Optimal Home Pricing To Attract Buyers

Choosing The Correct List Price

So, your home pricing strategy is one of many important decisions you will have to make when listing your property for sale. 

In fact, this is the topic throughout the entire sales process where you will likely spend most of your time in deep thought and in long discussions trying to determine what your optimal list price should be. 

This can also be a stressful time since your decision will ultimately determine whether or not you obtain the best possible sales price.  Having an understanding of the home buying process is critical for sellers today and may help you with the task of setting the correct list price.

Regardless of your strategy when pricing your home, you need to understand that market value of virtually any piece of real estate in any market is largely determined by the buyers within that market.

One of the reasons buyers ultimately determine pricing is because, in today's "information Age" that we are living in,  buyers come very well prepared and they are only "willing" to pay a price based on what their own analysis of recent comparable sales within your neighbourhood shows is fair market value.

An important piece of information buyers have in their possession today is a market analysis called a CMA, which is essentially the same analysis likely provided to you when you listed your property for sale.

The buying process is managed and directed by the buyers real estate sales representative. 

When a property of interest is found, the agent may complete a comparative market analysis (CMA) in order to validate list price and to determine whether or not your home pricing decision (your set list price) reflects fair market value.

This evaluation of your list price often determines whether or not a buyer will make an offer and for how much.

The final price a buyer will be willing to pay will be determined largely by this comparative process as it is the most effective way to determine market value, so please take the CMA your listing agent prepares for you seriously.

When contemplating our home pricing decisions, we all have an idea of what we would like to get as a final sale price for our property.  The problem is that we are often unrealistic in what fair market value really is.  This may be due to emotional attachments to the home or simply an unqualified perspective on where the market stands at this moment. 

The CMA is an excellent tool to help us stay in line with current market conditions. 
Remember that there is a great danger in over-pricing a property.  It will stay on the market longer often becoming stagnant and in the end will either expire without selling or it will often sell for less than what fair market value was at the time of listing.