Tips on How to Price Your Home for Sale
Are you planning on selling your house in Brookings, SD, but you’re unsure how to price your home? This decision is crucial, as pricing it too low or too high could end up costing you thousands of dollars. While the ultimate goal is to maximize the value of your property, overpriced listings will effectively turn away prospective homebuyers. Likewise, lowering the price just to attract buyers can push you to the bottom-pit where you might end up facing a significant loss.
No matter if you’re enlisting the help of real estate professionals like Brookings Home Team or selling your property on your own, knowing how to price your home can be challenging, time-consuming, and risky for beginners who lack the experience. For that purpose, arriving at the correct home pricing entails various advantages to homeowners. Not only will the right price generate a wider audience and more qualified leads, but it will also maximize your profit. If you’re experiencing this dilemma and are in need of some advice, our real estate team has constructed a list of tips on how to price your home for sale in Brookings, SD.
Pricing Tip #1: Comparative Market Analysis
Working with a Brookings REALTOR® or real estate agent will initially lead you to do a comparative market analysis. The Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is a compilation of all recently sold properties of a particular area condensed into data form, including house details, how many days it stayed on the market, and the final price it was sold for.
For solo home-sellers, you must do your own research online to pull comparable listings of the neighborhood. Filter out the sold properties that are closest to yours in the Brookings area over the last three months and make sure you have your timeframe narrowed down as close as possible. This will help you gauge the competitive market prices much better. These comparable homes should generally be limited to a radius of ¼-mile to ½-mile of your house unless the property is located in a rural area. Additionally, they should be nearly the same square footage and construction age as your house.
Pricing Tip #2: Desirability of the Neighborhood
Put aside the emotional attachment to your home and step into the buyers’ shoes. Try to honestly assess the desirability of your property by looking at the finer details. Is your home close to the main street? What about nearby railroads and freeways? It’s important to shift the perspective to that of a purchaser and understand the pros and cons of your house in terms of location, structure, and vicinity. At times, the pricing of two houses across the street from one another can differ by thousands of dollars based on these very factors.
Pricing Tip #3: Withdrawn and Expired Listings
Sometimes failures can produce the most valuable information. Look for any withdrawn or expired listings that were re-listed to find out their house pricing mistakes. Compare their listing price with the closing price and be sure to include at least three properties for this exercise. Another important point in knowing how to price your home is studying the patterns of the listings that failed to hit their goals. Try to gain insight into their house pricing mistakes and why they may have been unsuccessful.
Pricing Tip #4: The Right Price
You’ve done your research and now it’s time to list your property. Correctly pricing your home is one of the most important factors in a successful sale and there are many things to consider, including the house’s construction cost, a marginal profit, and your mortgage cost (if applicable).
Once you’ve reviewed and compared final pricing in Brookings, determine the pricing band of the neighborhood. If you’re able to figure out the pricing band you will greatly increase your odds of attracting qualified buyers. For example, if most of the homes in a neighborhood are sold at similar prices, the next few houses will begin listing at a higher price—typically with a difference of about $15,000. Your price band is the less crowded price point that lands between this $15,000 gap in home values.
Another aspect to consider when pricing your home for sale is the bidding war strategy. Some home sellers prefer to list asking prices comparatively lower than their intended final quote with the hopes of generating multiple offers that will compete against each other. While this strategy can be successful, it’s far from a sure thing, and it could jeopardize your impression in the market.
Pricing Tip #5: Price Adjustments (if necessary)
It’s estimated that over 60% of home sellers revise their listed prices after the fact; therefore, if you find the urge to reduce your asking price, don’t hesitate to do so. Sometimes it’s beneficial to tweak your home’s price rather than stick with the original listing price and watch your property get pushed back over time. That being said, avoid the temptation to immediately alter the price of your home. Be patient, continue your market research, and make one big correction to your listing instead of multiple revisions.
Home Pricing From Real Estate Professionals
Correctly pricing your home is essential to maximizing your profit. While doing a for sale by owner is always an option, hiring a REALTOR or real estate agent from Brookings Home Team will help you protect your investment and its earning potential. Our experts can help you with every step of the home-selling process, including how to price your home.