Pricing Makes Perfect

Setting the Listing Price

In setting the list price for your home, you should be aware of a buyer’s frame of mind. Based on a list of houses for sale in your neighborhood (which can be in the form of a printed list from us, or online search results that you’ve found yourself), buyers will determine which houses they want to view. Consider the following pricing factors:

• If you set the price too high, your house won’t be picked for viewing, even though it may be much nicer than others in the area. You may have thought, "Bring me any offer. Frankly, I’d take less." But in that list of houses, yours simply looks too expensive to be considered.
• If you price too low, you'll short-change yourself. Your house will sell promptly, yes, but before it has time to find the buyer who would have paid more.

To determine the proper list price, contact me today and I'll provide you with the following professional services:

• Furnishing comparable sales.
• Analyzing market conditions.
• Helping to determine offering incentives.
• Estimating your net proceeds.

Using Comparable Sales

No matter how attractive and polished your house, buyers will be comparing its price with everything else on the market. Your best guide is a record of what the buying public has been willing to pay in the past few months for property in your neighborhood like yours.

Also I can furnish data on sale figures for those "comps", and analyze them for a suggested listing price. The decision about how much to ask, though, is always yours. The list of comparable sales I bring to you, along with data about other houses in your neighborhood presently on the market, is used for a "Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)." To help in estimating a possible sale price for your house, the analysis will also include data on nearby houses that failed to sell in the past few months, along with their list prices - and this is FREE - from me, to you.

This CMA differs from a formal appraisal in several ways. One major difference is that an appraisal will be based only on past sales. In addition, an appraisal is done for a fee while the CMA is provided by me at no charge,  and will include properties currently listed for sale and those currently pending sale - although not a crystal ball, homes listed and pending help to keep us one step ahead - which is where I'll keep you every step of the way.