5 Tips for Determining Home Sale List Price

Determining your home sale list price is crucial to getting the most from what is likely to be your largest financial investment.

Gathering at least two comparative market analysis (CMA) reports is an important step in determining your home sale list price. A CMA is an examination of recent home sale prices of similar properties in your area; real estate agents use it to help determine the best list price of a home. Interview at least two qualified real estate agents who have recently sold homes in your neighborhood and review their CMA reports for your house. Don’t be distracted by the look of the report, just focus on the selection and interpretation of the data.

Unfortunately, sometimes the real estate agent who gives the highest market value is the one who gets the listing. This can set up the home to linger on the market and suffer multiple price reductions. A second potential misstep includes relying on Zillow’s Zestimates. Zillow provides data based on limited tax records and information added by real estate agents. Zestimate’s can be off by 20% to 30%, so you should use this estimate only as a starting point. A third potential misstep is when homeowners jump in with both feet when a friend or family member offers to be their real estate agent. While trust is important, your finances and relationships are important, too. Selling a house is a complex and stressful transaction; you need to consider results, not just relationships.

5 Tips for Determining Home Sale List Price

Use website estimates of your home’s value only as a starting point
Before enlisting a friend or family member to be your real estate agent, consider how it may affect the success of your sale, as well as your relationship with that individual
Interview at least 2 qualified real estate agents and review their comparable market analysis (CMA) reports
Focus on the selection and interpretation of data in CMA reports – not on the attractiveness of the report
Remember that you can ask for any price but that doesn’t mean that you will get it