What is my home worth?
One of the toughest parts of selling a home is figuring out exactly what it’s worth. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as an inherent value for a property. There are several factors that might play a role, some of which are within the owner’s control and a handful that are not. Understanding these factors will help you to determine when to put your home on the market and how to settle upon a reasonable price.
The Market
The market can best be defined as the aggregate of all of the homes being bought and sold in your area at any given time. The market is largely what determines the price of your home, because it determines how likely someone is to be interested in buying your home. When you are in a seller’s market, it means that there are more people interested in buying than there are in selling. A buyer’s market, conversely, is a market in which there is an excessive amount of home inventory available. You will generally get the best possible price when there are more people interested in buying a home in your area than there are homes available for sale.
Property Value
While homes don’t necessarily have an inherent value, your property will tend to have a large impact on the final value. Things like size, location, number of rooms, and even the name of your neighborhood will impact how likely your home will be to sell. While you can’t necessarily make your home larger or move it to a new neighborhood, you can make internal improvements that give the home a greater sense of value to potential buyers. The more up-to-date and reliable that your property seems, the more likely it is that a buyer will be interested in paying the price that you want.
Comparable Properties
You should also remember that the home selling process is a competitive process. Buyers are always looking to find the best deal that they can get for their money, and what they base their assumptions on is the amount that others have paid for similar homes. These similar homes, called comparable properties, are going to set a baseline for what you can expect to make from your home. If you are selling a house for more than the price of a comparable home, you’ll have to show ways that your home differs from the others. Failure to do so means that the home that costs the least will always be the home that sells first.