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Memories are Priceless  – Your home is priceless... to you that is; but to Joe and Joanne Buyer, your home is just one of many that they will be looking at on their quest to find the right house.  You raised kids, built memories and shed tears in your home, but buyers don’t have the same emotional attachment. They will look at your home with a very critical eye. They want to make sure that your house will not only meet their needs, but is also a good value.

 

Determining the Asking Price  –  Of course, the smart seller isn't out to rip off a buyer.   Instead they try to get the highest realistic market price.  Which brings us to the question – how do you determine the right asking price?  Your best bet is to obtain a comparative market analysis from a competent agent.  If you plan on using an agent to help you sell your home, that agent will do the analysis for you at no extra cost.

 

Competitive Market Analysis  – When completing a CMA, an agent will typically visit your home. The agent will look through every room and around your property, noting amenities that will likely increase the value of your home and the deferred maintenance items which may lower it. The agent will then research the prices of other homes in your neighborhood which have recently sold, review houses which buyers will also preview when looking at yours, and then consider what prices were being asked for homes which didn’t sell after six or more months on the market.  Using this information, your agent will help you determine the highest realistic asking price for your home. 

A Word of Caution – If you're not using a listing agent, you can do it yourself or hire an appraiser. Just be careful, appraisers look at the history of sales, not at the current buyer’s behavior in today’s market. And remember, if you do it yourself, you won't have access to the Realtor Multiple Listing Service (MLS) – a database of homes that have been sold and listed in a particular area – which means you'll have to dig harder and deeper for the information. Typically, an experienced and successful agent is always your best resource for an accurate pricing gauge.

 

Put Weight on What Has Sold – The most accurate analysis will be from homes that have already sold, as sold prices reflect reality, while listing prices reflect seller hopes. However, information on the actual selling prices may be difficult for the average seller to obtain as it can't be found on the Internet since Utah is a “non-disclosure” state. That is, selling prices are not recorded at the County Recorder’s Office, only mortgage amounts.  Agents, on the other hand, have complete access to sales information through their computerized  multiple listing service.

 

Get Organized – If you are compiling your own information, find six or eight homes that you can use for comparison and get organized.  Make a chart.  At the top of your chart write down the information about your house, such as the year built, the square-footage, number of acres on the lot and any fixtures or amenities (for example a brick fireplace, a swimming pool or hardwood floors) that would make your home more valuable.  Include the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the style (like a split level or a rambler).  Now, make the same columns for the houses you are using in the comparison.  Also include the selling or listing prices of the homes.

Make Adjustments –  Once you have the information organized in the chart, you can size up the competition. When a similar house lacks one of the amenities of your house, isolate the market price for that amenity and subtract that amount from the price of home.  For example, if your home has a fireplace and your neighbor's doesn't you’ll need to account for that in the price of yours.  Of course, don't forget to account for the amenities your neighbor's home has that yours doesn't.

 

Make an Informed Decision – The next step is the hardest as there is not a specialized equation where you could plug in a few numbers and then get the best asking price for your home. Instead, you will need to depend on your new, elevated knowledge of the market to guide you to an informed decision. That's one of the benefits of using an agent. Because of their experience, agents already have a fine-tuned sense of fair market pricing.

 

Be Flexible – You'll know that you miscalculated if buyers aren't making offers, or worse, not coming to look at it at all.  After three weeks of no buyers, you may want to consider adjusting  your price closer to the market value.  Buyers are hard to fool.  By the time they make an offer on a home, they have looked at dozens of homes and know what they can purchase for their money.  If your pricing in not competitive, no offers will be made.