Right now you’ve decided upon your motivation for selling your home. It could be that you want to maximize the return, or that you need to sell the place quickly for whatever personal reasons you have. And you need to set your asking price.
This is not a decision that you should take lightly. Because once you set that price buyers will know what they will have to pay you for your home. They also know the odds are good that they will be able to purchase it for less.
The way you set your price to what you actually want is important. If you overpriced the house leaving yourself “wiggle room” both the agents and buyers won’t take you very seriously. And any offers that you received probably won’t be very serious offers.Conversely, if you set your price too low you may not end up with what you need.
We find that setting the asking price very close to what you actually want to get and should be able to get is the best practices. In some neighborhoods is very simple to come up with an accurate selling price. If you’re in a subdivision, relatively new, where many homes are identical, simply find what homes have been selling for in the past 6 months and use that as your basis. If you’re in a condo community, the same thing applies. If you’re in a neighborhood which is older and many homeowners have made alterations and additions to homes, this makes the job a little more difficult. And if you’re not in a subdivision, it’s even more difficult.
One of the best resources that you have available for setting the proper price for your home is your realtor. An experienced realtor knows the marketplace and has the necessary tools to research what similar have been selling for. In difficult situations, I want to look at the tax assessed value. I can compare the tax assessed value of a home with other homes in the town with similar assessed values. This can sometimes give me a good idea of a selling price for a house that doesn’t fit into the normal cookie cutter mold.
