Janis Peterson, GRI, ABR, CSP Realtor®
|
|
| Telephone: | (610) 642-3744 |
|
|
| Fax: | (610) 658-0267 | ||
| E-mail: | jp4re@pahomes.com | ||
| Home page: | www.pahomes.com |
One of the most difficult decisions facing any homeowner is how much to ask for your home when you decide to sell. The decision to move from your present home is difficult enough without involving you in a price guessing game.
You may already have some idea of how much your home is worth. Tax appraisals, listing prices of other homes in your neighborhood and newspaper reports of price trends in your marketplace may all be suggestive of the current value of your home. Real estate appraisals can be valuable indicators of the value of your home as well. However an appraisal is usually designed to place a conservative value on your property for the purposes of a financial institution considering financing a loan.
Your best approach to setting an offering price for your home is to work with a real estate professional who can offer you a comparative market analysis. A well-prepared comparative market analysis looks at the actual sales trends in your neighborhood and community for similarly featured homes. These reports take into account factors such as listing price, actual sales price and time on the market.
Pricing a home for sale requires careful calibration of your home, your personal objectives and current and foreseeable market conditions. Even armed with all of the information available, determining an exact listing price can be problematic. If you price your home too aggressively, you are leaving money on the table. If you list your home at an inflated price, you risk having your home on the market for much longer periods than necessary. In fact, an overpriced home often gets overlooked by serious buyers. As a consequence, sellers of these homes tend to become desperate, slashing prices dramatically and ending up with the same or even less than if they had simply priced the home fairly in the first place.
But what is a fair price? The answer to that is often, "whatever a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept." Consequently home sales usually involve a series of offers and counteroffers. These negotiations can often prolong the process of selling your home and add to the stress attending such an important transaction. Can anything be done to improve the age-old practice of fixed-price marketing of homes? The answer is yes.
A revolutionary new home marketing concept called Value Range MarketingSM is presenting buyers and sellers with new ways to approach the question of price in real estate. The approach is simple: a home is listed at a fixed price but marketed within a price range. This lets buyers know that the seller is willing to entertain offers within the range.
Real estate professionals experienced with this home marketing strategy have noted an increased number of offers. Not only may more offers be received, the offers should be more serious, with "low-ball" offers being reduced. An initial study by The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., has also noted a decrease in the average number of days on market for homes marketed using the Value Range Marketing concept. Buyers should also like the idea of a value range as they gain confidence in making offers, knowing that the seller has already agreed to consider offers within a specified range. Simplified negotiations are an advantage to both buyers and sellers.
Pricing your home shouldn't be a guessing game. When you decide to sell your home, your real estate professional should be able to assist you in determining a pricing strategy that is right for you. With careful research and a sound approach to the market, achieving a fair price quickly should be within your reach.
"Real Service in Real Estate." For a personal consultation on buying or selling real estate, Janis Peterson, GRI, ABR, CSP Realtor® can be reached at (610) 642-3744, e-mail: jp4re@pahomes.com. Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors® is an independently owned and operated member of The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc.