Pricing Your Southern Maryland Home to Sell

They say the most important thing about real estate is location, location, location.  However, when it comes to selling your Southern Maryland home, you really need to focus on the price, price, price.  Price a home too high and you run the risk of turning away buyers.  Price it too low and you're losing valuable profit.  How do you know if you are properly pricing your Southern Maryland home to sell?

You can list your home at any price point you want.  It is your house.  However, sellers don't actually determine what a home eventually sells for...the market does.  In that same vein, the market determines what your Southern Maryland home is worth.  Even if you've got tons of upgrades and are easily the nicest home on the block, you may not get all the money back that you have put into your home if your neighbors have not kept up with their updating, too.

This is where your REALTOR® proves their worth.  They have been in the trenches.  While you may be an expert on your home, they have seen other homes in the area, they have talked to other agents in the field and they know what's going on in the Southern Maryland market.  They can pull reports on the most recent sales of homes that are comparable to yours.  Not only do prices vary from city to city, but they can also be completely different from neighborhood to neighborhood.  That's why it's so important to have "comps" pulled for homes that have sold in your immediate surrounding area.

Also, sales figures should not be more than 60-90 days old, since prices can change so dramatically in a short amount of time.  From that list, look at the Southern Maryland homes that are similar in size (bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, acreage, etc), amenities (pool, fenced yard, finished basement), age and style.  What kinds of upgrades did they have?  Were they foreclosures/short sales?  How long did it take to sell from when it first listed and how much did it sell for compared to what it was originally listed for?  These are all questions your REALTOR® can help answer.

Once you have gathered all this information, you will be able to determine a fair and realistic listing price.  Keep emotions out of the process.  You may have raised a family in your home and had many years of fantastic memories, but a buyer isn't going to see that.  This is just business.  Pricing your Southern Maryland home to sell is one of the most important parts of a successful real estate transaction.  Trust your real estate agent to know what they are doing.  After all, this is what you hired them to do.

Bonnie Augostino, your Southern Maryland real estate specialist