Local Selling Tips

As a Seller, you determine the asking price for your property. But, pricing a home doesn’t have to be difficult if you address it realistically. Real estate agents and appraisers are excellent resources for guidance on how best to price your property so it will sell. The greatest difficulty you have as an owner lies in viewing your property: seeing it not as the home in which you have raised your family, but as a marketable commodity. You as the Seller must leave behind your emotions regarding the home when establishing the market value; every aspect of the property must be looked at from a Buyer’s perspective.

To Move or Not to Move

If your decision to move is not final in your mind, receptiveness to creative offers is limited. Often, Buyers will submit offers waiting to see how you, the Seller, will respond. If your commitment to sell is 100%, you’ll be more open to accepting the value the market places on your property.

Market value is established by determining the specifics of the home such as square footage, style, location, age, amenities, and condition. A real estate agent will use current market data, assessed values, and comparable properties to evaluate and determine a pricing range. An appraiser (at sale) will set the price based on technical uniform practices. In addition, the location of your property will have a large impact on pricing.

You Invested in Major Improvements and Now You Want Your Money Back

You laid new carpet throughout the house, installed a new roof, and vinyl-sided the home as well as expanded the deck. But the price your real estate agent is suggesting won't get you your money back. Unfortunately, the types of improvements mentioned above are considered maintenance items and do not necessarily increase the value. However, it does increase the likelihood that your home will be more desirable than others in the same price range that have not had the updates. A Buyer is not necessarily going to be willing to pay for changes you made that a) he feels would be necessary in any home or b) are not to his liking. It's a fact of a buyer’s mindset.

You Overpaid When You Bought the Property

When you purchased your home initially, it was a Seller’s market and you wanted the house; so you offered what it would take to get it. Now you are ready to move into something else and the nightmare begins.  Your home may no longer be worth what you paid for it or you will break even. What happened to the great real estate investment strategy? Now you are without a profit to invest in the next property. It stings, but all I can say is “Sorry.” The economy, world market, and other financial factors still heavily impact the market. Even though you want to make a profit, your home won’t sell if you ask more than it is worth.

You Need to Make More Money in Order to Afford Your New Home

This is always a difficult scenario: in order to get the home of your dreams, you have to sell your current property at a certain price. If this doesn’t happen, you will have to rethink what your dream home really is, and you aren’t willing to do that. Well, this is the tough love section…although it is a very difficult thing to face, the reality is that you can't make your house worth more than it is just by wishing it to be so.

You Want to Allow Room for Negotiation

If you have ever taken a negotiations course, you will learn that there are soft and hard negotiators in the world. The soft negotiators are more interested in maintaining relationships and eliminating stress. They want to make sure the deal is done and everyone is happy. However, the hard negotiators are in it, at least in part, for the challenge. They will work competitively to get the property at the right price and terms, regardless of what it does to the existing relationships. The majority of the population falls into the soft negotiator category.

Quite simply, soft negotiators hate the process. They may ask “Why won’t they take my offer?” or they will refuse to go back and forth in an offer/counter-offer process. It just gets too confusing and increases the tension and stress. Some people may even walk away from the transaction and start again with someone else who will be reasonable. This is more likely to happen when a home is really over-priced.

For example, a house with a market value of at $115,000 listed at $122,000 is workable. The same house with an asking price of $130,000 is a headache waiting to happen, because that’s what you will do: wait. And the Buyers will wait. And wait. And keep passing you by as new houses come on the market --houses that are realistically priced--that have an attached value based on solid, supportive data.

It’s About Price Versus Value

Often, Sellers will start at higher price thinking, “We can always come down!”  This is a huge mistake. The property could be priced at a level which the Buyer does not believe is reasonable. This is based upon the Buyer’s evaluation of other competitive properties and how each property best fits their home requirements. 

Value and price must be in alignment or Buyers will simply move on to another property that is priced correctly. In addition, you lose the initial impact of the excitement that is generated for a new listing on the market. If your home has not received an offer within 60 days or after 20 showings, there may be a problem with the price of your house. The ultimate selling price is determined by the prospective buyers whom we are able to reach through advertising, word of mouth, and networking. It is critical that your home be priced competitively with other options Buyers may be considering.

If a property requires “work” or clean-up and it is priced the same as another home that is in immaculate condition, all things being equal, the Buyer will most likely purchase the property that requires little or no alteration. The optimal showcasing of a property is critical for a quick sale. A sound listing price will immediately attract attention and generate activity. When a property first comes on the market, the Buyers immediately evaluate how your offering compares to others.  And if it competes favorably, it gains the Buyers’ attention and spurs them on to ask questions or set up a showing. If comparable properties are attracting more attention than yours, you then know that your price does not compete in the marketplace--regardless of location, economic conditions, or other external conditions. 

Creating the Right Marketing Program

Lack of an effective, aggressive marketing plan, whether For Sale By Owner or listed with a real estate agent can result in an overall lack of exposure and cause a property to languish on the market. It is likely that no matter how great a value your home is, timing, marketing conditions and economic factors will all impact how long it takes to find the perfect Buyer. Regardless of how long a property has been on the market, if Buyers really love the home and everything points to it being a great deal for them, they will make an offer.

Ultimately, it’s up to you