Market price for my home in New Hampshire

[Rebecca Hopkins]

I am hoping to confirm whether my listing is priced properly for my market. It is very unique as it is a custom contemporary ranch on 25 acres that include a portion of a large beaver pond. It is 13 years old and has two bedrooms, two baths, an attached 2-car garage, a fireplace, a wrap-around mohagony deck with a screen porch, central air, 1,760 sq. Ft of living space, and an unfinished walkout basement. It is close to Manchester, NH, and commuting distance to Boston. The coast is 30 minutes away, and the White Mountains can be reached in 11/2 hours. It has a 5-person septic, and a 500-gallon propane tank. It is at the end of a Class VI road and no neighbors are visible. There is a nice Semi-Private Golf Course down the road.  If anyone can suggest a value based on experience. I was going to include the Zillow listing link but it looks like it might not be permitted because it has contact information. Thank you for any thoughts.

RH

[Richard Dale-Mesaros]

Makes sense to use a GOOD local Realtor, preferably one with a lot of transactions under their belt and competence when it comes to properties with more land (make sure they are willing to walk the entire lot, to identify any special features!). Look at their current listings and decide if they seem able to represent your property in the right light, should you decide to list it.......

There are several things you can use to weigh up value including:

1) Town assessment (this is one real estate professional's opinion of value...)

2) Current similar listings (what are you competing with and at what price level should you pitch your property?) 

3) Similar recent comps (what might the market bear for yours, although it may be hard to find many that are only 2 bedrooms on a big lot that are of more recent construction, so some adjustments may need to be employed to allow for differences in sf and age etc...) - go drive by the most comparable three properties to compare locations/settings.

4) Appraisal (have you had one done recently?)

5) Other homes that have sold off the MLS in your town(s) - town offices all have files of sales for each year, some of which will have occurred without being listed and you may find one or two like yours in there.

6) Dollars per SF comparison with the comps - take an average $/sf number from the comps you find and multiply that number by your square footage to come up with a number on yours.

7) What would yours cost to build today? Used homes at the moment represent a much better value than building new....... although not super-relevant, it's handy to know this.

8) Zillow's 'Zestimate' (can be accurate, can be WAY off.....) - many buyers try to use this as leverage to try and substantiate their low offer if the Zestimate is on the low side.

When you say 'priced properly', think about how that factors into your needs - do you need it sold in a month or can you wait six months? Are you trying to get as close to the top of the suggested price range as possible? What are the factors about your home that will push it higher up the range (big lot, privacy....) and are there any negatives that will pull it lower (only 2 brms, under 2000sf etc). Try to be as realistic as possible with your starting point - if you start too high, you risk it sitting and becoming a stale listing, plus when buyers see how crazy-high you started out, they may tend to be less flexible when you need them to be during the negotiation phases (offer, inspections, appraisal, final walk through, closing day.....). 

Hope this gives you some food for thought, Rebecca and good luck  :)