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Real Estate pricing is probably the most critical task you will face when selling your home. Sellers naturally want to get the best price and the best terms for their home for the time that it is on the market. However, determining your home’s worth isn’t always a straight forward process as there are pitfalls. If you price your house too high, you may not receive any offers. and your house may languish on the market for weeks, losing its “marketability”. If you price it too low, you may end up losing money.

Ultimately, the best price for your home is the amount that a buyer is willing to pay at the time you’re selling. An experienced, trained Realtor® will be able to help you gauge your home’s value.

A Guide to Pricing Your Home In Today’s Market

While several factors influence the pricing of a home, the most common and reliable method is the comparative market approach. Get a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). This is a report that provides a suggested sales price based on the prevailing market. Your Realtor® can provide a CMA, usually for free. It is not an appraisal. In a CMA, your Realtor® examines recent sales in your neighborhood of properties matching your house’s age, square footage and features.

Active listings (other homes for sale) are scrutinized as these listings are your competition. An examination should also be made of withdrawn and expired listings. Very often these listings didn’t sell because of pricing issues and you can profit from these lessons. Based on this accumulated data, your Realtor will arrive at what he believes is a fair and reasonable price.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN PRICING YOUR HOME
Property Location – If the home is located in a noisy, busy neighborhood it may not be attractive and, therefore, will command a lower price. Is it in a desirable location? Is the property close to transportation and other amenities such as schools, shopping centers, post offices, etc?

Needs of the seller – Is there pressure to sell quickly? Is the sale contingent on another sale?

Season – Statistically, more homes are put on the market in the Spring and Summer creating more competition.

Tenure – Is the property leasehold or fee simple? Generally, leasehold properties sell for less than fee simple properties.

Condition of the home – Does the house have “curb appeal”? Is it new? Does it look fresh or run down? Does it have attractive features?

Other factors – These include the prevailing interest rates, the economy, the crime rate, employment and timing.

Remember, when pricing your home, you must be emotionally detached. The market doesn’t care how much you originally paid for your house. Nor does it care about the time and cost that you put into improving it. In slow markets especially, you must be prepared to price your property in keeping with the market forces.

There is a danger in overpricing your home with the intent to establish a “strong” negotiating position. Qualifying buyers who would otherwise consider your property will disqualify it automatically based on its unreasonably high price.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SELL YOUR HOME QUICKLY
Work closely with your Realtor®. Ask questions and consider his/her advice. This person is a trained professional. Your Realtor’s® knowledge of the market along with his/her negotiation skills, experience and “street smarts” will serve you well.

Make your house more attractive. This doesn’t mean you have to launch major improvements. Look at your house through the eyes of a prospective buyer: Does the lawn need to be mowed? Should clutter be removed? Would the front door benefit from a little paint?

Go on a field trip. Visit open houses in your neighborhood to get a feel for the market. Compare your home to these real estate offerings.

Do your research. Scan the real estate section of the Sunday newspaper for any new houses for sale in your area.

REAL ESTATE TERMINOLOGY
The specialized language of real estate can often be confusing and mysterious. Here are some common terms that you’ll encounter:

Scorgan 52 Week 10: Geometry

Perusing the photographs taken on my travels in India left me with the distinct impression that just about any photograph of a Rajasthani building would satisfy the theme of "Geometry" -- domes, arches, scalloped porticos and symmetric paneling adorn most historic buildings in the region, and the geometric patterns and intricate tiling recur throughout the structures. But it would be difficult to deny that the most geometrically complex patterns occur at Agra's Taj Mahal...

Leaving Delhi, we'd been too late to reserve a seat on the morning train to Agra (the passenger manifests are issued at 9 PM the previous evening) and had to resort to the [sometimes successful] ploy of purchasing general seating tickets, sitting in the assigned seating AC car and bribing the ticket taker to let us pay the difference between general tickets and assigned seating.

(Note: in India, "general seating" refers to the mode of seating in which 400 people cram into a car built for a capacity of 50 in no particular order, then proceed to pile on top of one another until passengers' heads are hitting the ceiling of the cabin..."general seating" is also code for "No AC in the sweltering 100+ degree Fahrenheit Rajasthan summer)

This approach typically works because (a) the AC cars in the trains from Delhi to Agra rarely fill because most Indian citizens choose general seating and (b) the ticket takers like bribes. Slight problem: a British secondary school group on tour through India jovially marched in and occupied every AC seat in the car. Long story made slightly less long: we marched ourselves 10 cars back to the general seating cars and camped out on the floor in a connecting corridor with our feat hanging out the train. At least it provided a good view of the Indian countryside...

Fast forward to Agra where our first task was, obviously, to make it to the Taj Mahal. Parmita had dressed as conservatively as possible to convince the ticket sales office that she was an Indian citizen (tourists are charged an admission price 10x that of Indian citizens at most attractions, and thanks to her Gujarati heritage and fluent Hindi, Parmita typically has a pretty easy time pulling off the ruse) but we found ourselves barred from the Taj when they noticed her leading around a bumbling, awkward, Amazonian white girl with big sunglasses and a massive camera around her neck.

Forty-five minutes later we'd made the circuit around all four entrances to the Taj; at the fourth the ticket taker threw up his hands and allowed Parmita in with a citizen discount. And then I went to Stereotypical-Taj-Mahal-Tourist-Photographing Heaven.

Although I should have expected it, I was disappointed by how difficult it was to take a picture of the structure that didn't seem tired and cliched. And so I concentrated my efforts on the details rather than the structure as a whole. I stationed myself at the base of the platform leading to the mausoleum, where no one was stopping to photograph -- presumably due to the rust stains, dirt, and inhibited view of the palace. I found that I liked the contrast between the glitzy and glorified tourist monument and the age and wear that showed in the surroundings when you looked closer.