Setting the price for your home is challenging. Too low, and you leave money on the table. Too high, and you scare away buyers to other properties. To complicate all this, your home is an emotional asset— it’s hard to see it objectively. To find the optimal price—one that maximizes the sale price and minimizes the time it takes to sell—requires strategic thinking. Pricing is something agents spend their careers refining and mastering. They combine intimate local and national market knowledge, an exhaustive study of similar homes for sale, and an analysis of past sales to come up with the optimal list price. And then they combine that with your unique needs to pick a price that fits you. First, it is important to understand that only the market can determine the ultimate value of your home. That being said, choosing the optimal list price is essential to maximizing your home’s value.
After setting the price, the condition of your home is the single biggest factor determining how fast—and for how much—your home sells. REALTORS® repeatedly find that people can’t visualize the potential of a home. They have to see it. That means how your home shows now is how people see themselves in it. They can’t see past the chips, leaks, clutter and stains—in fact, they tend to focus even more on those things. Luckily, you can dramatically improve how your home sells with few quick steps. Start by getting your house clean, then de-clutter, make minor repairs, consider staging it and then clean it again! Sound overwhelming? You don’t need to do it overnight. Your agent can point you to someone who can help, or you can break it down into just one small task a day. Think of it this way: everything you remove from the house, clean or repair puts money in your pocket. You’re getting paid to do it!
