If you’ve ever purchased a house before, you’ll remember that you were trying to get the most house in the best location for the lowest price possible. That’s what nearly all other home buyers are trying to do as well, which is why pricing right is so important. And pricing correctly means primarily finding the pricing “sweet spot.” Don’t worry, though. We’ll help you do that with this step by step guide for pricing your home correctly in Columbia. And the beauty of it is that there are only a handful of steps.
Seek the Balance
Your first step in pricing your home correctly in Columbia involves understanding the importance of seeking the price balance. That balance is the buyer-appealing middle ground between pricing too high and pricing too low.
Pricing too high is the most common error. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, “37% of sellers had to reduce the list price in order to sell their property.” That doesn’t sound too bad on the face of it. But if you start out too high on price, you may wind up having to drop the price much lower than the correct price would have been in order to make a sale. For if you price too high and people pass your listing by, the buyers will try to lowball you precisely because it’s a stale listing.
The pricing error at the other end of the spectrum is pricing too low. Not only will you lose money, but you may lose a sale altogether. When your listing shows a house priced obviously too low, buyers will automatically think something is wrong with it and skip over it. Or if they do make an offer, it may be even lower than your already too low price.
If you truly want to hit that sweet spot, let your agent help you with pricing your home correctly in Columbia. Your agent knows the markets and knows how to sell. (Find out more by calling 803-792-SELL.)
Determine Fair Market Value
Pricing your home correctly in Columbia requires determining its fair market value. Basically, this is what your house is worth based on the state of the current market in the immediate area and your home’s features. The tool used to arrive at this valuation is called a comparative market analysis (CMA).
A CMA, preferably performed by your agent, examines the prices that comparable homes (with respect to condition, size, features, and so on) within the neighborhood or area have sold for within the past two to three months. Doing this allows your agent to come up with a fairly accurate price range for your home. Thus you will know the upper end and the lower end of what buyers will actually be willing to pay. Then you just price at or slightly below fair market value to entice buyers.
Price for Online Searches
Today, an important step in pricing your home correctly in Columbia is pricing for online searches. For a whopping 85% of home buyers begin their search and buying process online. Buyers primarily use the larger, more reputable online listing sites for searching and price comparisons. And you, too, can use these for pricing correctly.
One way to do this is by using Zillow’s “Correct Home Facts” feature, like this:
- Google both your address and “Zillow” in the search bar.
- Then click the entry in the search results with your address.
- Then, claim your owner dashboard, verify that you are in fact the owner, and update the fair market value estimate.
- You should then get a fair market value estimate that will entice online home searchers.
Just keep in mind that agents will have access to better and more accurate tools – not least of which are their market knowledge and experience.
Price to Create Confidence
The final part of pricing your home correctly in Columbia understanding why correct pricing is so critical. And that is because if you price right, you create a “cycle of confidence,” which translates into more interest and more viewings – and, ultimately, more offers. When buyers become confident that your house is priced correctly and that it is in good shape because it is priced correctly, you get more offers.
But if you price too high, nearly all your marketing efforts will be futile. Not only will the confidence be lacking, but online searchers may not even see your listing. Your listing may get filtered out when buyers type in price-range search parameters.