Setting the Price for Your Home

Several factors, including market conditions and interest rates, will determine how much you can get for your home. The idea is to get the maximum price and the best terms during the window of time when your home is being marketed. When selling a home, there’s the price owners would like to get, the value buyers would like to offer and a point of agreement which can result in a sale.

The value of your home relates to local sale prices. The same home, located somewhere else, would likely have a different value. Sale prices result from property supply and demand. If the area you live in is booming, with a growing population, the prices for houses will most likely be on the rise.

The question you ask yourself when you are ready to sell is not how much you want for your house, but how much will a buyer want to pay for your home. Buyers don’t care how much you paid for the home, how many memorable moments you and your family shared in the home, how much cash you need for your next home or how much time and money you’ve invested in your home’s hardwood floors, fresh paint, lush landscaping or other improvements.

The following are things you may want to consider when setting the price for your home:

COMPERATIVE MARKET ANALSIS: You should check the prices of comparable recently sold homes or homes on the market. Be a market-savvy seller and have a rough idea of what your home would be worth, given its size and condition and local market conditions. Dont under-price your home in hope of sparking a bidding war. Neither should you flatteringly high price to “buy” your property only to demand a price reduction a few weeks later. The decision about how much to ask, though, is always yours.

NEIGHBORHOOD OPEN HOUSES: Visiting open houses is a good way to compare your house to other homes that are for sale in your neighborhood. While you’re there, try to make an impartial assessment of how those homes compare to yours in terms of location, size, amenities and condition. If both homes were selling for the same price, would you buy your home or someone else’s?

OFFERING INCENTIVES: Sometimes a little something extra is needed to attract buyers. Here are a few examples on how you may be able to sweeten the deal:
- Closing quickly will attract buyers who want to move in right away.
- The more creative and flexible you can be in meeting the buyer’s needs, the more success you’ll have in pricing your home to sell.
- House improvements such as repairing the roof, or repainting the house, may also offset having a higher sale price.
- Offering to pay some or all of a buyer’s closing costs is a way to offer a cash incentive besides just lowering the price.

Even after all the above has been done, the selling price is ultimately decided by the you the owner. Some owners may choose to set their selling price at the absolute lowest they are willing to sell because they hate to haggle. Others are willing to ’see what happens’, and may set the price a bit higher. The above tips are all for information gathering purposes, and when all the information has been gathered, the price for your home should be set at a level you are comfortable with.

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