Are you thinking of selling your home?  It can be so fun to sit and fantasize about the profits you will reap, the dream home you will inevitably be able to purchase based on the down payment you will accrue after selling your home, or the luxury vehicle it will allow you to purchase.  But before you indulge too much in these fantasies, you need to snap out of it, and get down to business crunching the numbers!

What is the key to pricing your home?  Market Value!!!  Market value is simply (and complexly) the price that a reasonable buyer in the current market will pay for your home.  Simple, right?  Not so much.  To determine what a reasonable buyer in the current market will pay for your home you need to know what comparable homes in your neighborhood have recently sold for, how those homes compare to your home, and how recently they have sold, since markets can change very swiftly and sometimes dramatically.

In order to determine this information you will need to enlist the services of a real estate agent who will create a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) specifically for your property.  How your agent goes about researching and creating this analysis will depend entirely on what has been going on in your local market recently.  Therefore, your agent must have a good grasp and a solid understanding of the local area, and possibly even the neighborhood or exact street where your house is located, depending on how localized the market is in your area.

So what can you do as a home owner to start figuring out if your home is worth enough to sell and make a profit?  Well, without a professionally created and analyzed CMA, it’s hard, but there are a few things you can do to educate yourself about the local market.  Start attending open houses in your neighborhood.  This will allow you to scope out possible competition, as well as listing prices for houses in the area (although list price is NOT market value!).  At those open houses, talk to other attendees who are looking to buy to get their impression of the open house and list price.  This will help you to understand the consumer better and how their opinions relate to your property.  Speak with the agent who is hosting the open house, as he/she may spill some secrets about the price point of the open house, or be able to give you some quick insight into how bad or good the market in your neighborhood is.  Lastly, speak with your neighbors who are in the process of selling their home, or who have just purchased or sold a home in your neighborhood.

Educating yourself on the local market is a key component to understanding your own home’s market value.  But again, it is very hard to determine market value without a fully researched and analyzed CMA.

If you are thinking of selling your home, or if you are just interested in getting a personalized CMA, please contact one of our agents at Herron Realty Group!  We look forward to working with you!