IS YOUR SELLING PRICE RIGHT?
Category Residential Property News
It’s the critical starting point when selling your home. When you price your home correctly, chances are it’ll sell quickly and easily. If not, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice
Everybody wants more for their house. More than the neighbour’s priced theirs, and more than the estate agent’s value it. It’s been the case since time immemorial, and it stands to reason – you love your home, it’s wonderfully familiar to you, perhaps your children were raised here, it has happy memories…and objectivity is difficult. Add to that, you might have a running tally of what you paid for it and when you paid it, what you’ve spent on it, the increase in material costs, and so on. If you’ve done recent renovations or additions – a pool, patio and so on – you might not be able to recoup all your costs. Nobody likes that.
You’re also conscious of having to buy elsewhere, and you need to get XYZ to buy in that gated estate or retirement village.
YOUR HOME’S VALUE
When you’re given a valuation of your home, don’t throw up your hands in horror if it doesn’t match yours. Just as the estate agent will have done a thorough search of similar property sold (note, selling not asking prices) in your road/section of the suburb, so too, should you. If you’re uncomfortable with the suggested figure, do some of your own homework – enlist the help of the estate agent if necessary, and ask him or her to break it down for you. Take the time to talk through the reasons for that valuation.
OVERPRICED BECOMES OVEREXPOSED
There are a number of reasons why overpricing backfires.
A house which stays on the market too long, becomes overexposed – buyers become weary of it…and wary of it. They want to know why it hasn’t sold? Is there something they don’t know?
The longer it’s on the market, the less any prospective buyers think they need to pay for it – ‘he must be desperate’ – it elicits cheeky offers.
WISE ADVICE
If you’re unhappy with the valuation you’ve been given – and you don’t need to sell your property – rather don’t sell now.
If it’s overpriced, and been on the market a while, take it off before the public tires of it. If you need to move, consider renting it out. Even if the rental achieved isn’t as high as you’d like, it will ease some financial pressure, and enable you to wait a while before selling.
NO, IT’S NOT THE MARKET
Whether the property market is buoyant or not, correct pricing of a property is key to a swift sale. Realistically, nobody is going to overpay for a property – buyers are more savvy today than before, and they do their homework.
If you really want or need to sell your home, listen to advice – as much as you can get - and do your own homework.
Your aim should be a swift sale with a price as close to your asking price as possible.
Author: Anne Schauffer
