SELLER
Residential
Pricing your home correctly
When you’ve crossed the finish line and sold your home, you want to look back at the process with no regrets. To confidently step forward into the next part of your life, you need to feel like you sold your home for a fair price. So how do you know that you listed your home correctly and negotiated the best deal?
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If you’re a homeowner in Austin thinking about selling your home, you should make sure you’ve got a solid game plan to get the results you want. Austin’s housing market saw incredible growth in the last few years, but demand continues to shift quickly. Selling your home isn’t as simple as putting a price on it and watching the bids roll in, and you can’t just price your home based on what homes in your area are selling for. Keep reading as we break down how to price your home and the importance of pricing correctly.
What’s my home worth?
When you start to think about selling your home, current market values can be challenging to pinpoint. Popping the question into your favorite search engine will provide you with a good starting point: home valuation tools.
These tools, like this one offered by Realty Austin, are one way to begin to get an idea of the value of your home. They work by allowing you to enter your home address and then generate a ballpark figure based on factors like what homes have sold for in your area and the square footage of your home. It’s important to keep in mind that they don’t paint the whole picture of your home’s unique worth, and some websites could be using outdated data
What is a comparative market analysis?
A Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA, is one tool that real estate agents use to estimate the value of a property. This is done by pulling in data from similar homes that have sold in the same area as yours. A CMA can include descriptions of your home and a few other properties that have sold in the same area. It also includes factors that influence the price of the homes, like age, style, bedrooms, and more. Essentially, a CMA is an informal generalization that helps you get a sense of the local market and where your house compares.
A great CMA will have price adjustments to properties that have recently sold, so that you can easily see the differences in properties. Even in homes that have the exact square footage, you will find no two homes are alike. Each property will have unique features that need to be accounted for.
What happens if I price my home too low?
Selling your home isn’t that different from dating—you don’t want to sell yourself short! If you price your home too low, you run the risk of potential buyers assuming something is wrong with it. You may think that pricing your home lower will cause people to bid on it, but that isn’t necessarily true. As more inventory builds in Austin, agents are seeing fewer bidding wars. You may end up getting offers below your list price, and if you accept, you could be leaving money on the table and hurting your purchasing power for your next home.
What happens if I price my home too high?
If you price your home too high, your home may sit on the market for longer. This can delay your plans and your anticipated timeline for selling your home. Another downside of pricing your home too high is that if you aren’t receiving offers, you may have to lower the price on your home. This is called a price reduction.
While there are a variety of home pricing strategies, testing a price is almost never a good plan, because buyers can read a price drop as a negative. While it is hard to say you won't have to change your price as the market shifts, your agent will evaluate changes in inventory on a weekly basis until your home goes under contract.
Working with an experienced agent to price your home accurately is the best way to ensure you sell your home quickly and for the best possible return. Connect with one of our talented real estate agents today if you’re thinking about selling.
8 Tips for Preparing To Sell Your Home
01
Value
Understanding the value of your home is necessary if you are considering putting your house on the market. What you paid for and invested in your home is not necessarily the price it would list. Factors such as shifts in the housing market of your neighborhood, city, or country could drastically affect the value of your home in the current market. Get a comprehensive analysis of your home’s value in today’s market using a Market Snapshot tool.
02
Plan
If you are selling your home, it’s likely that you’re in the market to buy a new one. Create a plan to relocate before listing your home so you have a clear path to your new home ahead. With Cash Bridge programs, you have the power to buy your next home before you sell your current home with the flexibility to move on your own timeline. Reach out to a Real Estate professional to help you navigate your plan with ease while making sure you list your home for top dollar.
03
Repairs
Take a walk around your house and identify any repairs, big or small, that should be made before listing your home such as cracks in the driveway or broken appliances. Hire a professional inspector to do a walkthrough of your home to identify the hard to see issues like mold or foundation cracks. Once you have identified your needed repairs, you can choose to pay for the updates or factor it into the cost of the sale.
04
Space
Storage space is a huge selling point that buyers look for frequently. You want your home to look as spacious as possible especially when it comes to closets, cabinets, and the garage. Give buyers the opportunity to imagine how they would fill the space. Decrease the number of items you have in your spaces by 50% and organize everything you plan to keep.
05
Paint
A fresh coat of paint can instantly give your home that brand-new feeling. Using neutral colors like beige, tan, gold, and gray are best when prepping your home to sell because these colors go with everything. Again, this gives buyers the opportunity to envision their belongings in the space, making the home more appealing.
06
Appeal
They say don’t judge a book by its cover but home buyers beg to differ. The exterior of your home is usually the first thing buyers see when they come across your listing. Take time to boost your curb appeal and give your home and yard some TLC. Clear out the weeds and overgrown shrubs and make way for manicured landscaping. Power wash your home to get rid of all the dirt and debris. Give your home a fresh coat of paint if allowed by your HOA.
07
Odors
Living in your home, you often don’t smell the odors that surround you daily. New prospective buyers visiting your home have a new fresh sense of smell and are often turned off by homes with lingering odors. Neutralize home odors by using homemade remedies or hire a professional cleaning service.
08
Staging
Professional staging can immensely boost the attractiveness of your home to buyers. Homes that have been professionally staged oftentimes sell faster for more dollar value. Staging depersonalizes your space so that it can appeal to a variety of people looking for a move-in ready home.
