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At What Price
Should I Sell my Home
In
setting the list price for your home, you should
be aware of a buyer’s frame of mind.
Based on a list of houses for sale in your
neighborhood (which can be in the form of a
printed list from us, or online search results
that you’ve found yourself), buyers will
determine which houses they want to view.
Consider the following pricing factors:
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If you set the price too high, your house
won’t be picked for viewing, even though it
may be much nicer than others in the area.
You may have told a REALTOR®® to "Bring me any
offer. Frankly, I’d take less." But in that
list of houses, yours simply looks too
expensive to be considered.
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If you price too low, you'll short-change
yourself.
Your house will sell promptly, yes, but before
it has time to find the buyer who would have
paid more.
NOTE:
Never say "asking" price, which implies you
don't expect to get it.
To determine the proper list price,
contact me and I will provide you with the
following professional services:
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Furnishing comparable sales.
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Analyzing market conditions.
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Helping to determine offering incentives.
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Estimating your net proceeds.
Using
Comparable Sales
No matter how attractive
and polished your house, buyers will be
comparing its price with everything else on the
market. Your best guide is a record of what the
buying public
has been willing to pay
in the past few months for property in your
neighborhood like yours.
I can furnish data on sale figures for those
"comps", and analyze them for a suggested
listing price. The decision about how much to
ask, though, is always yours. The list of
comparable sales I bring to you, along
with data about other houses in your
neighborhood presently on the market, is used
for a "Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)."
To help in estimating a possible sale price for
your house, the analysis will also include data
on nearby houses that failed to sell in the past
few months, along with their list prices.
This CMA differs from a formal appraisal in
several ways. One major difference is that an
appraisal will be based only on past sales.
In addition, an appraisal is done for a fee
while the CMA is provided by us and may include
properties currently listed for sale and those
currently pending sale.
In the normal home sale, a CMA is probably
enough to let you set a proper price. A
formal written appraisal (which may cost a few
hundred dollars) can be useful if you have
unique property, if there hasn't been much
activity in your area recently, if co-owners
disagree about price, and any other circumstance
that makes it difficult to put a value on your
home.
NOTE: If you do order a market
value appraisal, make it clear
you don't need an elaborate, or full narrative
report--the
kind that's complete with photos of the house
and neighborhood, a map specifying the site, and
floor plans is sufficient. |
