When the time comes for you to sell your property and move on, how will you go about setting your house sale price?
For example, will other people see the value you do in the home you have loved?
There will be many choices you will need to make on the way to arriving at your final figure, and many of them will be soul-searching.
This is because the price you put on your property will be one of the most critical decisions you will make—too high and you will deter prospective buyers; too low and you risk forgoing potential capital gains.
Fortunately, you have a great source of information at your disposal, your experienced local real estate agent.
It is said that knowledge is power, but knowledge can also provide peace of mind when you’re making life’s big decisions.
Comparative Market Analysis—decision-making data
Ask your real estate agent to undertake a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to help you decide the price to set for your house.
CMA is like a more sophisticated and comprehensive version of the research you have likely done yourself into the prices for which similar homes in your locality have recently sold.
Of course, you won’t have had access to the same range and depth of information as a local property professional, nor will you have their experience in evaluating similar properties with different standards of maintenance or dissimilar properties that have sold for comparable prices.
Your selling agent will also have access to some prices for properties that are still under contract and will be aware of the prices asked for others since withdrawn from sale (frequently because they were overpriced).
They will be able to explain how much value your recently renovated kitchen or additional bathroom has added to your home and how having a pool or spa or outstanding maintenance issues are likely to affect your sale price.
What the market is prepared to pay now
The thing about real estate pricing is that it is a moveable feast, subject to the largely unpredictable fluctuations of the market and prevailing economic conditions.
For this reason, historical data on the prices for which comparable houses have sold in your area is less useful than recent data, say from the past six to twelve months.
Additionally, the prices for which properties are advertised for sale are not an accurate guide to those for which they will eventually sell if indeed they do sell.
While the typical seller has in mind a (frequently optimistic) price for the sale of their home, if they fail to follow their agent’s advice they can prolong the sale period, causing frustration and perhaps even the withdrawal of the property from sale as it becomes stale in prospective buyers’ minds.
The science of setting your house sale price
Now that you know something of the science behind real estate price setting you can be confident that, in consultation with the right real estate professional, you can determine a price for your house that is fair and attractive to buyers in the current market.
The experts at McGrath Real Estate have decision-making data at their command, backed by in-depth local knowledge to help you to make an informed decision so that the price is right when selling your home.
Why not click through to use our online form to make it easy for you to request an appraisal of your property value, to further help you in setting your house sale price.