price

You’ve been thinking of listing your home for sale. If you want to sell there are a few things that you need to keep your attention focused upon. One is condition, one is price and the last is return on investment.

Condition of your property

The first thing you need to pay attention to is the condition of your property. Does it need updating? Walk from room to room and look with a critical eye.

Don’t look at it as your home with all the memories attached, look at it as if you are buying it. Would you pay top dollar? If not, make a list of things that need fixing, touching up and updating.

Ideas for updates

Take tours of model houses and see what types of finishes are in demand. Maybe they won’t be in your budget, but you will have ideas and can see if you can find a way to do something similar to your home. Then talk to a Realtor about what updates will bring you a good return on your investment. Remember, not all updates bring extra money, so be smart about where and what you are spending.

All of those lead to price considerations

If you don’t have the money to make big updates then ask that Realtor what the current value of your home could be. If that satisfies you, great. If not, then ask what is absolutely necessary to fix to get a better value. If you aren’t worried about budget as much, then your best bet is to ask your Realtor what is best to be done to get a great price, but not price your home out of the neighborhood.

Keep these things in mind and you’ll have the best outcome for your home!

Pricing your home correctly when you first put it on the market is very important. Starting out with the right price will mean the difference between selling quickly and possibly not selling at all.

So why does overpricing sabotage selling your home?

Let’s start with the fact that the buyers who can buy your home won’t even see it unless the price is right, and those who will see it are looking for something in that actual higher price range. When buyers look for a home they choose a price range from the highest their budget will allow to the lowest price that represents the quality of home they want. No matter if they search the internet first, or just contact a realtor to assist them, if your home is slightly overpriced, it won’t show up in that range.

Perception and market timing

Second, the market for a newly listed home is the most active in the first 30 days. Even if you think that you can drop your price later, you won’t be willing to drop your price for at least 90 days, meaning you miss the hot selling period. It gets even worse. Remember, even if you have the most fantastic house on the block, the longer it sits the more people think something is wrong with it. Perception is everything. If it was so great it would have sold already, right? Maybe not, but that’s what sellers are thinking. Even an inkling that something might be wrong and they look elsewhere and won’t buy your home. There goes your chance to get market value!

Lower offers or market value

Guess what else will happen? That idea that overpricing it will get you at least market value is also wrong. After you drop to a more reasonable price that time on the market will mean that people will offer even lower. You’ll be so tired of trying to sell it that you’ll take less. Price it right the first time and that is much less likely to happen.