Frustrated homeowners are accumulating, and traditional real estate pricing practices are not making them any happier. It is time to recognize that there is a new way to determine the best asking price for getting a home sold in today’s difficult real estate market.

What we have been doing is not working. The real estate graph to the right shows that if we compare the number of homes that have sold, with the number of homes that were put up for sale over the past year, 81% failed! Would you hire a REALTOR® if you knew they were sporting an 81% failure rate?

I hope not. And you do not have to. There are new techniques that allow a REALTOR® to determine the best asking price for your home, and this article will show you what to expect from a top real estate company in your area. If these technical issues are not discussed, you can rest assured knowing that you are dealing with somebody using traditional home pricing methods and that if you hire them, you will most likely join the 81% club!

How To Find Comparable Properties

The first thing both a traditional methodology and the new methodology will do is to determine the scope of competition for your home. This is done by determining what homes are comparable to yours and how many of them exist and how many were sold over the past year.

The best way to figure out comparable homes is to think like a buyer. If somebody were to consider buying your home, what other homes (meaning in what other areas) might this same buyer look? Will the buyer be constrained to your neighborhood because of very strong amenity, or would the buyer be interested in homes of similar values in other areas?

Often times, I see REALTORS® limit the breadth of competition to a specific neighborhood, when in most instances buyers considering homes in that neighborhood also are considering homes elsewhere.

Gather Supply and Demand Data For Comparable Properties

All the information needed to determine the value of a home is available to REALTORS in their local MLS. The following table shows supply and demand for the entire Tallahassee housing market, but the same information can be pulled for homes comparable to any in a particular MLS. A monthly update of the  Tallahassee Housing Report can be downloaded from the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

Determine Desired Selling Time

Every home owner has their own goals and objectives in regards to the ideal selling date for their home. The home marketing plan should be geared to this time schedule. Some important things to consider include:

• It typically takes 50 to 60 days to close on a contract. So if a homeowner wants to move on June 1st, then a contract is needed no later than April 1st.
• More than 50% of contracts written on a home will fail to close, so a homeowner should establish contract criteria with their real estate agent to ensure target dates are reachable.
• Remember to think like a home buyer. Home price is the primary search item, so the lower the price, the more often it will appear in a search and the better it will compare to the other homes (see example below).

Please Click Here to tweet this to your friends!

[Click To See How To Achieve The Sellers Goals When Pricing A Home]