method of marketing Las Vegas real estate, the greatest being that when a seller shows their hand, the property won’t sell for as much as it could have otherwise. Many Las Vegas sellers tend to be a little on the greedy side. I can’t blame them, the Las Vegas real estate market has a reputation of being very HOT! No seller wants to leave any money on the table.

Here is the problem. One cannot calculate how many potential buyers did not even view the house simply because it was priced a few thousand dollars out of their price range. The goal of Value Range Marketing is to create a broader base of potential buyers. In order to have offers on the table, buyers have to first see the house. The result of Value Range Marketing is that buyers get into homes they would not ordinarily think are in their price range. Value Range Marketing does not obligate a seller to accept an offer - rather it allows the seller to entertain and counter offers within their range with an acceptable price and terms.

Value Range Pricing produces reasonable expectations of the seller. The end result is that a seller is able to sell the house for a reasonable price, a decision they can live with for the rest of their life.