Pricing Your Home For Sale: The Right Way
So, you’ve decided to sell your home in the Destin, Miramar Beach, and Santa Rosa Beach area. One of the most stressful parts of this process (other than the dreaded packing) is how to fairly and competitively price your home. It is essential to become knowledgeable on a few key points to avoid overpricing or underpricing your house’s value. Asking for too little may put you in a position where you are missing out on potential profit and asking for too much may push potential buyers away. There are many factors that influence the home pricing process in real estate. The goal is to ultimately get the maximum value within a reasonable time period of your house hitting the market. This can be accomplished with an accurately priced home, especially if you are planning to list the property for sale by owner.
Achieve an Accurately Priced Home
Check the Estimated Value
To be sure to accurately price your home, you must check the estimated value of the propertyin the Destin, Miramar Beach, and Santa Rosa Beach area. There are many valuation tools you can use online to assist you to find the fair market value of your house. The fair market value is the price that your house and assets that accompany the property would sell to another party for in normal circumstances within the market.
In the buying and selling process, the home you are selling will undergo an appraisal. This appraisal will assess the value of your house for the buyer after an offer is accepted on your end. However, to get an idea of what this appraisal number will be before listing your home, finding out the estimated value will assist you in accurately pinpointing the value.
Once you know the fair market value of your property you plan to list for sale, you will want to price this home in such a way where it will be found in as many real estate searches as possible. Because most buyers will tell their real estate agents the size of the home they are looking for and the price they are looking to stay below, pricing your home too high right away may cause you to miss out on a lot of buyers.
For example, if you determine that your home is valued at $310k, pricing your home at this price or slightly above will cause you to miss out on any buyers searching below the $300k price point.
Make a List of Recent Home Sales
Homes of similar value in the same neighborhoodin the Destin, Miramar Beach, and Santa Rosa Beach area, or and area that is comparable to the home you are trying to sell are a great thing to base your asking price off of. Taking a look at the comparable home sales or “comps” will give you a baseline and can help point you in the right direction when it comes to the current state of the market. Buyers will be looking at these comps when designing how much they should spend on a property of similar value in an alike area.
You have the ability to pull the comparable home sales on your own! On a home sales website, you will be walked through the process to search for the recently sold listings. You are able to filter in home upgrades and items, such as a pool, to assist you in accounting for items that will add value to your house.
Calculate the Square Footage
The size of your home plays an essential role in your for sale by owner listing price. When it comes to the fair market value, there is usually a median price for each square foot of a home in the United States. Of course, this is only a baseline and this price is influenced by factors such as location.
To get a more accurate value, you can determine the price per square foot by using the comparative home sales. Take a home that recently sold in the same area and find that exact square footage. From there, take the price that it sold for and divide it by the square footage. It should be noted that typically, the price per square foot is slightly higher for smaller houses and lower for larger homes. You can then take this price per square foot and multiply it by your home’s square footage to get an idea of the fair market value.
Factor in Renovations
It is important to keep in mind that not all renovations will boost the value of your home. However, there are some features and renovations that will increase the fair market value. Kitchen and bathroom remodels and renovations typically are known to have the biggest impact on the dollar amount you can expect to list your property for. Flooring is also known to make a large difference. When it comes to exterior upgrades, new roofing, new windows, pool, and garage doors can increase the overall value of your house.
Last Thoughts
It is important to switch gears and take into account what appraisers are going to take a look at and factor in. Remember that an appraiser will be taking a look at the condition of many aspects of the property such as the roof, appliances, plumbing, and other main necessities and bones of the house.
Keep in mind that the home pricing will be something that is ongoing. Even if you decide on a price, as the process goes on in trying to sell your home, your real estate agent may suggest changes once you begin to show your property and receive feedback. Listing your house at one price is not a one and done thing. Many factors may come up that were not previously anticipated that may spark the need for necessary changes. Market conditions are constantly changingin the Destin, Miramar Beach, and Santa Rosa Beach area.
By checking the estimated home value and getting in touch with the comparable home sales in your area, you are doing your homework to properly place a price tag on your home. In calculating the square footage of the home to determine the price per square foot and accounting for any renovations, you will be on your way to pricing your home to sell!