Before your house is put on the market, it is important to determine an accurate market value for your home. We always do a thorough comparative market analysis (CMA) which will help us determine a likely range that your home should sell for. In the analysis, we will look at similar homes to yours which have:

• Recently sold
• Are currently under contract
• Are currently active on the market

This will also help us determine an appropriate price to list your house taking into consideration the current competition and current market activity. We give our objective perspective and advice as to how much you should list your house for. While we would want you take our advice, ultimately you decide on the list price for your house. However, it's important for seller to keep in mind that it is the buyers in the market who ultimately determine the market value of your home. That is because your home is only worth what a willing, ready, and able buyer is willing to pay. What a buyer is willing to pay should be in line with the value we see in the CMA, as long as there are no major changes within the market, and you make the right decisions on pricing right from the start.

Many homeowners tend to over price their house when they first hit the market because they:

• believe they should have “wiggle room” to be able to negotiate to the price they want to get.
• simply wish that someone will pay more than the market data indicates.
• price it based upon what they “need to get” in order to sell their house.
• add every dollar of improvements they have made to the house over the years onto the data-driven value.

When an owner over-prices, for any of these reasons, they usually lose the market’s interest by being out of line with the market. This causes their home to accrue long days on market, and cause buyers to wonder, “What’s wrong with the house?” So, before we even go over the market analysis, my best advice is to listen to the data and price your home accordingly. That’ll end up saving you a lot of time, money, and aggravation.