Properly pricing your home in the Victoria and area real estate market is the most important part of the listing process. Every house sells, it just depends on the price. The price, the market, the marketing and the buyers who are currently looking are the factors that affect the sale of your house so you want to be competitive. Unrealistic pricing on your home may also help sell other similar homes are listed for sale nearby.
As the seller you ultimately have the right to say what you want to list your home at, but your trusted Victoria REALTOR® should help you determine a good price range. Your agent should put together a CMA (comparative market analysis) so that you can see what other homes in your area are selling for and what other homes are listed at. This helps guide you in pricing your home. Not every agent does this but your Victoria REALTOR® should be doing their homework as it helps you. It is important to look at recent sold prices and look at what the real estate market is doing at the moment. The most common mistake made by home owners is looking at what other houses are listed for and not looking at what they are actually selling for. There are so many factors in the process that affect the price of your home so it isn’t as easy as looking at what your neighbour’s house sold for. Also remember that some REALTORS® might just tell you what you want to hear and allow you to determine the list price which is often higher than actual market value. This is not a good strategy as you may end up with market damage and if the bank determines your house is at a lesser value than what a buyer has agreed to pay they will not approve the financing.
The goal in pricing is to not overprice but to also not undervalue your house either. To help you determine the best price for your home I will factor in its size, age, condition, special features, upgrades, location, etc. As Victoria and area real estate agents all have access to the same information on recent sales and current listings, when a REALTOR® is representing a buyer they also inform them of the same real estate statistics in Victoria so that they know what to offer. This is why it is best to price things correctly. The other important thing to realize is that the bank will order an appraisal before securing a mortgage so if you overprice your house and someone actually offers on it the bank can deny them a mortgage as the house doesn’t appraise out.
I look forward to hearing from you and can offer you a basic market analysis to give you a ballpark of what your house is worth and when you are ready to list I will prepare a much more detailed listing presentation. This takes several hours to analyze and prepare and changes each month so if you are satisfied with the ballpark figure and when you are ready to list your home for sale in Victoria and area I will put the time and effort into doing it properly so that you are educated and we have a game plan.
