If you’re a homeowner and planning to sell your home, then you need to know what your property is worth before you list it. When it comes to selling your home, it’s important to set a price that is competitive, but also reasonable enough for the buyers market.
You could hire a licensed appraiser to help you determine the value of your home, but you might not have the means to hire one – or perhaps you simply don’t want to. Here we will discuss the steps you can take to conduct your own market study so you’ll have a good idea of what a fair listing price will be for your property.
STEP 1: Collect Data about Similar Home Sales
The first thing that you should do is research the selling prices of homes in your neighborhood over the past 3 to 6 months. When doing so, it’s important that you primarily focus on properties that are roughly the same size and age of your home. As you are conducting this research, you’ll want to organize it so that it’s easily viewable as you work your way through the following steps.
STEP 2: Find the Price Ceiling and Price Floor
The next thing you should do is set the minimum and maximum price for your home. In order to do this, you will rely on the research you did in step 1. To find a price ceiling, go through your list and find a property that is undoubtedly more expensive than your own. Start by looking at homes that have more costly amenities or appliances. Once you have found this property, its selling price will become your price ceiling.
To find your price floor, all you have to do is repeat the process, only this time, you’ll be looking for a property that is of less value than your home. Again, the basis of this could be older appliances, fewer amenities, or perhaps smaller rooms or a less desirable location. The selling price of this property will be your price floor.
Now that you have your price ceiling and floor, you have a secure price range that you can work with to accurately price out out your home.
STEP 3: Check Out the Houses Currently on the Market
ALWAYS keep tabs on the prices of homes for sale in your area. If you notice that you have priced your home too differently from other houses listed for sale, you’ll have to keep researching so you know whether to stick to your original asking price or modify it.
For example, if there is a similar house in your neighborhood that has a higher asking price than yours, you should check how long it’s been on the market. If it’s been up for sale for a long time, it usually means the house is overpriced, which is why it’s been on the market so long in the first place. In situations like this, you would be better off sticking to your original asking price than increasing it to something higher.
If you want to successfully sell your home, then conducting your own housing market research puts you on the right track. With these tips in mind, you will be able to correctly price your home AND attract buyers in no time!
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