Recently, I discussed the importance of staging your home, decluttering and depersonalizing. We call this the 5 P’s. PROPER PREPARATION PREVENTS POOR PRESENTATION.  However, no matter how wonderful your home looks, if you are not on target with your price, then all your preparation has been wasted.  It is extremely important that an agent is able to provide  an accurate Market Analysis. Please understand that the market dictates the current values. What was sold 6 months ago is yesterdays values. The homes on the market today are your competition. Here’s the big concern. Agents are not created equal.  If they do not provide accurate figures, then you will not be able to make an educated decision on proper pricing of your home. If you overprice your home, then you have  effectively helped your competition build value in their homes.

So, here’s how the process should work. Your agent should do a detailed market analysis of your area. There should be an inspection of your property, suggestions made as to the 5P’s, previews of similar homes which will be competing with yours(preferably with you so you see what the agent sees), and then a suggested price range for you to determine a list price.  Understand that the you must make a decision based on “TIME or MONEY”. If money is the most important factor, then price at the high end of the market, but be prepared to keep your home on the  market longer. If time is the key issue, then price towards the lower end in order to facilitate a quicker sale.  Or choose a price somewhere in the middle that you can live with.

In order to make  the best decision, please try to distance yourself. Remember, this is a business decision. While it is your HOME,  to a potential buyer, it is simply another house. You CANNOT  allow emotion to factor in to your pricing (or any other aspect of the process) FSBOs’  are notorious for uneducated decisions. They overprice the property because they have nothing to base their decision, they have no marketing to speak of, they  are not familiar with real estate documents, and do not understand the closing procedures. The result is that 67% of FSBOs’ end up listing with an agent.

BOTTOM LINE, choose your agent carefully; make good decisions based on accurate information; FSBOs’ do your homework and don’t base your choices on emotion. PRICE will be a major factor on days on market or whether it will eventually sell or not.  As always, we are available if you have any questions.