You fell in love with your home when you bought it, but take care not to take those feelings of love and adoration into consideration when pricing your home for sale. While there is sure to be the perfect buyer for your home, as your real estate agent will tell you otherwise, by pricing your home higher than a comparable home, you’re losing out on the number of buyers you’ll attract.
The following tips will help you price your home at the right price that will satisfy you, and attract buyers like bees to honey:
1. If you absolutely insist on getting your desired price for your home, go ahead and list it at that price, but do so for only a short period of time. If your dream home’s dream buyer is out there, he or she will most likely swoop in right away to make an offer.
However, if you don’t get any close-to-your-price offers within a reasonable amount of time — six to eight weeks from the listing date — then be prepared to lower your price in order to attract buyers. A stale listing is one that has been around too long for too high of a price, and this is a stigma you definitely don’t want your home to take on.
2. Don’t over-estimate the housing market. The cost of your home when you bought it will not necessarily be reflective of the price you should sell it at. Unless you purchased your home fairly recently, or the housing market in your area has suddenly gone up in value, you need to be realistic and accept that you may not get what you paid for it.
3. Shop around, even though you’re in the market to sell, not purchase. Find out what comparable homes are going for, and price yours in that range. Try to view your home in comparison to others with an unbiased view.
This is where your real estate agent, or even friends who are in the market to buy, can help. Their third party perspective can help you size up your home and its interior and exterior offerings against the others in the neighborhood, and set a price that rivals the others.
4. Don’t set a price that’s higher than what you expect to get simply for “padding” purposes. This pricing practice may fare well at a flea market or antiques shop, but the same can’t be said for the housing market.
Negotiations can be expected even with a non-padded price, and of course you want to get a fair offer for your home, but buyers on a budget and the state of the economy will result in tight purse strings with not a lot of wiggle room.
5. Don’t look to the potential cost of your new home as a way of setting a price on your current home. Your home’s listing price shouldn’t be an indicator of how much you need or want to spend on your next home. Whether you’re a prince or a pauper, the price tag you attach to your home for sale should be a reflection of its value, and nothing more.
