Pricing Your Home: How to Value Correctly

Originally posted on StuartDrossner.net

Accurately pricing your home can be a surprisingly difficult aspect of home sales, and it’s one that is often met with uncertainty, and thus mistakes. A common mistake made by individuals looking to sell their home is determining the price based on emotional connection or their personal experiences rather than actual market data. In order to correctly value your home and give yourself the best chances of making a sale, consider some of the following.

Realistic Pricing

While listing your home for more than it’s worth may seem like a clever way to increase your profits, it will often have adverse effects. While lowering an inflated price is a possibility, it can end up sacrificing the seller a decent amount. There are many factors that play into a home’s value rather than just its external and internal appearance.

For example, a home listed at $300,000 may be fair in the owner’s mind, but the market reality could be entirely different. The surrounding area has an enormous impact on a home’s worth. A lower-income neighborhood can bring the price down tremendously, and extend the time in which it takes the owner to sell. Consistently being forced to lower the price reflects poorly on the seller as well. Potential homebuyers will begin to wonder why the price continues to drop and look elsewhere.

Expert Assistance

Working alongside a real estate agent is a given for many people looking to sell their homes, but there are a few people who try to do so individually. For the best pricing strategy, allow a trained broker to use comparable sales. That is, to determine the best listing price for your home based on homes for sale that are nearly identical to your own. They’ll consider the floor plans, square footage, external and internal appearance, and more. In most cases, you will end up having your home listed at a price similar to or just under that of a home that sold with a similar layout.

Flexibility

Once your home is finally listed on the market, it is crucial to understand that the original price may change. Being stubborn in this sense will only result in unhappy parties on both sides of the sale. Buyers’ reactions are what will ultimately guide you and your agent to the fairest price, and again, the location plays a pivotal role in this as well.

Pricing your home according to cold, hard data is the surest way to reach a sale. Work with your real estate agent accordingly to determine a fair price for your home, taking in all factors for consideration. Only then will you have avoided the trouble of taking on this mammoth task yourself, resulting in the largest profit you can get.