In its entirety, the U.S. housing market is worth a staggering $33.6 trillion, nearly as much as the U.S. and China’s combined GDP. That’s why, if you’re like most folks, your home should be your most prized asset.
If you’re planning to make a permanent move to a new location, then the most logical thing to do is sell your house, but only at a fair offer.
However, selling a home isn’t quite as easy as you’d think. You have to put your home up on listings, find a serious buyer, do all the paperwork, and sometimes even get the law involved. However, arguably the most difficult step of the process is achieving a fair offer for your home.
Naturally, you’d want to get as much from your home as you possibly can. However, also remember, the buyer wouldn’t want to spend too much on a home. Your biggest challenge is thus striking the perfect balance and finding a reasonable price for your home.
With the right tips, however, doing so should be a breeze. In this post, we’ll be looking at how you can get a reasonable offer for your home.
What Is the Pricing Dilemma?
In local real estate spheres, you’ll hear most folks talk about the pricing dilemma. The pricing dilemma is the fear of overpricing or underpricing your home. The latter shouldn’t worry you too much because of the demand and supply forces of the housing market.
That means if you price your home too low, you’ll receive multiple offers that will drive up its value to the correct market price.
However, that doesn’t mean you should underprice your home from the get-go. In some instances, things won’t go as planned. You’ll end up selling your home for a fraction of its worth.
Comparable Listings
The first place you want to look at when pricing your home is listings for other homes in your neighborhood. From these listings, you can be able to estimate the market price of your home. However, only make sure you check homes that have been listed over the past six months.
The more your narrow the time frame, the better estimate you get for your home value. In fact, most appraisers don’t use comparable listings of more than three months. Also, apart from the time frame, make sure you also have the radius on lock.
As a rule of thumb, make sure the homes on the listings are within a half or quarter-mile radius at most. The only exception is if there’s only a handful of houses in your vicinity, like the case with most rural areas and a few urban centers.
The Prize Is in the Details
Although pricing your home isn’t rocket science, ignoring some minor details could work to your detriment. When comparing house prices, be sure not to overlook these few details
- Physical barriers and dividing lines- These include infrastructures like freeways, major roads, or even railway tracks. Inventory from different points of the neighborhood can drive up the desirability of the homes quite significantly.
- Age of the houses- Houses from one side of the neighborhood may be older than your home. For instance, one segment of the vicinity might have homes built in the 80s while your home is much more recent. Even if the houses are physically similar, they will have different values because of their age difference.
- When comparing square footage, ensure you give an eight to ten percent variance upwards or downwards; however, not with all cases but only if applicable.
Finally, remember to objective and realistic with the desirability of the house you’re selling. You might get a jaw-dropping price for your home if you have a dream home. However, remember the term dream house is subjective and dependent on the expectation of the house buyer.
Look at Sold Comps
After you’re done checking out all the recent house listings, next you want to check out all the sold houses. That way, you can compare the original prices with the final prices and see how different they are. Pay keen attention to any price reductions and adjust your price downwards or upwards depending on the comps’ sold prices.
You can visit your local assessor’s office and see if you can get a list of sales. Also, inquire if there are any quarterly sales reports. You can even find the sales report in business dailies or your local newspapers.
Look at the Expired and Withdrawn Listings
It’s also a good idea to check out all the expired and withdrawn listings. Expired means that the listing period ran out without the house selling. Withdrawn, on the other hand, means that the seller decided to pull the house from the listings before it could sell.
Try to estimate the number of days the property was on the market and any other common factors that lead to the expiry and withdrawal. Also, try to determine whether it was a brokerage or whether the seller decided to go it alone.
You Can Always Ask for Help
If you’re a little stuck, you can always get help from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. All you have to do is visit their website and access tons of helpful resources like their house price calculator. Alternatively, you can get help from a house cash buyer, but only a reputable one.
For instance, Templar Real Estate Enterprises will buy your house at a fair price, without much of a hassle. That way, you don’t even have to worry about achieving a fair offer for your house.
Arriving at a Fair Offer Takes Some Effort
Reaching a fair offer for your house is clearly not as easy as you’d think. However, if you follow our few tips to the letter, then getting a reasonable price for your house will be a piece of cake. Also, remember that there’s plenty of help available if you’re at wits’ end.
Selling houses isn’t our only area of expertise. For more informative reads, be sure to check out the other pieces on the site.
