Coldwell Banker Real Estate Finds When It Comes to Selling, Money Doesn't Always Talk Loudest

MADISON, N.J., June 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- America has entered a new era of home selling. A survey of home sellers by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, the original San Francisco real estate start-up founded in 1906, found that since 2014, more than one in four sellers nationally sold their home in less than two weeks. Yet despite a preponderance of multiple bids and offers above asking price, today's home sellers are twice as likely to choose an offer based on emotion rather than money alone, compared to pre-recession years.

"There is a notable difference in seller psychology today compared to 10 years ago," said Budge Huskey, president and chief executive officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. "The national housing market has changed significantly over the past decade, and seller sentiments have evolved. Home sellers often want to feel emotionally connected to the buyer. These findings should give solace to buyers in highly competitive markets who may present a compelling story as to why they should be the next owners of the home."

The survey of approximately 1,500 home sellers analyzed trends over the following time periods:

• 2014-2015 - Recent Years (Sellers Today)
• 2010-2013 - Initial Recovery Years
• 2008-2009 - Recession
• 2006-2007 - Pre-Recession
• 2005 and Earlier

The Emotional Shift
Prior to the recession, roughly 20 percent of sellers accepted an offer based on emotion rather than money alone. From 2006 to now, that number rose steadily to 36 percent: an 89 percent increase in the nearly 10 year span (see chart).

"While housing has clearly steadied, we have all wondered how the recession might impact home sellers, and we now have additional insight," Huskey said. "During this recovery, sellers are more aware that their home, which played such a critical role in their lives, will have the same emotional impact on the next occupants. Today, they have more information than ever and want to more actively participate in the sale of their home."

Other Key Survey Findings

• Homes going faster than they can say "sold." More than one in four sellers today (28 percent) sold their home in less than two weeks. This is a notable difference from even pre-recession years, where only 19 percent of homes sold this quickly. 
• Multiple offers are back on the table. Compared to the initial recovery years, more sellers are receiving multiple offers (47 percent versus 40 percent). 
• Once again getting offers above asking price. During the recession, sellers were half as likely to receive an offer above asking price. But in the past five years, it has bounced back to pre-recession levels (27 percent today and 28 percent during the initial recovery years, compared to 14 percent during the recession).
• No longer feel the need to take the first offer. During the recession and initial recovery years (59 percent and 58 percent respectively), significantly more sellers took first offers than today. Now, only 46 percent take the first offer, a 22 percent decrease.

The full survey results can be found here. 

In addition to the survey, Coldwell Banker Real Estate is going behind-the-scenes on what it's like to sell in a hot market with a five-part series this month on Apartment Therapy called Selling in Seattle.

Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States between April 27-29 & April 28-30, 2015 among 4,023 adults (aged 18 and over) among whom 1,545 are selling/ever sold a home by Harris Poll on behalf of the Coldwell Banker brand via its Quick Query omnibus product. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, the words "margin of error" are avoided as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The data has been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC
Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker® organization has been a premier provider of full-service residential and commercial real estate brokerage services. Coldwell Banker Real Estate is the oldest national real estate brand and franchisor in the United States, and today has a network of approximately 3,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 43 countries and territories with more than 86,000 independent sales professionals affiliated with the network.  The Coldwell Banker brand is known for creating innovative consumer services as recently seen by being the first national real estate brand with an iPad app, the first to augment its website www.coldwellbanker.com for smart phones, the first to create a iPhone application with international listings and the first to fully harness the power of video in real estate listings, news and information through its Coldwell Banker On Location^SM YouTube channel.  The Coldwell Banker System is a leader in niche markets such as resort, new homes and luxury properties through its Coldwell Banker Previews International® marketing program delivering exceptional experiences for all consumers served.

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SOURCE Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC