Selling Your Home Yourself - Pricing It Appropriately
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

When you're selling your own property, whether it's a house,townhouse, condo, apartment, a finished lot, raw land, a farm, aranch, or whatever, the first thing to get right is the priceyou ask for it. If you work with a broker, the legwork is donefor you. When you work as a FSBO (For Sale By Owner), you needto figure it out yourself. Let's look at how to do just that.

Setting a Price

First, don't make the mistake of looking only at what you needto get out of it. It's important to know that, of course, butthat number may, or may not, have any relationship whatsoever tomarket price. It may be lower or higher than market price. Thefirst is situation is great. The latter may require you torethink whether you want to sell your property at this time.

If you price your property below market price, it'll be snappedup quickly. The problem, of course, is you'll leave a lot ofmoney on the table. This will lead to a lot of seller's remorse.

If you price your property above market price, it may sit thereunsold



until the cows come home. If it's priced very much abovemarket price, people won't even come and look at it. The marketplace talks and it talks loudly.

So What's Your Goal?

Market price is nearly always a range of prices -- high, medium,and low -- not an exact price. You want to price yourself nearthe top of the market price range for your property. That way,you'll have flexibility to negotiate price if need be.

The only exception to the above scenario is if you're in a hurryto sell your property. In that situation, you should priceyourself near the lower end of the market price range. Even ifforced to do this, make sure you leave some wiggle room tonegotiate with a buyer. Buyers will always assume the listedprice is negotiable.

How Do You Determine Market Price as a FSBO?

The first way is the simplest and most expensive. Have itappraised by an appraiser who works with one or more mortgagelenders. Call the firm who initially issued your mortgage loanand ask who they use in your area. Be sure the appraiser knowsyour purpose is to establish the asking price for a sale.

Using an appraiser can cost a few hundred dollars, but it can bemoney well spent. In addition to helping you price yourproperty, it can also be helpful to show a buyer with whomyou're negotiating that an appraisal supports the asking price.

If you live in an area with a tight pattern of sales prices, youcan check the price of sales in your neighborhood over the lastthree to six months. This is particularly true if you live in asubdivision with houses in a narrow range of sizes and styles.Many jurisdictions have this information online. If not, it is amatter of public record and should be available at thecourthouse. The more individualized and unique your property,the more difficult this approach. With a little work, however,you can learn a lot.

Another method for establishing a price is an online search. Ifyou search for "pricing + house + your state," for example, youshould find sites that will help you price your property. Someof these use real estate agents and brokers as resources, andthat leads us to another option.

It's really unfair if you don't intend to use a broker to helpyou sell your property, but if that's your fall back position(if selling on your own doesn't work out), you might invite abroker to do a market analysis of your property for you. Be upfront. Explain that you're going to try it on your own first.

Even under those circumstances, many brokers are willing to helpyou evaluate the market price of your property without anycharge to you. They also usually give you a presentation of howthey'd go about marketing your property should you decide to usethem. Listen to that carefully, too.

You can start evaluating whether you want to work with thisperson if you're not satisfied with your FSBO efforts. You alsomay very well pick up marketing ideas you can implementyourself.

A Note of Caution

Don't rely too heavily on what neighbors tell you in socialsituations about the sale of their own and/or other propertiesin your neighborhood. Listen, of course, but be aware that theyoften just know the original asking price and the fact thatthere's a buyer in the picture. They don't know that the askingprice was lowered because of the condition of the house, aredecorating allowance was given, etc.

Don't talk to a neighbor and then think, "Well, that house soldfor $X, my house is in much better condition; therefore, Ishould be able to get $X + $Y." Maybe so. Maybe not. Base yourpricing decisions on the most solid information available toyou, not neighborhood gossip.

If you base your pricing decisions on solid information and usegood common sense, you should get a good result. In this case, agood result means a quick sale!

About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - providing FSBOhomes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to list and sell your homefor free for one month. Visithttp://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm to see homes for sale byowner.

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