In setting the list price for
your Condo, you should be aware of the law of
Supply and Demand. How many condos are currently for
sale? What is the average market time? Is it a Buyers or Seller's
Market? Consider the following
pricing factors:
- If you set the
price too high, your house won’t be picked for viewing, even
though it may be much nicer than others in the area.
You may have told your REALTOR® to "Bring me any offer.
Frankly, I’d take less." But in that list of houses, yours simply
looks too expensive to be considered.
- If you price too
low, you'll short-change yourself.
Your house will sell
promptly, yes, but before it has time to find the buyer who would
have paid more.
NOTE: Never say "asking" price,
which implies you don't expect to get it.
To determine the proper
list price, contact
a REALTOR® and have them provide you with the following professional
services::
- Furnishing comparable sales.
- Analyzing market conditions.
- Helping to determine offering
incentives.
- Estimating your net proceeds.
Using
Comparable Sales
No matter how attractive and polished
your house, buyers will be comparing its price with everything else
on the market. Your best guide is a record of what the buying public has been willing to pay in
the past few months for property in your neighborhood like
yours.
We can furnish data on sale figures for
those "comps", and analyze them for a suggested listing price. The
decision about how much to ask, though, is always yours. The list of
comparable sales we bring to you, along with data about other houses
in your neighborhood presently on the market, is used for a "Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)." To
help in estimating a possible sale price for your house, the
analysis will also include data on nearby houses that failed to sell
in the past few months, along with their list prices.
This CMA differs from a formal appraisal
in several ways. One major difference is that an
appraisal will be based only on past sales. In
addition, an appraisal is done for a fee while the CMA is provided
by us and may include properties currently listed for sale and those
currently pending sale.
In the normal home sale, a CMA is probably enough to let you set a proper
price. A formal written appraisal (which may cost a few
hundred dollars) can be useful if you have unique property, if there
hasn't been much activity in your area recently, if co-owners
disagree about price, and any other circumstance that makes it
difficult to put a value on your home.
NOTE: If you do order a market
value appraisal, make it clear you don't need
an elaborate, or full narrative report--the kind that's
complete with photos of the house and neighborhood, a map specifying
the site, and floor plans is sufficient. |