Pricing your home is always tricky. If you price it really well, you get an offer fast and end up thinking that the price was too low. You have regrets and feel that you lost out. On the flip side if you price too high then you wait and wait and no offers come and you end up reducing it, sometimes many times, and that causes it to have stigma on the market, not to mention the extra carrying costs and delay of your plans to move by a certain time.
Pricing your home should never involve emotion to start with. The actual sales figures of comparable homes will give you a realistic gauge as to where you need to price. The mistake sellers make is that they refuse to see that the comparable homes they need to consider are homes in their area and generally the same square footage. Often sellers will say “well that home doesn’t have an extra shed or big trees, or it’s a 100 sq. ft. smaller” or my favorite… “our kitchen was updated 15 years ago”.
It is a mistake to think this way.
Your home, great as it is, is only a product for sale on the market. Buyers look at the whole market when buying. Buyers consider all homes in a $10-50K price range and they look at all factors like renovations VS age, size VS location, etc.
Buyers shop the same way you do when you are a buyer. Think about that for a moment.
Your home needs to be looked at realistically with an open mind and all factors need to be considered. You have to put yourself in the buyers’ shoes and ask yourself…what would I want if I was looking in this price range? In this area?
It may help you to surf the net and see your competition or book appointments to go view those homes. Then you will get a real taste of what options are available to your buyer….and you will know where you really stand on price. You may be surprised to learn that there are way nicer places out there than yours….and you may even find yourself thinking about how great it would be to have one of THOSE HOUSES.
But wait….remember that YOUR BUYER is also touring those houses and guess what?? They will buy one of them if yours isn’t up to snuff.
Pricing goes a long way in obtaining enough interest to generate an offer.
Pricing needs to consider the location, the neighborhood, the condition, the presentation of the home, the size, the renovations and the current housing market. Buyers use a mental checklist as they view homes and basically you want your house to “check all the boxes.”
What are the boxes?
- Best Price in our Tour
- Best location
- Best first impression
- Best layout for our needs
- Close to the school we want
- Newly renovated
- Fresh Paint
- Big closets/ storage
- Clean
- Repairs up to date
- New windows or furnace/ roof
- Nice yard
- “We can see ourselves living here”
The goal in pricing is to know what you’re up against with competition and then beat that, simple as that.
It does not mean that you price lower…it means your offerings are better and your price lines up with that.
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