Selling Time and Selling Price: The Impact of Seller Motivation

Abstract

We consider the role that seller motivation plays in determining selling time, list price, and sale price. A new survey of home sellers suggests that sellers are heterogeneous in their motivation to sell. Our findings are that a seller who, at the time of listing, has a planned date to move sells more quickly than one who does not. Also, the shorter the planned time until a move at the time of listing, the shorter the actual duration of marketing time. We find that seller motivation affects sale price, but not the list price markup. Our results suggest that theoretical models of the housing search process should be recast to allow for heterogeneous sellers.

JEL Classification: D83, R21