Setting the list price for your home involves evaluating various market conditions and financial factors. During this phase of the home selling process, I will help you set your list price based on:

 

		Pricing considerations
		Comparable sales
		Market conditions
		Estimated net proceeds

 

Pricing Considerations

 

When setting a list price for your home, you should be aware of a buyer’s frame of mind. 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 other homes on the street. You may have told your REALTOR® to "Bring me any offer. Frankly, I’d take less." But compared to other houses for sale, your home simply looks too expensive to be considered.
		If you price too low, you'll short-change yourself. Your house will sell promptly, yes, but you may make less on the sale than if you had set a higher price and waited for a buyer who was willing to pay it.

 

 

Price Against Comparable Sales in Your Neighbourhood

 

No matter how attractive and polished your house, buyers will be comparing its price with everything else on the market.

 

A great pricing guide is a record of what buyers have paid in the past few months for property in your neighbourhood. I will furnish data on sales figures for those comparable sales and analyze them to help you come up with a suggested listing price.

Some tools to help you set your price are:

 

		A Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) is a list of comparable sales, along with data about other houses in your neighbourhood that are presently on the market. To help in estimating a possible sales 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.
		A Formal Written Appraisal 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 or if there is any other circumstance that makes it difficult to put a value on your home. An appraisal may cost a few hundred dollars.

A CMA is different from a formal appraisal. One major difference is that an appraisal is based only on past sales while a CMA is based on past sales and home presently on the market. For the average home sale, a CMA usually gives enough information for you to set the proper price.

 

 

Market Conditions – Buyer’s Market or a Seller’s Market?

 

A CMA often includes a Days on the Market (DOM) value for each comparable house sold. When real estate is booming and prices are rising, houses may sell in a few days. Conversely, when the market slows down, average DOM can run into many months.

 

I can show you whether your area is currently in a buyer's market or a seller's market. In a seller's market, you can price a bit beyond what you really expect, just to see what the reaction will be. In a buyer's market, if you really need to sell promptly, offer an attractive bargain price.