Realty Times March 25, 1999

Pricing Your Home To Sell
by Edith Lank

Real estate agents know that a house properly priced is half sold. Set your price too high, and no one comes to look at it. Set it too low and you have a quick sale -- but you short-changed yourself.

If you offered your house for sale at $2 million it would never sell (or it would remain on the market until inflation caught up with your price.)

If you asked $10 for the property, you'd have a sale before your ad ever hit the papers. The supervisor at the newspaper's classified ad department would be at your door five minute after you called.

So you need only search for the figure, somewhere between $10 and $2 million, which will attract buyers and still bring you the most money possible.

Several factors should not influence your asking price:

  • Your cost. Suppose you had received the place as a gift. Must you then give it away?

  • Your investment in improvements. You put in that purple kitchen because you enjoyed it, but you are not likely to find anyone who feels your house is worth $15,000 more because of it. They may instead be calculating the cost of tearing it out and replacing it with something in turquoise.

  • Assessed value. This figure is set by the taxing authorities but even in areas where a sincere attempt is made to keep it at market value, it's almost never a dependable guide to what buyers will pay.

  • Your needs. You may require $50,000 clear to use for the down payment on your next home, but that's not the buyer's concern.

  • Emotion. Watch out that you don't ask too much for the place because your daughter took her first steps on the porch and your beloved Tabby is buried under the oak tree. On the other hand, don't let the stress of divorce, or the need to settle an estate quickly, lead you to underprice the place.

    So what does count?

    Only one thing.

    What matters is how your home stacks up against the others currently offered for sale and recently sold in your neighborhood. Buyers will be comparing.

    Supply and demand in the open market determine your value. Your broker can tell you what buyers are paying for similar property -- and that's what counts.

    And I wish you good luck.

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