Austin Real Estate

Austin Real Estate Sell Your Home Reports Setting the Best Price

Setting the Best Price

At any given time, three general factors affect the sale of your house: the current real estate market, the location of your property, and the competition — other houses like yours competing for the same buyers.

These three factors are always in flux. For example, interest rates rise and fall; neighborhoods lose or gain cachet; similar houses suddenly arrive on the market; and the pool of active buyers changes.

No one can control these factors, and you cannot wait until all the conditions are absolutely perfect to sell your home. Smart sellers don't put themselves at the mercy of these factors; they maximize conditions to their advantage.

Let's review the three factors mentioned above: market, location, and competition.

Market

Packaging will make your property stand out from the competition, whether the market is booming or not. In a buyer's market (where there are more homes than buyers), preparing your home is the best way to make it memorable and easy for buyers to recall at the end of a long day of house-hunting.

Location

We've all heard it before: "location, location, location" is important. If your house is in a less-than-ideal location, you can't move it. If that's the case, make the most of it. Turn your house into the most appealing home in the area. Remember that if your house doesn't stand out, another will, and it will sell more quickly and command top dollar.

Competition

When a number of homes with similar features are on the market, yours needs to shine. If two houses are similar in structure or layout, buyers will choose the one that feels as if it could be their home.

Now that you have considered the above factors, how do you decide how to price your house?

Well, there isn't an exact formula to arrive to a magic number, only a price range. Why? Because houses are a commodity subject to the laws of supply and demand, and market conditions keep changing. Prices rise when there are more buyers than sellers; they decline when there are more houses for sale than buyers.

The availability of mortgage money also affects sales, but ultimately what a buyer feels about a house is what determines the price they will pay. While the buyer determines the selling price, you establish the listing price of your home.

If your house has been for sale for a while, you may need to adjust the price. The key is knowing when to lower the price and by how much. Keep in mind that timing is everything. A last-minute effort decide to lower the price may not do you much good.

Your home will get the most traffic during the first two weeks.

This is when the home is fresh on the market and in its peak sale time. If you wait too long to bring down the price, the current buyers will have already seen the house and won't necessarily show new interest.

That doesn't mean that another group of buyers won't come along, but buyers are bunched in price ranges. Therefore, in order to grab the attention of the next price range of buyers, you would probably have to make a significant reduction.

To arrive at a realistic listing price, research your competitor's pricing. Find out what similar houses have sold for recently, as well as which similar properties have NOT sold, to give you a good idea of the price buyers are and are not willing to pay for houses similar to yours. Remember, a buyer will be looking at a number of houses with similar features and amenities.

Specific features in your house may determine its price range. For example, a four-bedroom, two-bath house in a certain neighborhood will sell for less than a four-bedroom, three-bath house in the same neighborhood because buyers are willing to pay more for an extra bathroom.

Don't overprice your house — that usually backfires.

As mentioned above, the first two weeks a house is on the market is when the most serious pool of buyers arrive ready to buy. They've done their homework. They won't buy a house that is overpriced.

If a buyer is interested in your home, they still have to secure a mortgage. In order to obtain that mortgage, your home must be appraised at the asking price. If the appraisal comes back significantly lower than the asking price, the deal may fall through or you may have to lower the asking price to match the appraisal.

Finally, remember that it is your responsibility to price your home so that it will sell quickly and profitably.