How to Price Your Home Correctly In Today's Market

There are many factors that come into play when you're trying to sell your home, but the bottom line is pricing. Here are some tips on how to price your home as you prepare to put it on the market.

With homes not selling like they use to it is obvious that the market has changed, so what is the single most important thing that people need to keep in mind right now?

I've been working in real estate for over 24 years and I love what I do, but my biggest challenge is still going into someone's home and telling them that their home may not be worth what they had hoped or expected it would be worth. In some cases, if they just bought their home, it may not even be worth as much as they paid for it a few years ago. So my number one challenge is getting people into reality - getting people to understand that price is the most crucial part of it - yes it is a beauty contest, but it's primarily a price war; we've got to price it correctly.

Homeowners also need to evaluate their mindset before they go into the process of selling their home.

What I'm referring to when I say mindset is, "Do I really want to sell? Do I have to sell? Am I willing to pay the price to sell in today's economy?" If you are thinking of selling your home you need to ask yourself these questions because if you are not truly ready you may want to consider other options such as renting your home instead, or maybe a lease purchase, or delaying it for a few years until the market turns back around. But don't venture out there and just experiment; it's not fun having your home on the market right now. The market is very, very competitive.

People also need to take into consideration some outside factors; not just what works for them right now.

We all make plans with our imagined equity; I did the same thing. I sold my home not long ago and I thought I had "x" number of equity in my property and when I closed, it turned out that I had about two-thirds of what I thought I had. We make plans with equity we don't have. The market doesn't care about our plans - unfortunately, I'm sorry - but it doesn't care, so always keep that in mind.

Everybody out there is looking for a deal so you need to take advantage of that right now.

It's a price war, but it's a beauty contest. The price war part of it is that it has got to be a great value. It's got to be a wonderful value because we're competing with distressed properties, we're competing with foreclosures, and we're competing with homes that people have walked away from. One of the ways you can compete is to find an agent who will waive his or her entire listing portion of the commission. This type of arrangement will lower your costs to sell your home so you can in turn, lower the asking price of the home. A lower asking price will bring more traffic through the front door because it looks like a better value from the outside. This sort of program is working great for lots of people.

How can someone find out what the approximate value of their home is right now?

There is a free service available online that will search recent home sales in your area; all across the country. You can go to Your Home's Value and fill in your address information there. This is a completely free service that will tell you what's happened around your neighborhood. It's a really great tool if you're thinking about selling; a lot of people are enjoying the benefits of that tool.