Pricing your home
Choosing a sales price is one of the hardest parts of selling your home. Every situation is different and so a pricing tactic that works in one market might not work in a different market. Here are some pricing tips that can help you get the most out of your property.
What type of market are you in? It’s important to consider what’s going on in the local real estate market when you price your property. Is it a seller’s market, a buyer’s market, or is it well balanced?
If you’re in a strong Seller’s Market, the pricing strategy can be a little flexible. You may be able to aim a little high with your price, then if the house doesn’t sell, you can quickly reduce the price and try again before the house is considered “stale” and unattractive. You may also be able to price a little below the market and produce a competitive multiple offer situation where you can ultimately get more for the property than if you had originally priced it “at” market value.
While all three strategies are valid, we highly encourage either pricing at market value or just slightly below market value. Even in a Seller’s Market it can be risky to price the house too high. Usually once a group of buyers has seen a house and rejected it, they will not come back to it again, even if the price is reduced. Buyers inherently think that a house that has been sitting on the market for a while has “something wrong with it”. Instead Buyers will focus on the new listings. If it’s a Buyer’s Market you have to be much more careful with pricing. Buyers will be fickle and a house that is sitting on the market will become a target for low offers. Getting the price exactly right, or just a little below market value will be necessary to attract the motivated buyers.
What are your selling reasons and goals? It’s really important to keep clear goals in mind when you are selling a property. Are you selling in order to move to a new city? To make roomfor more family members? To live in a different neighborhood? To liquidate your assets? To downsize? You may decide to price lower if you have specific timelines that need to be met, or higher if you can only sell if you net a certain profit margin.
Your pricing strategy might also be different depending on your situation. Do you need to sell quickly in order to move away, buy another house, or invest the money in another opportunity? Or is the goal only to get the most money possible out of the sale no matter what it takes? Discussing your goals and concerns with your Home Team will help us decide the best pricing strategy for your property.