Pricing your home for sale: Both an art and a science
By Bethanie Dunn

3/06/2017 2:50pm

Pricing your home for sale: Both an art and a science

If I asked you how you would approach the challenge of pricing your home for sale, I would expect the first thing you’d ask yourself is, “How much can I get for it?”

Your next thought will most likely be a figure—based primarily on hope and a hunch—for which you’d be happy to sell.

Unfortunately, hopes and hunches don’t work in a competitive real estate market.

Let’s look at how you can derive a realistic price for your home that will appeal to buyers in your local market and give you a good return for your asset.


Pricing your home for sale: Do your homework

Use the many online resources available for researching the prices for which homes in your area have sold recently or for which they are currently for sale: realestate.com.au and domain.com.au, for example.

Once you have a feel for the range of prices applicable to homes similar to yours, go along to any open homes in your area to check out your competition.

While you’re at it, take the opportunity to scrutinise the selling agents in action and collect business cards from those whose approach impresses you.

Pricing your home for sale: Obtain professional appraisals

Once you have an understanding of the market, ask at least two local real estate agents to appraise your property.

When they have done so, ask them how they arrived at their prices—this is where the art and the science come in.

Professional real estate agents price houses based on the comprehensive data they have available on previous sales and on the other properties currently for sale against which yours will compete.

Along with those factual inputs go less tangible ones, such as their first-hand knowledge of the prevailing market in your area and their feel for what buyers want and how much they are prepared to pay.

The more experienced a real estate agent is and the longer they have been working in the area, the more likely it is that they have a good read on the market and the buyers in it.

Pricing your home for sale: A little love can go a long way

The agents appraising your home should discuss with you its strong and weak points.

Putting in the time, effort and money to address any shortfalls identified before selling may allow you to increase your asking price.

Of course, if your house is located in an unattractive or noisy neighbourhood, for example, that’s not within your power to change.

But decluttering, yard work and minor repairs are all doable, so why not do them before going to market, to improve your home’s saleability and possibly attract a higher price?

Pricing your home for sale: Our business is getting you the best price

Based in Glenelg, McGrath Real Estate’s professional agents truly understand the local community, lifestyle and market, up and down Adelaide’s coastal suburbs.

We’re proud to have 45 years’ experience of helping people to buy and sell homes in the area.

Contact us to discuss selling your home to achieve the highest possible price.

 

Image: DNA lab by University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability via FlickrCC BY 2.0