How to Sell Your Home Quickly for Top Dollar with Our Price It Right Listing Plan
Most homeowners are a little anxious about pricing their home for sale. They often worry they’ll price too low, leaving money on the table. In response, we’ll see homeowners start their own pricing research on third-party realty sites like Zillow or Realtor.com to get a home value estimate. From there, they often choose a higher price hoping to get the most bang for their buck.
If this is you, we understand you want the most successful home sale possible. While pricing your home a bit higher than market value can be a tempting strategy, it’s likely to backfire and create a lower, slower sale.
The most accurate and profitable home-listing price is going to come from a trained and educated listing agent. At Abode, we’ve been pricing property for 10+ years. We know 80% of selling a home is setting the right price the first time. That’s why we’re laying out our Price It Right Listing Plan for you. You’ll learn why it’s important to set an accurate listing price immediately, how to compete in the market, and how to understand what your house is really worth.
Price Your Home Accurately The First Time When Buyer Activity Is Highest
Pricing your home right the first time is key. When you go on the housing market you only have one time to make a first impression. The goal is to price right and sell early when homebuyer interest is highest.
The day your house goes on the market a ticking time clock starts counting your Days On Market (DOM). The activity level of interested homebuyers is highest when DOM is low. That’s when realty websites like Zillow send buyers and real estate agents notifications of a new property on the market.
When you first go on the market is also when you have the most leverage. With many buyers looking at your home, you can get multiple offers at once, which means you get to choose who you work with. This year during COVID, our seller listened to us when we suggested listing 480 Raymond Avenue at $375,000 and got 5 offers over the first weekend. Multiple offers came in at $2,000 higher than asking price and one of them was 100% cash. Our seller chose the cash offer so they could close in 20 days instead of the minimum 30 days that comes with financing. This is the power that comes from pricing your home right at the start.
If your house isn’t under contract after 2 weeks on the market, or 45 days for luxury listings, we recommend a price reduction. This indicates to the real estate market that you’re motivated to sell and resurges activity around your listing. All those same website notifications go off announcing your new price.
Even though buyer activity spikes again after a price reduction, you’re at a possible disadvantage because your DOM is higher. Homebuyers might look at your listing and think, “Why has this house been on the market so long? What’s wrong with it?” You’ve lost your opportunity to make a good first impression of your home and buyers may be wary.
That’s why Abode sets the most accurate listing price for your home at the start. Similar to the effects of bad staging, an inaccurate house listing price can start a harmful domino effect. Your house can sit on the market and go through price reductions first because it’s priced too high, then because the DOM is too high.
If you price right out of the get go, you’ll sell your home quickly and might even have multiple offers in a seller’s market like we see now. But if you price too high, you might be selling your house for less than market value in a longer period of time.
Price Like An Appraiser By Looking At Market Value Indicators
It’s essential to price your home right the first time at market value, not more or less. To compete, after all, you have to be competitive in the market. So then, what is market value for your home? Here at Abode, we determine your home price the same way an appraiser would by taking into account several factors of your home listing.
Comparables
Appraisers use multiple comparable homes in your neighborhood that have sold recently as one factor to calculate your home value. We always use at least 3 comparables that have sold on the market in the past few weeks or months.
Location
Location indicators include the quality of schools, employment opportunities, how close you are to shopping, entertainment, and recreation centers. A waterfront view (like so many Orlando homes) or a city view can increase your home value and features like being on a main road or near large power lines can decrease the value of your home.
Because location indicators can vary so widely, even within a mile radius, location valuation can change street-by-street. Winter Park, Florida is a great example because you can have comparable home prices change by as much as 20% within a neighborhood.
Size
Bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and lot size all go into calculating a home listing price. Liveable space like bedrooms and living rooms as opposed to storage space like garages and attics are more highly valued. The overall price per square foot of a home can vary greatly by neighborhood, city, and state.
Age and Condition
There are four main areas of interest when reviewing a home’s age and condition: HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical wiring and panels, plumbing connections and fixtures, and the roof. Knowing these 4 points is critical to pricing, especially for older homes. How well your home has been maintained also plays a role in what buyers are willing to pay. We look at comparable homes of similar age and condition when pricing a property.
The Market
An appraiser will always take into account what’s going on in the market, including the number of other properties for sale in your area and the number of searching homebuyers. Because the market can be such a huge factor, we always remind our clients that as real estate agents, we don’t set the market, we just interpret it. It’s important to get familiar with the current housing market today to set the best listing price.
Don’t Price Based on What You Want, Need, Or Think The Home Value Should Be
Now that you understand what factors do influence your home value, it’s important to understand what factors do not. Your home value is not based on:
What you originally paid
What you need
What you want
What your neighbor says
What another agent says
What it would cost you to rebuild today
While you might want to use these factors to set your price, doing so would result in disappointment and frustration.
We’ve had plenty of experiences where homeowners expected their luxury home improvements would increase the home value by a certain amount. Consider a $75,000 pool installed in a $300,000 house. This is a huge over-improvement for the home, meaning homeowners aren’t going to get the dollars out of the investment when they sell. It’s highly unlikely the home value would increase to $375,000 or more, a 25% increase, after one improvement.
Home improvements don’t always translate directly into increased home value. To understand why, it can be helpful to ask yourself, “Did you make those improvements for yourself or a buyer?” We advise our clients to talk to us before making home improvements for home valuation purposes.
Our ‘Price It Right’ Listing Plan Works
Knowing how to price your home right is 80% of your home selling success. Make sure to price your home right from the start, when buyer activity is highest. If you price too high, the temptation of most homeowners, the Days On Market will run high and buyers may think there’s something wrong with the home. The right price for your home listing depends on factors like comparables, location, size, age, and the market. Factors like your wants, needs, or past conditions don’t set your home value.
You can price your home accurately by working with an agent who knows how to interpret the market. At Abode, we determine your listing price the way an appraiser would.
We know the Abode Price it Right Listing Plan works. This year we sold a mid-century modern lakefront home at 25 Interlaken Road right when COVID-19 hit and the stock market was crashing. The homeowners had an appraisal done the month before at $1.1 million. Because of the market, we advised pricing below appraisal at $1.04 million to be able to secure a buyer quickly.
The homeowners’ goal was to sell quickly and move on. It had been an inherited property, all of their financial advisors were telling them to get out, and the homeowners had little hope for a successful sale. So when the listing received a full-price offer on its first day on the market, our clients were thrilled. It’s incredibly rare to get a full-price offer in the luxury real estate market especially on the same day it is listed.
It all comes down to pricing right at the current market value. By following our Price It Right Listing Plan, you can expect to sell your home faster and earn more money overall.
If you’re selling a home in the Orlando or Central Florida area and would like our assistance determining your own listing price,get in touch with Linda Sitek for your FREE Price It Right Listing Plan consultation. We’re always happy to help homeowners have a fantastic selling experience.
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Steven Ritz, Buyer Specialist - Call 321-277-8271 or email here
Linda Sitek, Listing Specialist - Call 407-963-6544 or email here
