buy 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.

Who will buy your home? Why is that important? Well, you want to make your home as appealing to your target market as possible. Now you have to stage it to sell. So, figure out who will buy your home.

How to figure that out depends on a few different variables. Things like your location and your price. Location is the biggest factor. Where is your home located? Is it in a city? A suburb? An up and coming neighborhood? An aging out neighborhood? Waterfront? Look around your neighborhood. Who do you see the most? Here’s how it all factors out. In the city you will probably be selling to young singles. In a suburb to families. In an up and coming neighborhood it could be either or young marrieds. In an aging out neighborhood either older couples, or young families. Waterfront to more affluent couples or families or boat lovers. Once you think it through, then you stage it appropriately. Singles or young marrieds, stage for things like entertaining space. For families, stage it to show how a family could use the space or to enhance the space for a growing family. For affluence, stage it to emphasize the high end upgrades. How you market your home matters.

The other consideration is the price you are asking for your home. Obviously you should price it appropriately for its market value. That said, if you want to market your home to get a particular kind of buyer, price it to attract them. If you want an affluent buyer, make sure you have the updates necessary, then price it in a bracket they will see. If you want singles, young families or first time buyers, then price it accordingly. Again, do so within the market value of the home, but if bumping it up just slightly to get a higher end buyer, or down to make it affordable for a young family, married couple or single, you can do that.

You can help determine who buys your home, just by thinking it through and staging it to appeal to that demographic and market your home correctly.