You’ve made the decision to sell your home. First of all, congratulations! This is a big moment, and the start of an exciting journey, with many different moving parts to consider along the way. 

As you work with your real estate broker to get your home ready to sell, one of the most important efforts you’ll want to focus on is pricing your home, in order to maximize your equity and reduce your market time. Minimizing the amount of time your home spends on the market can prove incredibly important, allowing you to move through the complex sales process more quickly and easily, while minimizing your carrying costs along the way. 

Increasing the desirability of your home on the market -- allowing it to sell quickly, and maybe even gain several competing offers, from multiple potential buyers -- all starts with determining the asking price for your property. 

In order to find the “right” price for your home, you and your agent will need to consider the real estate market trends in your area and how your home compares to other recent and currently active listings.

There’s an art and a science to pricing homes in order to sell efficiently, and it’s one of the most important skills that an experienced real estate broker or team can bring to the process. In fact, how your agent prices and negotiates the sale of your home is critical enough that it should be one of the seven questions you ask your agent when interviewing them for hire. 

So, with all this being said, what are some of the major steps you and your real estate team can take to ensure your home sells quickly, and at the best price for your bottom line? Here are a few things to discuss with your broker in order to help price your home the right way, from the very start of the selling process:

Comparing Your Home to Other Listings 

To gain an understanding of your home’s market value and begin pricing your property, your broker will closely research past sales of homes comparable to yours -- meaning similar in square footage, location, and finishes, among other qualities. 

Once your broker has determined what similar properties in your area have sold for, it will be easier to get a sense of where your home stands, relative to the current market.

If you’re studying trends on your own, or alongside your real estate team, remember to put most of your research time into recent sales, those that occurred in the last six months or so, and those in your neighborhood. In general, looking at “comparables” that are more than a half mile away is a waste of your time. Focusing on recent and proximate sales can help you gain an accurate picture of current market values, by working with the most up-to-date data available. 

Though looking at homes that have sold in the past is important, it may be even more important  to evaluate active listings in your area. Listing prices for homes in your area may have changed in recent months, which can have a ripple effect that may lower or raise the potential price of your home in the near future. It may also prove beneficial to look at cancelled or expired listings, or the homes that sellers tried to sell and were unsuccessful. Learning from their mistakes -- such as pricing too high for the local market -- can be a valuable way to plan for your own sale. 

Think Like a Buyer

In order to price your home the right way, it truly helps to take a step back and view your home from the perspective of a potential buyer. 

Consider what options buyers have in the current market, for instance. If your home is priced too high and sits on the market for months, prospective buyers may see this as an opportunity to ask for well below listing price. 

On the flip side, if your home is priced more aggressively from the start, and a buyer sees that it’s new to the market, this can create an air of energy and desirability, which may well lead to higher and more competitive offers, especially if there are multiple bids.

This illustrates the importance of those actively listed homes we mentioned above. What homes sold for three months ago might be irrelevant if a buyer currently has better options that are more aggressively priced.

Want some more insights on thinking like a buyer as you price your home? Our own Jason Finn recently sat down with the host’s of WGN’s Market Overdrive to discuss this important subject: 

The Takeaway

As a seller, it’s important to think like a marketer. That means making choices that will help your home sell quickly, and appeal to the right audience. And often, it can mean being realistic and making some strategic choices as you adapt and work with the realities of the market, rather than holding out. 

For example? Throughout the sales process remember that the listing price that will help your property sell may not line up one-to-one with the personal worth you place on your old home.

And while thinking like a marketer, remember that the best salespeople in the world rarely go it alone when it comes to selling something outside their expertise. Surrounding yourself with the right real estate team is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that your sale goes off successfully, at every step of the way. A real estate broker with extensive experience working in your local area can bring an incredible amount of knowledge and insight to your sale, providing market analysis, access to records, and a deep understanding of local and national real estate trends. 

At the same time, remember that your broker is your home selling partner. They can be your sounding board, your advisor, your researcher, and your negotiator. And at every step along the journey, your broker should be able to help create a strategy and explain their reasoning, telling you what you need to know -- and not just what you want to hear. 

Keep the Conversation Going With Chicago’s Market Experts

Looking to sell your home and want to make sure your home pricing strategy is what it should be? In need of market guidance, or have a few questions you want answered before you really get going on the sale of your home? For help with your most pressing real estate questions and concerns, drop us a line today! Real Group RE is here and always happy to keep the conversation going.