The housing market continues to be ever-changing, which can make pricing a home for sale challenging. Fortunately, Mike and his team at Mike McCurry Group have a strong understanding of current market trends and can expertly advise on ideal pricing points. Read on for important insights and tips…
Focus on Local Comparable Sales (Comps)
When you are preparing to list your home for sale, a first place to consult is hyper-localized comps. Look at homes in your immediate neighborhood (within a 1-mile radius) that have sold in the past 30-90 days. Using recent and relevant comps helps to ensure that pricing is based on real-time market trends and not old data. Older data can unfortunately give unrealistic expectations of a home’s value, as it does not account for the shifting market. Key criteria to consider when evaluating local comps:
- Square footage – compare homes similar in size to your home
- Condition - adjust your baseline price based on the condition of your home (factoring in age, any recent updates, remodels, etc.)
- Location – if you live near a desirable downtown area, are within walking distance of local shops/restaurants, etc. this could drive up your asking price
Monitor Local Market Indicators
Keep in mind that as you are preparing to properly price your home in a competitive market, your local trends and comps matter more than the broader national real estate trends. If you see that comps are sitting for at least 60 days on the market (this is not typically happening in our current market), then you’ll need to have a highly competitive price point. Fortunately for sellers right now demand is extremely high, so sellers typically can list with a higher price point due to buyers’ interest.
On the flip side though, keep in mind that with more home inventory comes more competition. Finding the sweet spot of pricing is setting the price competitively enough to meet the sellers’ market, but low enough to stay competitive and attractive to buyers.
Choose the Right Pricing Strategy
A key consideration here is the fact that how you position your home relative to its perceived market value could dictate how quickly the home sells. Often there are three options for pricing strategy:
- At market value – this is often a solid number that appraises well
- Just below market value – in rapidly changing markets, pricing slightly below comps can force a sense of urgency, thereby triggering multiple offers and potentially pushing the final closing price up
- Above market value – this is a riskier option, as overpricing in such a shifting market can lead to your home not selling quickly. This could also create the need for a price cut down the road, which may cause you to net even less than if you’d properly priced at the onset
Leverage Compass Proprietary Tools
As a Compass agent, Mike McCurry is backed by one of the most advanced real estate platforms in the industry, designed to make the entire process more transparent, efficient and successful.
One such tool is a proprietary end-to-end platform that Compass built, called Buyer Demand. Supporting every step of the real estate journey, Buyer Demand provides critical insights on how many serious buyers are actively searching for homes like yours, and at what price points. This intel provides clearer direction on how to properly price your home, giving you confidence as a competitive seller when entering this changing real estate market.