Step 1 -Pricing Your Home
Background
The pricing of your home is the most important part of the entire process. Price too high and buyers won’t give your property a second glance; price too low and you’ll have it sold in no time while effectively losing thousands of dollars you could have pocketed if the house had been priced correctly.
Remember, it’s just basic economics. Your home will only sell for the price a buyer is willing to pay, no higher. When you set the price for your home, it must be based on similar or comparable homes sold (comps) in the your real estate market. Depending on how soon you want it sold, you can price at market value or below market value.
Analysis
To do the research and analysis for pricing, you can use websites like zillow.com and filter results to be similar to your property and to see only sold properties. From there you can compare the similar properties that have sold, and adjust the price based on your added features or lack thereof.
This isn’t an exact science and it works best in neighborhoods where owners buy and sell more often, and in homes that are similar in style and size to other nearby homes. If you have a unique home in a unique location (like a custom waterfront home for example), it becomes more difficult to price, but a proper analysis is still the key.
Once you decide on a price it’s time for Preparing Your Home.