How to set your asking price to get top dollar

When you decide to sell your home, setting your asking price is one of the most important decisions you make. Depending on how a buyer finds your home, price is often the first thing he or she sees, and many homes are discarded by prospective buyers as not being in the appropriate price range before these homes are given a chance to be shown.

Your asking price is often your homes "first impression", and if you want to realize the most money you can from your homes sale, it is imperative that you make a good first impression.

Because this is not as easy as it sounds, your pricing strategy should not be taken lightly. Pricing too high can be as costly to you as pricing too low. Taking a look at what homes in your neighborhood have sold for is only a small part of the process, and this on its own is not nearly enough to help you make the best decision.

PRICING STRATEGY STARTS WITH GOOD INFORMATION

Before you can begin to assume what your home is worth, I need to do some research, bearing in mind the following:

Think about how you conducted your house hunting search to find the home you are now thinking of selling. You most likely did not confine your search to a single neighborhood, but perhaps different neighborhoods or areas in order to find a home that best matched your needs and desires.

The prospective buyers, who will be viewing your home, will conduct their searches in a similar manner. That means they will be comparing your home to, for example, brand new development homes, century old homes, 10-20 year old homes, etc. They will also consider locations such as homes in established neighborhoods, the middle of town, near town or country properties. Each home will have a different look and feel and it’s quite possible that a prospective buyer might consider all of these variables in the search for a home.

You can see that, when you're selling your home, you're not just competing with the home around the corner, but also with all homes in other areas which have the same basic characteristics: i.e. Number of rooms, overall living space, etc

HOW YOUR ASKING PRICE AFFECTS YOUR SELLING PRICE

There are 4 common strategies that most sellers use to price their homes. It is unwise to assume that a higher asking price will net you a higher selling price. In fact, often this equation works in reverse if you're not paying attention to what the market is telling you. Bear this research in mind when you set your asking price.

1. Clearly Overpriced.
Every seller wants to realize the most amount of money they can for their home, and real estate agents know this. If more than one agent is competing for your listing, an easy way to win the battle is to over inflate the value of your home. This is done far too often, with many homes that are priced 10% or more over their true market value.

This is not in your best interest, because in most cases the market won't be fooled. As a result, your home could languish on the market for months, leaving you with a couple of important drawbacks:

1) Your home may be labeled as a "troubled" house by buyers, leading to a lower than fair market price when an offer is finally made.
2) You have been greatly inconvenienced with having to constantly have your home in "showing” condition . . . For nothing. These homes often expire off the market, forcing you to go through the listing process all over again.

2. Somewhat Overpriced.
About 3/4 of the homes on the market are 5-10% overpriced. These homes will also sit on the market longer than you want. There is usually one of two factors at play here: either you believe in your heart that your home is really worth this much despite what the market has indicated (after all, there's a lot of emotion caught up in this issue), OR you've left some room for negotiating. Either way, this strategy will cost you both in terms of time on the market and ultimate price received.

3. Priced Correctly at Market Value
Some sellers understand that real estate is part of the capitalistic system of supply and demand and will carefully and realistically price their homes based on a thorough analysis of other homes on the market. These competitively priced homes usually sell within a reasonable time-frame and very close to the asking price.

4.  Priced Below the Fair Market Value
Some sellers are motivated by a quick sale.  These homes can attract multiple offers and sell fast - usually in a few days - at, or above, the asking price.  Be cautious that the agent suggesting this method is doing so with your best interest in mind.

#2 CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS

#3 THE SALABILITY OF YOUR HOME

Presentation and Curb Appeal can increase your homes salability and value

Your home will sell for thousands more when it appeals to buyers. I see homes with good presentation inside and nice curb appeal sell for way more than homes that don’t. A prime example is a home Doug sold a while ago. He relisted a home that had been on the market for six months with another agent unsold. Many agents had previously shown the home yet never had a buyer get interested enough to make an offer. After Doug listed the home he had the owners dress up the curb appeal and stage the home to appeal to buyers. After this was done the home sold within two weeks. The agent that sold the buyer had shown the home before it was dressed up for a good presentation. She said her buyers bought it because it appealed to them. Without a good presentation for buyers this home may have never sold.

Curb Appeal – More than ever before buyers will drive by a home before they call for information. If they don’t like the curb appeal from the street they normally don’t want to see the rest of the home. They will check it off their list and never even call me about it?

I recently had a customer drive from Shepherdsville to see a home I was selling. He had seen the home on one of my many websites. He never called me for information until he was in front of the home and it liked its curb appeal. I sold him the home but had the home not appealed to him when he drove by it, I would have never heard from him or sold him the home.

Here’s how you can increase your curbs appeal to buyers? No longer will you lose a sale if you make a few easy changes to your homes curb appeal.

·        Keep things looking clean and tidy by trimming the bushes, mowing the yard,  and picking up sticks

·        Trim up any branches that block the view to your home so buyers can see it. I have seen trees that have stopped homes from selling

      because buyers could not see the home and it looked overgrown and unappealing.

·        Plant flowers and re-mulch the landscape beds.

Staging Your Home – when a buyer walks into your home you want them to see themselves living in it. You may have a lot of things you like yet may not appeal to buyers. Make it appealing as possible for your potential buyer. If they can’t see themselves living in it and it’s too personalized they most likely won’t be able to see past that.

·        Remove all clutter from house

·        Make sure the bathrooms are clean and neat

·        Clean or repaint the walls to remove stains or just clean up

·        Clean the floors and remove any stains

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