Saturday, 15th of March 2008 at 02:07:53 PMBefore your house is even placed on the market you will have an idea of how much it will sell for. It’s probably that knowledge that’s determined your putting it up for sale in the first place. But while you might have some idea of what it could fetch, how do you go about deciding on the actual sale price? One of the questions all those selling a house ask is: what did the last property in the neighborhood sell for? Your Realtor will be able to provide you with a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA). The CMA is a report that will show you the recent sales in your neighborhood as well as the range of price that you can expect for your home.
So while you might now have a selling price range you could still be a little uncertain as to where your house falls within it. In setting a price, a lot depends on your personal circumstances. How desperate are you to sell? Do you need the money quickly? If you don’t, you can perhaps place it on the market at the upper end of the price range. But if you want to move quickly—perhaps you’ve put in an offer on another property—then your selling price might have to be at the lower end of the scale.
When it comes to using comparisons to value your property for sale, you also have to take account of any renovations that have been carried out to your house. While you and your neighbor’s properties might be the same size with the same number of bedrooms, if you’ve added a room or remodeled the kitchen then your house is obviously going to fetch a higher price. However, some improvements homeowners make may not result in increased profits when the property is sold. Swimming pools, for example, are reported to be such an improvement: what one home-owner sees as a luxurious addition to his property, another sees as hours of maintenance and costly service charges!
The general layout of your property is another factor that’s important when it comes to comparing the sale value of your house to your neighbor’s. While your houses may be the same size, something as simple as a wall having been knocked down to create a bigger room can increase the selling price. Original features in a property (e.g. fireplaces, crown molding) can also make a difference when it comes to the sale price.
Trying to predict the property market when it comes to selling your house is perhaps a little more specialized. Again, if you’re not in a hurry you can sit back and wait until articles about rising property prices begin to appear in the newspapers. But remember, it’s all relative! That means that if your property value is increasing, then the value of that property you want to buy is also increasing.
