6 Tips to Getting Your Your Home’s Listing Price Right

6 Tips to Getting Your Your Home’s Listing Price Right

Posted by John P. Bradford // July 20, 2015

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6 Tips to Getting Your Your Home’s Listing Price Right

If pricing a home was effortless then everyone would enjoy a quick, smooth, and painless selling experience. Pricing in a hurry without much thought will likely leave you full of regret. Getting your home’s listing price right from the start is a little work, but it will be well worth the effort.

1. Know the Market – You can’t price competitively if you don’t know the market. Look at other similar houses for sale and make sure you are comparing apples to apples. The homes should be similar in property size, square footage, number of bedrooms, and school district.

2. Get Educated on Market History – Look at sales for the last six months to get an idea of what price homes were originally listed and sold at. Check out the length of time they were listed before selling, too. Did higher priced homes sit longer and end up getting reduced?

3. Consider Upgrades – If you have a spa-inspired bath, heated floors, and new custom cabinetry in the kitchen these are elements that should increase your price. If most of your competition has modern upgrades, but you don’t, you may need to remodel the kitchen or bath to be competitive in your market.

4. Invite a Bidding War – Some homes are perfect for a bidding war while others aren’t. If you live a block away from the best school in the city or your downtown loft has deeded parking that’s nearly impossible to find, your property will be perfect for a bidding war. You already know that as soon as you list there is going to be a lot of interest. So, price it low and let the interested parties bid against one another.

5. Know if it’s a Buyer’s or Seller’s Market – Are there countless people moving into the area for jobs at a new company or factory? This would be a seller’s market because there are more buyers than sellers. This means you can ask a little extra for your home. If your market is saturated with empty homes, but nobody is buying, you will probably need to price lower to sweeten the deal with some type of incentive.

6. Hire an Agent – Listing agents will often offer a free walk-through, as well as a comparable market analysis (CMA) to earn your business. Do keep in mind though that some agents will tell you a higher price you should sell your home for just to get you onboard as a client. Then, three months later, they tell you that you need to reduce. 

Your home’s listing price is the most important aspect of a sale. You don’t want your home’s listing price to be so high that you scare buyers away, but you also don’t want to leave money on the table by pricing too low. Consider these tips, and take a little extra time to make sure you get the price right from the start.