Pricing Your Home with Comparable Sales Data

Let Us Help Price Your Central Virginia Home to Sell

Looking at the sales of comparable properties is a great way to get a feel for the proper price for your home. In fact, when you work with a real estate agent, comparable sales are one of the first things the agent will pull when offering price suggestions. Here are some suggestions from our real estate agents at Napier Realtors ERA that will help you use comparable sales well for the pricing of your home.

Verify the Comparable Data is a Quality Comparison

Before using a sale as a basis for your pricing, you need to make sure it’s really a comparable sale. Some factors to look for include:

• Close proximity to your home. Choose a property no more than 1/2 mile from your home. If it's in the same neighborhood, that's even better.
• Recent sale timeframe. The real estate markets change so quickly that you want to look at homes that sold within the last 3 months.
• Similar size. Pricing has a lot to do with the size of a home, so look at one of similar size.
• Similar features. Age, construction, lot size, condition, number of rooms and any additional features added to the home are all part of what makes the home's price, so look at comparables that have similar features to your current home.

Finding the right comparable is an important part of using this as a pricing tool. If you can't find one that's exactly like your current home, talk to our agents about how to adjust your pricing based on what you can find. For example, if the comparable has a brand new kitchen, but your home doesn't, then you will need to lower your price a bit from the comparable sales price.

Learn About Sales Sweeteners

If possible, learn about any sales sweeteners used when the comparable home was sold. For example, if the seller offered down payment assistance, then the home's price may be higher than what you would want to price your home for. Reduce the value of any comparable sale you consider if you find out about these "deal sweeteners."

Get Agent Insights

After looking at comparables, talk to your agent about their unique insights into what is happening in your neighborhood and your local real estate market. Most likely the agent has actually been inside the homes that recently sold in your neighborhood, or at least seen their interior photos in the MLS before they sold, and will be able to help you understand how the factors you can't measure, like ugly flooring or poorly placed furnishings, impacted the sales price, and how that translates into the pricing strategy you should use in your home.

Comparable sales are a good way to get a feel for your home's potential starting price, but they are far from a cut-and-dried answer. You have to consider all of the factors that go in to the comparable home's sale, so make sure you are working with a qualified agent as you try to price and sell your home. Contact Napier Realtors ERA today to learn more about comparable sales and other home pricing strategies you can use to price your home to sell!

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