How to Receive the Most Money for Your Home

Naturally, sellers want to receive the most money possible for their homes when they sell. There is one item that, if not perfect, will cause your home to sell for less than it should — that single item is the price. 

Pricing your home properly to begin with is without question the single most important factor to selling your home for top dollar. When done properly, this positions your home in the marketplace to sell for the absolute highest possible price. When the home is priced too low, it may sell quickly and yet could sell for less money than it should. When the home is priced too high, it will sit on the market for a long period of time and ultimately sell for less.

The biggest mistake I see by owners selling, as well as by real estate agents, is overpricing a home to start with and having to reduce the price multiple times. When a home is listed for sale, it reaches the highest number of potential buyers the first few days it is on the market. If a home is dismissed as being overpriced early on, you will lose potential buyers, ouch!

Buyers sift through listings online; they look at the main home photo first, then they look at the price. If the potential buyer does not like either of those items, they will move on to the next listing. Ask yourself: How many times have I done that? We do it all the time.

The challenge is pricing the home properly. You can use the Zillow Zestimate; you can see how much a neighbor’s home is listed for and price a home the same, or you can just price the home at the amount of money you “want” to get (or need to get) for it. Unfortunately none of those methods work, and they certainly will not help you sell a home for top dollar. Let’s take a quick look at why these methods don’t work.

The Zillow Zestimate is a very popular, well-marketed tool. Zillow is in the business of generating leads for real estate agents, and it is very good at it. The Zillow Zestimate is an interesting tool, but it is not usually accurate. The entire system is computerized and based off of public records that are sometimes incorrect. There have been numerous occasions when I have come across public records in which the number of bedrooms, bathrooms or the square footage of a home has been incorrect. All of these errors lead to inaccurate Zestimate results.

The biggest issue with the Zestimate is its inability to take into account items such as home features, upgrades and the condition of a property. Those items require an actual human to take an in-depth look at your property and determine how it truly compares to another property. Once that determination is made, proper adjustments to the value are made.

Looking to Sell Your Home in San Diego? Be Careful not to Overprice Your Home

Sellers beware of the challenges when you overprice your home.

“We can always come down in price later.” Every Realtor has heard this phrase many times before when talking with clients about selling their home. While it’s true, yes you can always come down later, it’s not going to save you money…or time.

San Diego is one of the top real estate markets in the country. When your home hits the market, all eyes are open, ears are listening, and decisions are being made. You have one opportunity to set the stage to get the most interest in your home and the most offers at your table. Overprice your home and run the high risk of these common situations.

Those ready, willing, and able buyers, will move on instead of moving in. The serious buyers are the ones that are qualified and on a time crunch. They may be paying rent at a property they’re ready to get out of and each month hurts their down payment on the new home. Or, they currently have their home in escrow and the accepted offer is contingent on them locating and finding a new home. These are the buyers that would have paid much more for your property in a multiple offer situation by pricing it correctly. When this type of buyer comes across an overpriced home, their agent gives them the exact line that we began with…”they are probably testing the market and going to come down in price later.”