Key to Selling Your Home: Price It Right

In its September issue, Consumer Reports lists its opinion of what it takes to sell your house in this market. Their thoughts:

Price it right. Trying to make your house stand out by offering potential buyers enticements like a free vacation or a set of golf clubs is so last month. Today it's all about price. Homes sell most quickly if they are put on the market at a price that's just a bit lower than those of similar homes in the area.

Wow, what a stunning revelation. Price, huh? Who would have ever thought of that one? ;-)

I think the main problem with people getting real about price (listing their home at the market price, dropping price if it's not selling, etc.) is that many (most?) of them stretched to buy the home in the first place. Now, they HAVE to have a certain price on it or they're upside down. But they can't get that price because the market is way down. So they're stuck -- they can't afford to sell because they'd have to recognize their loss and they can't find a buyer because their price is too high. It's a tough place to be in.

We've done a couple things to make it easier on our finances to sell our home. They are:

• We bought a home far below what we could afford (and far below what the bank was willing to lend us, btw). We didn't stretch (in fact, we paid cash for the home, so there's no bank loan to worry about/deal with.)

• I reduced the value of the home in Quicken. I know it's kind of playing funny with the numbers, but over the past year I've taken the value of our home down waaaaaaay below market value. So when we sell now, even though it will be below what the house could have sold for a couple years ago, our selling price will be above what our finances say the home is worth. So when we sell in this depressed market, our net worth will actually increase! ;-)

Yes, selling a home these days can be dicey, as I've pointed out. But hopefully the steps above have made it easier for us to price our home reasonably and sell it as quickly as possible (when the time comes) so we can move on with our lives.

For more thoughts on real estate in this market, see these posts:

• Rule for Making Lowball Real Estate Offers

• Can You Afford Your Mortgage?

• Five Signs that a Property Might be Ripe for a Lowball Bid

• How to Tell If Your Home is Overpriced

Comments

[Lauren]

We're starting the process of looking for a home to purchase, and I've found several bizarre offers like, "We'll cover your realtor fees AND throw in a $7000 gift card to Home Depot!" It does not function as an incentive to me; it makes me wonder what is so wrong with the house that they have to offer me $7k in Home Depot cards to get me to buy it.

[D]

It would seem that most people would want a no hassle closing and a how that was move-in ready--and of course, all at the right price. Including gimmickry might get a house noticed but might not get is sold. Doing things like updating the roof, inspecting/fixing plumbing or heating issues, etc. may not seem very sexy but will lower the barrier to potential buyers. Think of it from the perspective of giving them reasons not to say no, rather than how to get them to say yes.

[Start-Up]

You really want to sell your home for under market value just to sell it? And recording your home's value in your net worth at way below market value just so you feel better about selling it for under market value? Is that really the best way to sell a house?