One of the hardest parts of the home selling process is properly pricing your home.  With short sales, foreclosures, and bank owned properties driving prices down, it is more important than ever to "price to sell."  For people who bought at the height of the market, this is undoubtedly less than what they paid for their home.  However, if you are truly motivated to sell, it is important to have a competitive list price and a pricing strategy.  You don't want to continually price behind the market... This is where we can offer our expertise.

The value of your home will be whatever a qualified buyer is willing to pay for it.  Your home is compared to previous sales and competitive listings, adjustments made for the differences, and the result is an estimate of fair market value/worth.  The constituent parts of determining the value of your home are 1) location, 2) the condition of your home, 3) competitive pricing of comparable properties offered for sale, 4) the local market conditions and, 5) the pricing and terms under which your home will be for sale.  Now, what is the best way to determine value?

Most realtors® have programs that allow them to put together a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)… we consider this a great starting point!  A CMA is an analysis of similar properties that are active, under contract (pending sales), and sold within a specified timeframe (usually 6 months).  We make adjustments based on the comparable properties to come up with a well-defined price range.  Note: A CMA is not an appraisal; however, hiring an appraiser is another pricing technique, too. 

Another method for determining market value is comparing tax assessment values, the value with which your property taxes are based.  We put together a tax assessment ratio analysis (spreadsheet) by creating factors of list prices/sold prices to assessments of comparable properties used in the CMA.  The assessments are rarely equal to 100% of the market value, which is why we use ratios to determine market value.  This is an analytical way of looking at the numbers, and a great supplement to the CMA, that most realtors® do not know how to implement.  For condominiums, we compare market values through price per square foot ratios.

Lastly, one more technique we use to determine market value is to take you on a road trip of the similar properties on the market (your competition).  You gain an understanding of the value of homes in your neighborhood and can properly price your home against the competition.  While the asking price of your home is ultimately your decision, make sure you that you understand properly pricing your home is essential to selling your home quickly!  It's a little more complicated than throwing darts, so why not ask someone who is willing to go the extra mile (literally)?