Home Pricing: The Basics

When you’re selling your home, the listing price you choose will make or break it. If you set the price too high, you’re cutting out buyers who may fall in love with your home but can’t afford it; if you set it too low, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s what you need to know about home pricing.

Home Pricing: The Basics

Your Realtor® will help you set the right price for your home. But she doesn’t just pull a figure out of thin air. Instead, she does a lot of research before arriving at a good asking price – and she relies on her in-depth knowledge of your market.

The bottom line is that your home is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, no matter what the bank says or how much money the Joneses down the street paid for their house.

Here’s what your agent will look at when she’s helping you price your home:

• Past sales. Your agent will evaluate all the recent-past sales in your neighborhood to figure out the “going rate” for homes similar to yours.

• Past withdrawals. When a home goes on the market and the seller takes it off because it didn’t sell, that creates valuable data for your agent. She can use that information to figure out where the sellers went wrong and keep you from making the same mistake.

• Current listings. Your agent will look at current listings that are similar to yours to find out how you can compete.

All the homes that your agent uses to make these calculations will be similar to yours – they’ll have similar square footage, improvements, numbers of rooms and more – but most importantly, they’ll be in your immediate area. It won’t do your agent any good to compare homes from all over California; they have to be close to yours, because every market is different. The houses your agent will use for calculations are called “comps” because they’re comparable to your home.

While she’s comparing your home to these other homes, she’ll also be looking at condition, age, improvements you’ve made and other factors, like neighborhood amenities.

It always, always, always makes sense to listen to your Realtor’s advice when she tells you what your home is likely to sell for. She’s using numbers-driven data and her experience to help you sell quickly. Remember, she wants you to sell your home, too. If it has the wrong price tag attached, it won’t sell at all.

Are You Selling a Home in Lakewood or Long Beach?

If you’re selling a home in Lakewood or Long Beach, we can help. Call us at 562-882-1581 to find out how we’ll market your house to all the right buyers so you can sell it quickly and at the right price.