Get help setting your price. One of the benefits of living in the information age, is having information at your fingertips--Do your own research on-line. Just keep in mind that information is generic, and may leave out context that you need in order to make a wise pricing decision.
Don't go in too high to start. Where this comes in to bite you...You will miss the power of the current market. If your home is worth $250,000, and you price yourself at $275,000, your home will be compared to other homes in the $275,000 range. The thought I often hear is, "well they can always make an offer", but many times savvy buyers don't. They also have the advantage of the Information age and know your home is not worth what you are asking; so rather than deal with a seller that is overpriced, will just move on to another home.
Remember, home searches start online; and homes are found easer by how they are organized online. Most home search systems will organize the homes that have in segments...$100,000/$115,000/$125,000 etc. ...or some variation of this system. Knowing this, will allow you to target your price to two buyer brackets at the same time. If you were to price your home at $199,000, buyers that were looking up to $200,000 would see the home, but buyers that were looking from $200,000 up would not see the home. If you price it at $200,000 even, you will be seen in both markets. Also, if the homes are being scrolled in order of price, you would like your home to come up first. Meaning if you're closer to an even amount it would "show up" first, because its closer to an even amount.
Don't fall into the "not in a rush to sell" trap. If you overprice the home because you're not in a hurry, you may miss the market and end up taking less money because the market has fallen rather than gone up--while this isn't a current trend, we aren't assured of anything in the real estate market. If you price the home where the market currently is, you may end up with multiple offers that will drive the price up because there are multiple buyers bidding at the same time. Buyers also know how long a house has been on the market, and may see you have been on for longer than the normal marketing time. This will cause them to offer less because they may assume there are problems with the home and may assume you are getting desperate to sell.
Stick to the numbers. What do I mean? One of the issues I have seen over the years is that sellers can become so emotionally involved in the sale, they have a hard time seeing the overall picture. This is where a Realtor can become a trusted sounding board to reorient. For instance, if an offer comes in low, it may be a bit of a blow. My usual advice is to not be upset at the buyers that write an offer--at least they wrote an offer--keeping in mind there may have been the buyers that went through the home and did not write an offer. A Realtor's job is to keep everything level in a transaction and try to keep emotions in their place. You work with what you have to meet the needs of the sale--sometimes that means a proper counter offer or even a rejection, but the Realtor is there to keep everything in perspective.
No matter how good a home is, homes don't sell themselves. They must be in proper condition for pricing, and it needs proper marketing to get traction to sell. Most of my sellers ask me to come for a pre-marketing meeting. In this meeting, I walk through the home and give advice on which areas to focus on for marketability. Marketing is where the rubber meets the road. I sell quite a few rural properties, and I advertise them in a much different way than my waterfront condos. You can be right on price and still miss the mark if you don't have the home in front of enough qualified buyers ready to make an offer. Real estate experience matters greatly, even in a seller's market.
Bring in a professional to make sure you get the most out of the sale of your home. There are many aspects that will make the home-selling process more pleasant and profitable. We can help you organize and bring order to what could be a chaotic home sale. From start to finish...buyer or seller...letting us help you through the process. Allowing you to put to work years of experience and training together to net you the most money, in the shortest time, avoiding the unnecessary pitfalls that may derail your dreams.
Skip Geiser
SkipSOLDMyHome.com with
Plum Tree Real Estate Marketing
850.221.6442
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