By Lisa Garsaud
So you are planning on selling your home and want to get the best possible price, right?
There are many things that factor into selling. The 3 major ones are: LOCATION, CONDITION and PRICE. Real estate is made up these 3 things. You cannot change the location of the property; however, you can change the condition (you must look at comparables to see if it is worth it to remodel), and you can change the price.
There is a lot of information available on getting your house ready to put on the market – clean, declutter, repairs, get the gardens cleaned up, etc. That is the fun stuff! It’s the stuff HGTV is made of that keeps us all tuned in. Something that is not talked about too often is how important it is to price it right at the beginning. This is not the fun stuff, but it is necessary. It is kind of like going to the dentist.
When pricing your home, you must think like a buyer, walk through your home with a buyer’s eye, and look at the comparables. Comparables are what houses similar to yours have sold for in your area in the previous 6 months.
It is best to price your home on the rounds. This is the way buyers search online. For example, if you price your house for $206,000, you are going to miss all the buyers that are searching for homes up to $200,000.
The market ultimately determines the price. If the price is too high, the house will sit on the market. When you have to reduce the price, then the marketing time to sell your house increases 2-3 times with EACH price reduction. If you price your home a little too low, then you will get multiple offers and your home will sell for over the asking price. This will bring your house up to the correct price. When you over price your house, you are just helping to sell another house.
According to the National Association of Realtors’ studies for the past 10 years, a house is over priced when it has been on the market for 2 weeks and one of these two things happen:
- You have no showings.
- You have a lot of showings and no offers.
When a new property hits the market, it is like a new, shiny penny. You want to create a sense of urgency. The market has a very short attention span – usually about 2 weeks and then it is off to what is new on the market. As time passes and a home just sits on the market, buyers start asking – what’s wrong with that house? Why has it not sold? The buyers think the seller must be getting desperate and that they I can swoop in a get a great deal!
When pricing your home, please put careful thought into pricing it correctly from the beginning, so that you can avoid sitting on the market and inevitably getting less for your home in the long run.
Please note – in the previous info about us I spelled Courtney’s last name incorrectly- the correct spelling is: OLIVA
I was thinking this could go somewhere at the bottom of the article by our picture & contact info.
The Garsaud Group of Keller Williams is a mother/daughter team. Lisa Garsaud has over 14 years of experience helping buyers, sellers, investors & builders. Courtney Garsaud Oliva is the director of operations, she will make sure all of your transactions go smoothly. Our clients get the benefit of two full time licensed Realtors. (Realtors needs the trademark sign behind it)
