Home Sellers Pricing Guide – Getting A Better Sales Price is All About Strategy

How Sell Your Home for the Best Price in 2020

The market is heating up again this spring of 2020.  Like so many homeowners, you’re wondering if this is the right time to sell? Perhaps you’ll be forced to sell if you’ve lost your job.

The Corona Virus recession might be ending in a few months, but for some it will be too little too late. It’s time to get more strategic about selling your home before foreclosure.

And what will your home sell for in 2020?

The latest MLS sales reports show that listing are down severely in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago,  Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Seattle, and Miami. Any home coming onto the market will have strong interest. Home sellers should be talking with a Realtor about a professional selling strategy.

On the other hand, you could end up selling too late, as you’ll note in the Calgary Housing Forecast.

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

We’ve seen years of homeowners all playing the waiting game, hoping for the market to fully ripen before they harvest. It looks like the fall harvest has arrived. But will sellers get what they’re asking for or more? Will they be too late?

How to Get the Best Price for Your Home?

For those of you in hot markets, the price you ask for is just a starting point on the way to the price you’ll ultimately receive. The key to maximizing the return on your real estate investment is in how your Realtor conducts marketing for your property — not in high pressure negotiation which brings smaller gains.

It’s important to know what to look for in a good Realtor so you don’t get unpleasant surprises and have to work with a poorly qualified buyer.  Big sales prices come out of strategy and targetting well qualified buyers – not last minute tactics.

The Market Changes Month to Month

Right now you may not get the all-cash offer from a wealthy buyer. Instead you may have to sell to someone who saw your mls listing, or who is financing the purchase, or who is buying conditionally. When you cancel out all the “on the edge” tire kicker type buyers, you’re left with a small number of well qualified prospects. These are the ones you want to market to strategically, and whom your Realtor should have fixed on his/her radar.

What does a thorough, effective Realtor Marketing Service Package Look Like? Definitely take a look.

Home Pricing Tips to Help You Get Your Price

Home Pricing Tip #1

Sell at a lower price than you want to.  If you price high, few will be interested. If you price low, you’ll get a herd of tire kickers and your real buyers will be more motivated to get an offer in. It’s a common practice and in this era, it’s a fool proof approach. In fact, the bidding war news stories you’ve heard about likely were priced low.

Home Pricing Tip #2

Have Your Realtor do a Foolproof Market Evaluation. Your Realtor’s free market evaluation will generate a price, but it won’t always get the comps right.  Your Realtor will look for similar homes and it’s important to know why they sold for the price they did. Your Realtor likely knows what’s happened and will be ready to utilize that knowledge.

Home Pricing Tip #3

Set the asking price just below a round number.  Sell at $105 lower than a major number. If your house could sell for $1 million, don’t just price it at $999,995.00 Everyone is familiar with that pricing trick. Instead, take the third last number down by $5. So your new price would be $999,895.00 Psychologically, that 8 stands out. It looks like a nice discount when in fact, it’s only $105.

“Our study suggests that by using the just below pricing strategy sellers can price their home slightly higher without driving away potential buyers,” says Eli Beracha, author of a study published in the Journal of Housing Research. “As a result, they end up selling their house for more.” The study revealed a 2.5 to 3% increase in sold price.

Home Pricing Tip #4

Many homebuyers look for homes for sale in a certain price range that varies from city to city. In Toronto where the average price of a single detached home might be $1.4 million, a home priced just below $1 million is going to be found by more home searchers. Your first goal is maximimum visibility since you’re likely to get a better offer from 100 people than you are from only 15 people.

Home Pricing Tip #5

Create a home marketing plan and a home pricing contingency plan with your Realtor or a marketer before you put it up for sale. You want a marketing campaign that’s going to ensure 100%, that you get maximum exposure and the very best price. Better safe than sorry! If you price low and your Realtor relies only on the MLS and his own small circle of buyers, you could be in for disappointing bids.

Home Pricing Tip #6

Definitely go for a bidding war. Ensure your home’s most salient features, the ones buyers drool over, are clearly explained and shown in photos and video. Ensure your Realtor has good exposure online, has a great website, is advertising, and looks like they’ve got their stuff together. Everyone’s should know you’re selling your house in this market of desperate buyers.

Home Pricing Tip #7

Use hi definition photography, video and 3D home tours. People look online, and the impact you make is key to getting call from prospective buyers. Some videos are spectacular and the cost might be very reasonable. Seeing is believing and when you’re transparent, the buyers know they’re not wasting their time. Their time is just as valuable as yours.

Home Pricing Tip #8

Listen to your Realtor’s pricing strategy. If they’re experienced, they know how the selling game is played. All Realtors say they can close any prospect, but it’s just not true. They should be able to explain the jist of how to get the home priced right and how to negotiate with buyers.

Home Pricing Tip #9

Have your home professionally staged. Get your stuff out of there and let them bring in the furniture and dressings to appeal to the targeted buyer. It’s another cost, but if your marketing and pricing plan is good, you’ll easily recover that money.

Home Pricing Tip #10

Time your open houses well and advertise heavily during that time. There will be buyers driving around and they may be using a variety of house hunting apps on their smartphone. Buyers are desperate and thorough these days. Don’t rely on the MLS listings only.

Home Pricing Tip #11

Ensure your listing is well advertised and that your open house is visible via Google. If you know of a real estate blog that is high trafficked, advertise on it, or better yet ensure your open house listing page is indexed in Google and optimized for “open houses + city name, or neighborhood”

Home Pricing Tip #12

In your marketing, ensure you’re not just selling a house – a big box made of wood and cement. You need to evoke the buyer’s dreams because a home is all about dreams. Dreams are why some buyers will pay $1 million over asking.

Home Pricing Studies and Resources:

https://www.builderonline.com/money/prices/left-digit-in-sale-price-affects-home-buyers-most_o

https://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2016/08/12/study-reveals-best-real-estate-pricing-strategy

“https://globalnews.ca/news/3162259/toronto-house-sells-for-more-than-1m-over-asking-amid-record-year-for-home-sales/”

“https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/mortgages-and-rates/top-10-ways-to-win-a-real-estate-bidding-war/article4559578/?page=all”

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