Christian Real Estate Blog

Tips for Pricing your Home in a Cooling Market

RealEstateJournal | Tips for Home Sellers In a Cooling Market: "The Right Price

The next, and often most challenging, step in a cooling market is appropriately pricing a home, says J. Lennox Scott, chief executive of John L. Scott, a real-estate firm in Bellevue, Wash. Sellers no longer can assume the home will sell for slightly more than the last comparable sale in the neighborhood. It might even sell for less.

A competent real-estate agent should be able to gauge the market, but sellers also can do some research. Mr. Scott suggests looking at recent comparable sales in the neighborhood, and determining what percentage of those homes sold in the first 30 days on the market. If less than 20% sold, you're likely in a softening market. If 20% to 30% sold, you're in an equilibrium market. Over 30%, you're in an appreciating market.

Sellers in a softening market might price their homes at the same or a slightly lower price than the last comparable home in the neighborhood that sold. (Be sure to factor in size, features and other things that could affect the price.)

Time horizon also matters. If you have several months to sell, you might try setting the price a bit higher. But there's a danger to that, says Phyllis York Brookshire, chief operating officer of a brokerage in Raleigh, N.C.: "There's always some backlog of buyers right when you put the home on the market." If you price your home too high, you might miss out on those buyers.

Finding good sales data can be difficult for individual sellers not working with an agent, but it's getting easier. Zillow.com can provide some helpful comparable sales data, though it doesn't include sales in every area."

posted by Justin Smith @ 4/05/2006 08:38:00 AM