10th Oct, 2007

Pricing Your Naperville Home Right

Sellers of Naperville real estate are best off working with an agent who is on top of the details and market assessments for Naperville and DuPage County real estate. The Naperville Realtor will help the seller to understand that the sale of the Naperville home will ultimately be determined by what the home is worth to a qualified buyer—not the owners perception of their home’s value.

Sellers may be inclined to price their homes using a mixture of sentimental value, insurance replacement value, the appraised value, a tax-assessed value, etc. But, is the banker, the insurance company or the appraiser going to write out a check for the Naperville property? The value of the Naperville real estate is determined only by what a reasonable buyer will pay for it.

The safety latch is that every buyer knows that the seller has no obligation to sell his home at any price. If the buyer wants the home, he will have to make an offer that the seller will not refuse. On the flip side, buyers are under no obligation to buy any particular home. No amount of marketing, continual open houses, websites ads, or signage will motivate a buyer to purchase an overpriced home. They can and will buy another home for less.

This brings up one of the most important considerations in pricing your home: Price versus Time. What is more important to you, price or time? Most people want both. But really think about the equation. You can’t whip your Realtor into making someone buy your overpriced house by next week. You must choose between price and time and set a marketing strategy accordingly.

For sellers this boils down to the need to sell within a set time frame or instead to hold out for the best possible price, and for buyers it is the need to buy within a set time frame or to purchase a home for the lowest possible price. A seller who would like to sell for top dollar should be prepared to potentially wait longer for a buyer willing to pay a premium price. No matter how much a seller yells, screams, and kicks a real estate agent, they don’t do miracles.

Successful sellers understand that, while a real estate agent’s job is to provide marketing, expert advice, and negotiating services, the Realtor does not own the property. Realtors do not make the final decisions on pricing. The seller does. Ultimately, the seller’s asking price will in large part determine how slowly or quickly the home will sell. Successful sellers take ownership of their pricing decisions by making a clear decision about which is more important to them: selling quickly or selling for top dollar.

Successful sellers have learned that to price their home accurately means they need to look at the world through a buyer’s eyes. Doing some footwork as a “buyer”, the seller gets the uncanny ability to predict listing prices. Then, a seller can get really scientific and review a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA).

A CMA is a report that compares a specific home, often called the “subject home” with other homes in a specific neighborhood. This analysis is then used to provide an anticipated sales price or price range for the subject property. Although not formally called an appraisal, the report provides a similar function by giving home buyers and home sellers a clear understanding of the market data that might affect their opinion of value. To learn more about using a CMA to help price your home, talk to Larry Shakman at FeaturedHome.com for expert advice and service.

Responses

[…] When you hire a Naperville real estate agent to help sell your home in Naperville, you will gain access to a wealth of knowledge—including information and legal tips. Today, we will talk about some of the more obvious information that is constantly in the awareness of a Naperville real estate professional. This information is just a sampling of little reasons why a reputable agent can make selling Naperville real estate into a trouble-free transaction. An agent’s experience with selling Naperville homes also comes in handy when you are preparing the home for the market. […]

[…] There are a number of dynamics that can affect a property’s market time. The single most important thing a seller can do to lessen the time their home is on the market is to price their home correctly the first time. […]

[…] There were 109 closings of Naperville single family homes from September 1, 2007 to October 1, 2007. In the same period last year there were 127 closings, or 18 more. The average list price in September 2007 was $538,767, while the average sale price came in at just under $519,000. This gave us a sale price to list price ratio of 96%. […]

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