Do’s and Don’ts for Pricing Your Home to Sell
Pricing your home correctly is critical to a successful sale. After all, you don’t want to list your house for just any price — you want to price it right.
Price your home too low and it will likely sell quickly, but for less than it could have sold for. Price your home too high and you risk sitting on the property for months — or worse, not selling it at all. Before you put your house on the market, here are eight rules that can help you sell your home for what it’s worth.
4 Pricing Strategies You Should Try
There are multiple benefits of hiring a real estate agent to help you sell your home. These trained professionals can guide you easily through the entire process, so selling your home can be one less thing you have to worry about.
1. Get an Accurate Comparative Market Analysis
One of the best ways to price your home is to compare it to similar properties on the market. A comparative market analysis (CMA) estimates your home’s value by assessing the following criteria:
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General area and specific location within a neighborhood
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Property characteristics (number of bedrooms, baths, size, age, views, etc.)
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Features and amenities
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Condition of your home
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Comparable sales
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Market conditions
In addition to a CMA, you’ll also want to consider a broad market overview when pricing your home. Research the total inventory of homes similar to yours and how long they have been on the market to determine a competitive price. Although all of these evaluations may seem tedious, doing your research before pricing your home will pay off in the end.
Try our free Home Valuation Tool to receive a home evaluation and see how much you can sell it for.
2. Leave Some Room for Negotiations
There’s no denying that potential buyers love to negotiate! Instead of listing your home at the absolute lowest or highest price you are willing to go, leave some room for these negotiations to occur. After all, there’s a difference between how much you can list your house for and how much you can actually sell it for. Listen to your real estate agent’s advice and remember that pricing is an ongoing discussion. Whether it be negotiations, changing market conditions, or new information, it is important to be flexible when pricing your home.
3. Price with Internet Browsing in Mind
Once you determine a price you’re happy with, it’s time to fine-tune it! Most buyers have a minimum and maximum price range they are willing and able to afford. It is important to keep these search parameters in mind as you choose a price for your home. Price your home at $300,000 and you could miss out on buyers who are searching in the $250,000 to $299,999 range. Even being a dollar outside of that range could prevent a potential buyer from finding your house online.
4. Choose the Right Real Estate Agent
Choosing the right real estate agent can greatly impact the success of your home on the market. With a real estate agent, you gain industry expertise, market knowledge, and pricing advice. An experienced agent will have a solid understanding of what the current market looks like and what buyers are searching for. Based on that knowledge, they’ll be able to help you come up with a pricing strategy that will sell your home fast — and for what it’s worth!
4 Pricing Strategies You Should Not Try
1. Don’t Overprice Your Home
A new listing generates excitement in the market, and overpricing your home can negatively impact its ability to sell. Your home will see the most activity during its first 30 days, which is also when you’re likely to receive the best offers. By overpricing your home, you miss out on the opportunity to make a good first impression right off the bat.
Eventually, your listing can become stale, which can be detrimental to the real estate industry. The longer your home sits on the market, the less negotiating leverage you’ll have. You’ll find yourself having to justify the price to a wary buyer — and in the end, an overpriced house will sell at less than market value.
Learn More: 6 Common Pricing Mistakes in Real Estate
2. Don’t Set a Price Based on Renovations
While you’ve lived in your home, you’ve likely spent time and money on updates with the intention they would eventually increase its resale value. However, many sellers tend to overvalue their homes by including the total amount they’ve invested in maintenance and improvements. Updates to your home do add value, but the return on investment isn’t necessarily dollar-for-dollar.
If you’re looking to increase your home’s resale value, don’t just make any renovations — make smart renovations. Simple updates to your home, such as new paint or floors, are typically cheap and can provide a high return on investment. Meanwhile, larger renovation projects — like remodeling the kitchen or adding a pool — are much more expensive and less likely to see a complete return on investment.
3. Don’t use Obscure Prices
There is a fair amount of psychology that goes into determining the listing price for a home. Sometimes, sellers like to get creative with their asking price — but these obscure numbers can be distracting! In the real estate industry, it is typical to round off asking prices in $5,000 increments. So if you’re considering pricing your home at $447,550, go ahead and either round up to $500,000 or down to $445,000.
4. Don’t Rely too Heavily on your Appraisal
An appraisal can be a great starting point for pricing your home, but that doesn’t mean it should set the exact selling price. Appraisals take factors like square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and size of the property into consideration. However, they fail to account for other equally important factors, such as your house’s location, quality of space, and flow of the floor plan. An appraisal is merely an opinion of your home’s value, so don’t rely too heavily on it.
Selling Your Home with a Redbud Group REALTORS®
If you want to sell your home quickly — and at the best price possible — you need an experienced real estate agent by your side. At The Redbud Group, we will confidently list your home at a price that you and potential buyers will both be comfortable with. Contact us to learn more about how one of our Redbud Group REALTORS® can assist you through the entire home-selling process. Click the button below to get started!
