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Price Right to Sell When You Want

There are a relatively small number of factors that relate to how quickly a home will sell...and for how much. Let's take a quick look:

Location

There is not much you can do about the location of your home. There are some sub factors to look at when it comes to pricing such as: is your home similar to other homes in the area, is it convenient to major areas of industry or employment, and so forth. But for the sake of the sale of your home, location is what it is.

Size

This is another factor that - without a whole lot of work - you can't do much to change. In relation to the sale of your home, it must be viewed as a constant.

Price

Here's a big secret that most sellers do not consider. Home sellers don't determine value, the market determines value. If you set your price too low, you'll cost yourself money. If you set your price too high, you'll cost yourself money. We can help you strategize to price your home to get the most possible.

Marketing

Your agent determines the marketing strategy for your home. That's why it's so important to make sure that you select an agent who is going to do more for you than just put a sign in the yard and your listing in the MLS.

Condition

This is the one factor in your home sale that you can control completely. A home in great condition and properly staged packs a big emotional wallop. We can let you know what to do to make sure you take advantage.

Here are a few issues that will not - or at least should not - affect the price of your home:

• How much you paid - Hopefully every time you sell a home, you'll be able to realize a gain. Don't rely on some equation for annual appreciation though. The newspaper may be reporting a general percentage of appreciation in your area, but values vary on a house by house basis. Don't let your home sale get tripped up by making too much of it.
  
• Some updates - Some updates add to a home's value in terms of resale, and some do not. For example, you bought a home with an unfinished basement and you had it professionally finished. Most buyers will agree that adds value to a home because it adds living space. It is likely that will result in you being able to ask a higher sales price than if your basement was still unfinished.
  
  On the other side of the spectrum, suppose you installed a specialized high-dollar water filtration system. There was not a problem with the water before, but having filtered water is important to you so you decided to buy the best system on the market. Now some buyers may consider that a benefit for which they are happy to pay more money.
  
  However, many buyers will think that a water filtration system is nice to have, but will not see it to be as valuable as you do, and hence will not be willing to pay more for your house with a filtration system than the house down the street without one.
  
• How much you need to get - If you're selling your home, you'll probably be purchasing another home. A mistake that some home sellers make is determining the asking price for their current home by looking at what they would like to put into their next home.
  
  How much you will net from the sale of your home is an important thing to consider, but don't let it motivate you to set your price too high or it will cost you in the long run.

Beware of setting your price too high. Here are a few common arguments:

• "I am going to set my price 'X' dollars higher than I want to get so I will have some negotiating room"
• "A buyer can always make an offer"
• "It won't hurt to start out at a higher price, I can just lower it later"

They all make sense on the surface. Realtors have discovered over the course of many years that they do not hold to be true. Here's a few reasons why.

• If you price your home higher than market value, you'll miss buyers that are looking in the price range that your home should be in. Instead, you'll be getting looks from buyers looking in that higher price range. Your home will not compare well to the other homes that are listed for the same as yours, but priced appropriately.
  
• Most buyers don't look at homes that are priced over what they want to spend, with the idea that they can make an offer at significantly less than the asking price.
  
• If you start out at a high price with the thought to lower it later, you have missed your home's first few weeks on the market when the activity and interest level will probably be the highest. It was exposed to the buyers on the market at an unrealistic price and they will probably not come back to revisit your home as a possibility, even if you lower your price.
  
• If your home stays on the market for a long time before you lower your price, it may cause buyers to wonder what is wrong with your house.

Keep in mind that a higher sales price may not mean a higher amount of net proceeds in the end. Consider the costs of carrying your house ...especially if you move into your next house before your current one is sold. Mortgage payment, maintenance, and insurance add up. Those costs could end up wiping out any profit you realize from a sale at a higher price.

The items mentioned above are certainly not an exhaustive list of issues. If you're considering selling, we would love an opportunity to earn your trust and your business. Part of our presentation involves an evaluation of what small changes you could make to improve your home's showability, and a detailed analysis of pricing. Give us a call, or send us an email.