For Sale: Pricing a Home

“For Sale”

Are you considering placing your home up for sale?  Many homeowners want to arrive at the sale price of their home based off of what they bought the home for, the mortgage balance, or by profit.  These are not the factors buyers consider.  Buyers determine the price offered based on fair market value.  They arrive at that value by pulling a comparative market analysis, also known as a “CMA” or “comp.” 

A comparative market analysis is fact based.  It includes approximate square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, age of the home, property taxes, and amenities of that home.  The CMA/comp will include prices of current listings that are similar in size and location, list prices, sold prices, days on the market, etc.  It is a report that includes similar homes on the seller’s street or block, which sold within the last six months.  I have seen a radius of a quarter of a mile or more and dates going back over a year; it just depends on the location. 

To reach a list price for the home, you want an Agent you can trust to pull a CMA/Comp for you.  Consider the homes that are similar to yours first.  It is also very important to consider the most recent sales first, and then work backwards.  Cache Real Estate also includes homes that have been taken off the market in the last six months in their CMA reports.  You will be able to view how many days the homes were on the market at assorted price points.  It is vital to point out list prices verses sales prices of the homes that sold.  All these factors go into pricing your home correctly.

Pricing your home correctly from the start is crucial. It may be tempting to list at a high price just to see what you can get.  That is not a wise idea.  Research has proven that overpricing your home will most likely result in the Seller dropping the price several times.  This usually results to selling at a much lower price because the longer a home stays on the market, the deeper the discount off the original price. There may be factors that would allow you to price your house for more than comp prices. That is why an in depth discussion is vital to have with a homeowner and an experienced Agent would be able to spot certain factors and conditions on why a house should be priced higher than other nearby properties.

Don’t leave money on the table. Discuss your situation with a local, professional Missouri Realtor today. For a free market analysis go to:  http://www.cacherealestatemo.com/sellers or call 314-327-3346.

St. Louis City, County and surrounding areas (St. Charles County Real Estate)