What is the Right Price for Your Property?

Deciding on price is the single most crucial step in preparing your home for sale. There are numerous factors which go into this decision. The price decision can enhance, or severely limit the return on investment, and timeframe for the sale.

Strategy

• Depends on the market conditions at the time your home is put up for sale
• A well-priced home often sells quickly once placed on the market
• When your home is priced right from the start, you maximize your opportunity to reach the most qualified buyers
• Over-pricing a property increases the risks; qualified buyers who would otherwise find your home is just what they are looking for won’t see it because it is priced outside their range.
• Agents will hesitate to show an over-priced home, unless it will make one of their competing properties look better
• Under-pricing your home could cost you thousands of dollars of your family’s largest investment

Market Activity vs. Time

• A home receives its highest exposure during the first three (3) to five (5) weeks on the market
• Multiple Listing Services (MLS) statistics show that the longer a home “sits” on the market, the lower the eventual selling price

Your Unique Selling Proposition

• I’ll help you market your home based on understanding what makes it stand apart, or on which specific ‘slice’ of buyers will be most interested. We wouldn’t actively market a two-bedroom home to a family of 6, would we?
• We have to understand who your best potential buyers are, and make sure that the price range decision includes them

Your needs and goals

This is the most important ingredient in the pricing recipe.  A good REALTOR® will give you a range of pricing options based on the market conditions and their opinion of your home.  Depending on the neighborhood and your home's general "showability" this range could be fairly wide.  WHERE in the range you choose to price your home is ultimately your decision and should be based on your needs and goals.

Is there a "bottom line" to what you need to net from the sale
to make your next move?

Do you need to sell your home quickly?  

Is it important that the family move together? 

Can you afford to make two mortgage payments?

The above are all reasons to price your house competitively; perhaps at the middle to lower end of the range given to you by your agent.  This pricing stragegy increases the perception that your home is a VALUE buy in relation to the others in the same general categories.

Remember that when we search for homes, we use price as a key criteria.  Often, there are thresholds (emotional AND hard-line financial limits) to set the search.  Look at the various real estate search engines on-line (Realtor.com for example); they have an incremental step Minimum/Maximum price wired into their search.  You want to make sure that YOUR price is within the window that your buyer will be looking!  For example, most first time home buyer's will probably be looking in a range under $140,000.  If you price your home at $142,000, your buyer might NEVER SEE IT!

On the other hand:

Do you have the luxury of time?

  Is there little or no impact to NOT selling your home at this time? 

Would you reject an offer that was near your target price, because it is more important for you to get that price than get the house sold?

These are all signs of an "unmotivated seller."  There is a danger here in taking all the steam out of your marketing efforts.  Nice homes tend to sell quickly, soon after coming on the market.  If a home has been on the market a long time without selling buyers wonder "WHY?".  The probability that you will receive a low ball offer also increases with time on the market.  

The cases where this might be a good stragegy are essentially when you expect that the market will "catch up" to you by the time you reach the point where you "NEED" to sell.  However, if any of the above truly apply, you may be better off NOT SELLING!  Wait until you reach the point where you can work with a qualified agent you trust to set the right price, do the things you need to do to get the home sold, and do so assertively.