Pricing Your Home For Sale

What determines the maximum amount for a home on the market?

That is the question that each seller must go over with their agent. A lot of factors come into play and not just location. Square footage, year built, upgrades, and homes recently sold in the area are just a few things to take into consideration when setting a price for your home. Is it a sellers or buyers market? What are the current mortgage rates? How fast are homes selling in the last month or week? Are sellers getting asking or having to come down on their price. How many homes listed have lowered their prices? How many homes listed got over asking?

All the factors mentioned above will give you and your agent a better snapshot at what you can ask for without having your home sit on the market or worse, having to drop the price after it has sat on the market. The two most common reasons that sellers will not get asking price is having it sit on the market too long, and second, having to drop the price to sell it. Buyers see this and somehow collectively take advantage of these factors. That is why setting the right price at the beginning will make all the difference. It is the most important thing you will do to be able to not have to leave money on the table.

More things to consider

The second thing to take into consideration is how your real estate agent can help you, not only set the best price, but also bring in buyers. Create buzz for the home, get the ball rolling with the marketing, getting the offers coming in and create a buying frenzy over your property. Even in a seller’s market, you still need to be competitive.

An agent will give you a comparative market analysis and explain each home that is analyzed in it and how it pertains to your property. The agent will have access to numbers that are not yet available in the monthly reports that appraisers use. Any changes in the market should be communicated to you at the beginning so you have the most up to date information at your disposal to make the best decision possible.

Here is what will be included in your comparative market analysis:

1. The sale prices for similar homes nearby in the past few months or month and weeks.
2. Listing prices for competing homes on the market.
3. List of asking prices for homes that were either taken off the market or dropped.
4. Average number of days a home sits on the market at various price points.
5. The average of list price vs. closed price of the homes that have sold in the area.

Choosing the right agent for you

Your agent will factor in all of these issues and communicate this to you in the context of your local market conditions. This includes whether home prices are rising, falling, or sitting. Your agent should be able let you know, via the numbers, if it is a seller’s market, buyer’s market, or if it is on the cusp of a buyers or seller’s market.

When you choose the right agent to help you sell your home, you will have not only his or her advice but you should also have the numbers and reports to make you feel comfortable and confident that your home will sell at the price you expect or more.

After you have made the decision on the price and signed the paperwork, you are ready to get your home ready for buyers by staging it, cleaning it, or doing a DIY Staging. You can download my guide DIY staging here to learn more.

Please read Marketing Your Home for Sale to see everything that is included when you sign up with me.