There are few things in life more stressful than selling a home—especially in the difficult housing market of the last few years. There are a few things you can do, though, to make the process easier and faster. One of the most obvious is to price it right.
Think about the last time you were house hunting. You probably had a good idea of the floor plan you wanted, how many bedrooms and bathrooms you needed, and how big of a lot you were looking for. However, your make-it-or-break-it-criteria wasn’t any of those things. It was most likely price. Pricing a home too high or too low can make it nearly impossible to sell because it will turn off prospective buyers before they even get a chance to look at any other details of your home.
The biggest mistakes people make when pricing a home are:
1) Using poor comparables. Looking at comparable properties is usually the first step in establishing a price for you home. Whether you are using a realtor or selling your home yourself you need to look at homes in your direct neighborhood that are the same square footage, floor plan, and age and determine how much they sold for and are currently valued at. This is information that is all available through public records, but many people prefer to use websites like Zillow.com (LINK: www.zillow.com), realtor.com (www.realtor.com), or trulia.com (www.trulia.com). These websites are sometimes notorious for undervaluing or overvaluing things so it’s best to compare across all three.
2) Pricing too low. Think about pricing your house like posting something on Craigslist. If you post a couch for free people will usually assume it’s junk and avoid it. However, list that same couch at $50 and you’ll start getting calls. Your home is the same. If you lowball yourself people will assume there’s something wrong with it and avoid it altogether. People value what they pay for.
3) Pricing too high. That being said, don’t price too high. People also won’t take you seriously if you price your home well above its value and the price of comparables. Even if you’ve upgraded your flooring, patio, and bathrooms you can’t add the cost of those upgrades into the asking price of your home. Remember, though, people will always be looking to haggle the price down a few thousand dollars so it’s okay to inflate the price a little.
Also, when pricing your home figure out how much equity you need to be able to take with you so you can purchase your next home or investment. That will give you a good range to work within.
How did you decide on your home’s asking price? Share your tips!
Do you have a piece of property (house, lot, or land) you’d like to sell fast? Fill out our Sell Fast Form and get a cash offer within one hour of us viewing the property.
