What’s My Home Worth?

A question as old as time. I always like to say there are two ways to approach listing a house.  I coin the two as follows: the list high approach, and the auction approach. The list high approach is as follows: list the price of the home at or around the highest comparable you can find and target either a sole, or a few buyers that are approved and looking at that price in your area. IF, and that’s a big if, there is someone that meets that criteria in your area, you may be able to sell your home at a better price than what it’s market value may be. This is especially useful/true in hot sellers markets. The auction approach can be thought of as follows: List your property at market value based on a range of comparables, or slightly below that value to stimulate demand and artificially increase the price to a more acceptable amount for you. The analogy of an auction works well with this approach. It is the goal of an auctioneer to start the bidding at a value well below what the auctioneer plans to sell a particular object/artifact at. If he/she is able to get more people into a room to bid on that object, those that are bidding begin to compete against one another and artificially raise the price of the object up. It then sells at a higher value. The same analogy can be used for a house. List it at or below market value and stimulate an increased amount of demand/foot traffic into your home to get more offers. Both approaches can work. However, they are going to be influenced by market conditions. Reach out to me today for a better idea of what you can do to best help you sell your home.

The home selling process can be complicated. To prepare, think about breaking it down into different categories:

The first category includes the “administrative side” as I’ll call it. Prepare yourself for when the time comes in advance. Gather documents associated with your mortgage/mortgage company - loan number, payoff amount, etc. - this way you can have an idea of how much you’re going to walk away with when the home sells. You should also gather a list of any and all repairs that have been done over the life of ownership of the property. These will be pivotal when it comes time to sell to provide for the buyer. If you’ve performed some higher end upgrades on the home, it’ll help prioritize it in the minds of buyers more so than other homes you may be competing against. 

The second category includes the “perceptual items” as I’ll call these. These are things that you can do specifically to your home that can sway and influence a buyers perception of it. Make sure you take time to upgrade your homes landscaping - first impressions, thus your homes curb appeal, are extremely important! Also, it may be time to replace minor holes/dinks/damages to some of your walls, to add a touch up coat of paint in areas that may need a little TLC, and clean/spruce up your house so that buyer’s may have the best opportunities to envision themselves in it. After all, that vision is what sells someone on your home!

In a hot market, home inspections may not always be performed as prospective buyers bid against one another to get the house that they want. When a market cools, this often is no longer the case. So what should you expect? For starters, when a home inspection is elected and performed as a part of a contingency for a buyer to purchase a home, there are a few key items that home inspectors most often look for. These include, but are not limited to, the condition of the homes foundation, the quality and performance of the roof, and the condition of major utility systems - i.e. plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems. If, in advance, you know there may be an issue with one of these items, it is often best to disclose it to avoid any liability on your end when the home sells - even if the inspector misses it in the inspection report. It is the job of the inspector to protect the buyer, so they will likely and purposefully include any and all items that they deem necessary to repair on the inspection report. This also reduces liability off of the home inspector/home inspection company, so it is in their best interest to do so. Fear not! These reports may seem intimidating, but many of these items may be negotiated. You can offer to fix them for the buyer, provide a buyer with a credit, or flat out tell the buyer that you are not willing to address the item. At this point, it will be the buyers responsibility to address the issue. But beware, if you are not willing to work with the buyer on an inspection item, they may be able to pull out of the contract. Interested in hearing more about the home inspection process and what you can do to prepare for it? Reach out to Ryan today.