Setting a price for Your Orange County Home

If you set the price too high, your house won't be picked for viewing, even though it may be much nicer than others in the area, potential buyers won't even see that because you didn't make their viewing list. You may have told your REALTOR to "Bring me any offer because I'll take less." But in their list of houses to view, your home simply looks too expensive to be considered and gets skipped altogether. Then lowering your price puts you in a difficult position of everyone thinking you are now desperate to sell.

If you price too low, you'll short-change yourself. I'm sure your home will sell promptly, but before it has time to find the buyer who would have paid more. It's a delicant balance of supply and demand, and your Realtor is the expert in this area and has the available resources to provide this information.

NOTE: Never say "asking" price, which implies you don't expect to get it. Better to say "Offered at:"

To determine the proper list price, contact me today and I'll provide you with the following professional services:

• Furnishing comparable sales. What has sold lately that is similiar to yours?
• Analyzing market conditions. How many months of homes are available: supply & demand.
• Helping to determine offering incentives. Paying closing costs, low or no down loans, etc.
• Estimating your net proceeds. How much money will you make if sold at that price?

Looking at other Orange County properties recently sold in your neighborhood will give you the best insight as to what the buying public is willing to pay. Just because other homes in your neighborhood are for sale at "X" price doesn't mean that is what they are selling for. You can ask ANY price for your home, but that doesn't mean buyers will pay that, or that if sold it will appraise for that. I will furnish this data and analyze them against your home to form a suggested listing price. The decision about how much to ask, though, is always yours. The list of comparable sales I bring to you, along with data about other houses in your neighborhood presently on the market, is used for a "Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)." To help in estimating a possible sale price for your house, the analysis will also include data on nearby houses that failed to sell in the past few months, along with their list prices.

Appraisals will be based only on past sales, unlike the CMA that uses past sales, current homes on the market, and homes that failed to sell. In addition, an appraisal is done for a fee while the CMA is provided by me as a tool to help you find the right listing price for your home.

If you have a unique property, or if there hasn't been much activity in your area recently, a formal written appraisal can be very useful in determining a listing price.

In the normal home sale, a CMA is probably enough to let you set a proper price. A formal written appraisal (which may cost a few hundred dollars) can be useful if you have unique property, if there hasn't been much activity in your area recently, if co-owners disagree about price, and any other circumstance that makes it difficult to put a value on your home.

NOTE: If you do order a market value appraisal, make it clear you don't need an elaborate, or full narrative report--the kind that's complete with photos of the house and neighborhood, a map specifying the site, and floor plans is sufficient.