Pricing your home correctly is one of the most important tasks you’ll go through when selling your house. It’s tempting to price high – after all, aren’t many homes selling for more than asking price these days? – but doing so can immediately eliminate many prospective buyers.
That’s one reason you need a real estate expert to price your home correctly.
Pricing Your House Right Is Crucial Even in a Sellers’ Market
If you UNDERPRICE your house – you’re leaving money on the table. This decreases you future buying power. Too, prospective buyers may wonder what’s wrong, why it’s priced so low.
If you OVERPRICE your house – it’s likely to to take longer to sell. Some otherwise-qualified buyers may not even consider your house, because of the high price. And if you need to drop your asking price, people wonder why – is something wrong?
The current real estate market may be really good for sellers right now, but there’s no guarantee it will last. In fact, the current rate of demand and supply is likely to drop to more normal levels at some point in the near future.
What influences house prices?
It’s important to understand how and why house prices fluctuate. Two major influencers are demand and supply. When demand for a certain type of property is consistently high, house prices will rise. When supply is lower than demand, prices will drop. You need to understand the current demand for prices for YOUR type of house, in YOUR neighborhood, in TODAY’s market.
And the condition of your house also affects the value. What you like and are comfortable living with may not align with what sellers are looking for. Most want their new house to be move-in-ready. Oh, painting a few rooms to a preferred color may be okay, but the thought of replacing old pink and blue carpeting in the kid’s bedrooms may too daunting.
Frankly – sellers need to remove emotion from the equation, and that’s difficult.
It’s also important to remember that house prices are influenced by many other factors, too. (Time of year, size of town, school district, and so on.)
How a professional real estate advisor can help
Most real estate professionals have dealt with at least a few of these factors on some point, and know how they impact the worth of your home.
Real estate agents also have access to data that is difficult for the ordinary homeowner to find.
They can easily see what comparable homes are selling for in your area – what the asking price is, if the house sold, how long it took to sell, and what the price was.
They also talk to other realtors and selling agents, so they have a network of people to consult with about prices and demand.
Not only will working with an agent help you get the best price for your home, they can also help you get the best deal possible when negotiating the sale of your house. They know the ins and outs of the real estate business, and will know how to negotiate with buyers to get the best price.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that pricing your home correctly is one of the most difficult tasks you’ll go through when selling your house. You need to get the right price for your house, and list it at that “sweet spot” that makes it likely to sell quickly, at or above list price.
That’s why you need to be price-insensitive. When working with a real estate expert, they can help you price your home correctly.
