4-Principles of Home Sales-Principle #1 Location (Of Course)

One of the first questions we generally get from home sellers is, do you think my home will sell?

Of course what they really mean is, will my home sell quickly and for the price I want? Of course, the answer is always the same…it depends!

All Homes Sell…eventually!  But if you need to sell in a realistic timeframe, say 3 to 6 months then there are four principles you should understand.

The four major principles in residential real estate sales are location, condition, price and exposure or marketing. Let’s look at location first because that’s the one sellers don’t control.

Location was determined when your home was built. In some cases, location can actually improve as a neighborhood develops, maybe a vacant field becomes a park or the access to a new trail is close by, but for the most part location generally stays constant. Here are the factors that impact location.

First of all, is the neighborhood hot? Neighborhoods tend to be cyclical, this is usually based on stuff like schools, amenities or gas prices. For example, if gas prices are high we tend to see a cooling in neighborhoods that are further out and would require more driving. School Districts tend to fall in and out of favor with parents and students, this impacts neighborhood desirability as well.

Assuming that your neighborhood doesn’t have any significant issues the next factor we look at is the location of the home within the neighborhood. For example homes on or backing to busy streets, corners and intersections tend be less desirable then those that back to open space or just to another house.

Finally, we look for views and trees. Here in the Pikes Peak region, this one’s a biggie. Homes that have a view tend to be more desirable then those without. Trees are in the same category as views, I’m not talking about the kind of tree you drive down to the nursery and buy, I’m talking about big, slow growth, naturally occurring ponderosa pines. Treed lots fetch more than barren lots. The combination of trees and views, tend to bring the highest premium, unless of course, any of the previous conditions exist.

So once we analyze the location of your home we have a concrete baseline to work from when assessing salability.