Pricing, now more than ever, is critical to successfully sell your property. The best advice you can get in the current market is to position your property’s value correctly from the get-go when you’re listing your home for sale. If you overprice the property, it will lose its freshness after a few weeks of showings. It usually takes about 21 days for demand and interest to wane. The modern buyer researches the market thoroughly before committing to a purchase decision, so listing a home at a realistic price is crucial.
The Pricing Problem
While pricing your property too high is a mistake, don’t stress about setting a lower-than-desired price. In all likelihood, a lower asking price will lead to multiple offers, resulting in a sale closing at a similar price to the market value. Remember, it’s all about supply and demand. Before listing a home, real estate agents prepare a CMA report to determine a realistic and market-related selling price.
Conduct A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
- Analyse the neighbourhood
Consider important features of the neighbourhood, such as the quality of schools, proximity to amenities, curb appeal, and any annoyances, such as active train tracks or high traffic.
- Evaluate your property
Write a detailed description of your home, listing its square footage, lot size, location, the year it was built, its condition, layout, style, upgrades, and landscaping.
- Select similar properties
Look at three to five similar homes listed in your neighbourhood over the last few months, as close as possible to yours. The comparable sales should also be within the same school district. Be aware of overlooked details, such as:
- Physical barriers and division lines, e.g. railroads, freeways, or main streets
- Similar square footage – compare yours to others with a 10% variance
- Compare similar age
- Adjust for differences
Consider the differences between your home and the comparables, such as lot-size variations, configuration, amenities and upgrades. You can use a spreadsheet for this.
- Honestly assess the desirability of your home versus the comparables.
- To determine any price reductions, compare the original list prices of comparable properties to the final sales prices.
- Calculate the sold price per square foot
Calculate each comparable property’s average price per square foot by dividing its adjusted price by its square footage. Add all the prices together, and divide them by the number of comparables to get the average.
- You should keep in mind that the average price per square foot shows a trend when all homes are similar in size.
- Determine the home’s value
Multiply the comparable properties’ price per square foot by your home’s square footage to get an estimate of its market value.
How Flynn Real Estate Can Help
We understand the cyclical nature of the property market and how it reacts as demand and supply balance out. Because we understand the Niagara Falls market through multiple selling cycles, we can recommend a marketing strategy that is relevant and measurable to selling your home. Not every potential client has a cookie-cutter example house, and for more complicated homes, like fixer-uppers, there are many factors to consider when conducting a CMA.
Contact us today, and our team will be with you every step of the way to list your home for sale successfully.
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