Pricing Your Home To Sell

After your home is prepared and ready to be listed for sale, the next and most important part of the process is pricing it properly.  Listing high and 'seeing what happens' is not a good idea.  Buyers are not interested in a home that is over priced.  What happens in this instance is the home sits on the market for a long time, then the price is lowered a bit, sits on the market again, then it is lowered, etc, etc.  Once the price gets to fair market value where it should have been priced to start, it is 'aged'.  Buyers are now wondering 'why has it been on the market so long'.   You can just about count on taking less for your home then you would have, had it just been priced properly to begin with. 

Another reason pricing high works against you is that buyers search in increments. For example, if they want to spend $225k, they may search up to $235k-$240k for negotiation purposes.  If your homes fair market value is $225k and you are priced at $265k, then your target market buyer is not finding your home and will not see it. 

The next important subject on pricing is bank appraisals.  Your buyer will more then likely be getting a home loan.  Their bank will send out an appraiser and the buyers loan terms are based on that appraised value.  If you were to some how find a buyer willing to pay too much, odds are the appraiser will not agree with that value.  They are comparing you to recent home sales in your neighborhood.  If the home does not appraise, the buyer cannot get the loan.

Buyers are very savvy.  With the Internet and research they are doing, they know prices in areas and neighborhoods of interest to them.  They will know if your home is priced too high and will not even go to see it.

I think you can agree that when your home does sell and you are searching for a new home to purchase, just ask yourself,  "do I want to pay far more for a home in a neighborhood then everyone else did; then what the home is really worth?"  I believe your answer would be 'No'.  Your potential buyer will not either.

Something to consider:  If your home will not quite yield the sales price you would like to get due to current market conditions; you should still consider selling if you will also be purchasing.  For example, if you are selling a $200k home (that a year ago you may have gotten $210k for), you may get $10k less, however, if you are moving up to a $400k home, you will get a savings on the buying end.  They to will be selling less then they did a year ago.  If you wait a year or two to get the extra $10k on the home you sell, a home in the $400k range will have gone up far more then $10k in value during that time span.

I will assist you in pricing your home properly to ensure a sale. I will review all data with you and do a complete market analysis, comparing your home to recent sales.  Call me when you are ready to Get Your Home Sold.