Getting the price right may not be everything, but it’s probably the most important thing when it comes selling your Middletown, Dayton, or Cincinnati home. You have a lot to consider when setting your price: what are the prices for similar houses in the area, is it priced for online searches, does the price take into account buyer psychology, and much, much more? To help you out, then, here are 5 important tips for setting the right price for your Middletown, Dayton, or Cincinnati home.
1. Price It for Online Shoppers
Today, almost everyone begins their home search online, and if you don’t take that important fact into account, then you won’t be setting the right price. Certain critical parameters come into play for pricing for online searches and online home shoppers. The majority of listing sites allow or compel searchers to enter a price range for their search. This range is typically from the highest to the lowest acceptable prices, for example, from $125,000 to $150,000. If you set the price outside that range, either higher or lower, then people searching for houses within that range won’t see your listing. For our example, then, you could set the price at, say,$149,999 – not too low and not too high, but right near the upper limit.
2. Don’t Use Century Pricing
This is an effective retail tactic that has been used for setting the price right for many, many years. It is used because it works, and this tactic aims to avoid any price ending in zeroes (“centuries”). Consider that you never see any items at the supermarket priced, for example, at $4.00 or $9.00 – the prices would be, rather, $3.95 or $8.99. And the same principle holds for setting the right price for your Middletown, Dayton, or Cincinnati home. If you wanted to get close to $150,000 for your home, you would price it at $149,999 or $149,499.
3. Heed the Mistakes of Others
A good guide for setting the right price is to examine what has not worked for other sellers in your area. What you need to do is compare the actual sale price against the original list price and pay attention to how man times the price was reduced before it reached the final sale price. You can get your price right by looking at what didn’t work for others.
4. Go At It From a Buyer’s Perspective
Try to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and see your price from her point of view. First, this means setting aside your emotional attachment to your home and judging its value only by what you think it is worth. Conducting a thorough comparative analysis will allow you know what the fair market value is and so what buyer will actually be willing to pay.
Setting the right price for your Middletown, Dayton, or Cincinnati home, from a buyer’s perspective, also means “pricing outside the band.” This is just a fancy way of saying that you should price very slightly outside the expected pricing range to make your home stand out as unique and desirable.
5. Do a Comparative Market Analysis
Just as your real estate agent would do, you can conduct a comparative market analysis (CMA), as we mentioned above. This is merely a look at homes very similar to yours (with respect to square footage, age, features, number of rooms, and so on) in the neighborhood that have sold within the last three to six months or so. The sale prices of these homes will give you a good idea of what you can realistically price yours at.
Setting the right price for your Middletown, Dayton, or Cincinnati home isn’t rocket science, but it does take some research and creative thinking. Really, though, the best way to go about it is by working with a qualified local agent, one who thoroughly understands the local market.