A Guide To Selling Your Home-Part 4: Determining The Right Price
When you are ready to sell your home, determining the right price is the most important factor in the home selling process. Today’s homebuyers are well educated and are quite aware of the comparable sales in the area.
Putting a price tag on a home you want to sell is a tricky thing. There are two important factors to consider here: the asking price for your home and what they are currently being marketed for. No matter what you paid originally for your home, plus a little extra amount due to price appreciation, market values fluctuate—both up and down. If you put a wrong price, the consequences could be that your home could languish on the market for months and may not sell at all.
We try to guide you here by showing some ways to help you determine how much you should put your house on the market for:
Consult your estate agent
After carefully choosing an estate agent, consult your agent and ask for expert advice about a realistic asking price of your home. Invite your friends, neighbors and, estate agent to your home, so, they can factor in your home’s unique strengths and weaknesses to come to a better estimate. Read the newspapers and go to online real estate sites to see comparable homes in your area. This will provide first-hand knowledge on homes that are available for sale in your neighborhood.
Get a fair home upgrades appraisal
Regardless of how well you renovate and stage your home, it is still important to price the home appropriately. Besides, you can include the cost which incurs particularly when aesthetic and other significant home improvements are made. Before your appraisal, make a list of recent improvements to your home, including everything from renovating the kitchen to painting your garage. Ask your real estate agent to tag these along on the appraisal. Surveys show that your return on investment for home improvements depends on what kind of renovation you’ve carried out.
Get into your competition.
To make your home competitive, have a look at prices of similarly sized homes in your neighbourhood. Ask your broker or agent to get you the sales prices of the similar homes that have sold in your area in the recent past or so. Look into the competition in your area yourself and also check it with your broker or agent about the price, type of sale and condition of the other homes your home is up against. Moreover, it is important to keep the listing price in line with other comparable homes in the market.
Buyer’s Negotiation
Buyers usually love to negotiate when you’re trying to sell your home. They try to negotiate below the asking price. So, instead of starting out with the absolute lowest price you can afford to go, add a bit of a cushion. Try to go 5-10 % below that when you set your home’s list price.
Once you have reached a final asking price of your home, it’s time to fine-tune it. Keep homebuyers’ online search parameters in mind. A small difference in the asking price can make a big difference in your exposure.
Ajay Verma, founder, and writer of The Housing World, a real estate and mortgage news website. He has over fifteen years of rich experience in the above-mentioned industries.
