3 Steps To Get Your Home Sold in Today's Market in the Iowa City Area

There is no doubt that the real estate market in the Iowa City area is improving, but there are still plenty of homes that failed to sell this year. Mostly this is due to too high expectations of the market. How can you as a seller avoid that? Funnily enough, it's really not that hard. The hardest part is for you as a proud homeowner to disconnect your emotions from the sale of your home. You need to start thinking of your home as a house. Once it's a house it becomes easier to be more objective and make the right decisions - The decisions that will get your home sold in today's market in the Iowa City area.

3 Easy Steps to Getting Your Home Sold in the Iowa City Area

1. Decide just how much you want to move

If you're relocating out of state there's no question you're motivated. Selling your house is a job that needs to get done. If you're thinking of upgrading or downgrading and it's a move across town we're talking about it might be a whole different ball game. You might need to get "x" amount for your house before you can move. It's an exercise in futility to list your home at the price you want without first checking to see whether the market will bear that price. Neither sellers or their agents determine what the market will bear. That's something that needs to be established by taking a long hard look at recent sales data and how the market is trending.

2. Know your competition

Looking at recent home sales in the Iowa City area will only get you so far. You also need to know what's on the market right now and what kind of competition your house has. One thing to keep in mind is that 94% of buyers are online and the way they search for homes is by plugging in a price range. They may narrow the criteria down after that, but the first thing they do is put in a price. If you price your house higher than other comparable homes it may never be seen by buyers, because they're simply not looking at homes that are priced $20,000 more in the same neighborhood.

3. Pricing your home right from the start

To get your home sold in the Iowa City area it needs to be priced right from the start. By looking at the competition for comparable properties you'll have a good idea where you need to set your price. And if you followed my advice in the first paragraph you won't get distracted by thinking what your house should be worth. Times have changed since the advent of the Internet and “testing” the market won't work if you think your house is worth more than what the market tells you. With huge amounts of data available to buyers online the chances of them over paying for a house are slim. And even if buyers don't know where to find that information, they have buyer's agents that do so there's really very little chance of them paying more for your house than for a similar one down the street.

Selling a home in the Iowa City area means going into it knowing exactly what to expect.  If you follow these steps you'll be well on your way to getting your home sold in the Iowa City area.

Of course there is one final step to ensure success when it comes to selling your home in the Iowa City area. You'll need a Realtor to provide you with the necessary data about the real estate market and trends. And of course you'll need an extensive marketing plan for your house with a strong online focus... These are all things Cardinal Realty can help you with. As the tech savviest Realtor in Coralville and Iowa City I know my way around the Internet, (where those 94% of buyers are). I also have a pulse on the market and know exactly how to get your home sold in today's market. Contact me for a free market analysis. I promise you it will be worth your while!

Originally posted at Cardinal Realty Iowa City