We in the real estate profession will be glad to provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), which is essentially an evaluation and opinion of how much your house would sell for in our current real estate market. It will be compared to houses currently on the market, houses that failed to sell (for whatever reason), houses under contract (pending sale), and houses that have sold within the past year.

We consider your reasons for selling and your timetable, details about your house and its strengths and weaknesses, and how your house fits into the current real estate market. While location is important, the neighborhood is critical to pricing. People frequently buy the neighborhood first, and the house second. The same home in a different neighborhood can have a dramatically different value.

A primary consideration is the overall market. Supply and demand dictate home sales - whether it's a so-called "seller's market" or a "buyer's market." Are there more buyers than sellers, or vice versa? Homes will sell more quickly and at higher prices if lots of people want to buy, and the inventory of available houses is low.

Properly priced homes will sell even in a "buyer's market" however. The number of similar unsold homes in the market area competing against your home is critically important. Your home must be positioned competitively against similar homes in the market in order for it to sell.

How fast your house will sell is up to you, the seller. Time on the market is directly related to price. You need to price it correctly from day one to meet your personal time schedule. The longer it's on the market, the more mortgage payments, homeowner's association dues, real estate taxes, utility bills, maintenance costs, etc. you will need to pay.

The market is boss. Your home will sell for what a buyer is willing to pay for it in comparison to all other similar homes on the market, and no more! What you paid for it, what you think it's worth, how much cash you need out of it, what your friends, Realtor, or even an appraiser think it's worth do not set the real value. The cold, hard truth is that only the market sets its value. You, the seller, need to set your time table and price accordingly.

Some pitfalls and fallacies in pricing a house to sell follow: The house down the street is "going for" a certain price, and since yours is comparable, or maybe better, it is worth at least as much. The truth is that the asking price of another house is no indicator of the value of your house. It is very likely overpriced itself. Even if it sells, its final selling price cannot be determined until after the sale closes, and the final selling price might be far less than the original asking price.

The county tax assessor sets a "market value" for your property. That assessment of fair market value has been very optimistic to say the least. It goes without saying that the government wants to collect the most tax possible from each of us. The assessments are based on classes of houses in general areas, and are not specific to your house, and its particular condition and appeal.

You or your agent think you should leave some "room to negotiate" in the asking price you set, or You or your agent think you should set a high price at the beginning to "test the market," and reduce it later if necessary. Both of these tactics will cause your house to remain on the market longer. It's a fact that the first 30 days of a listing are the most critical, and if a house is on the market more than 60 days without eliciting offers, it is overpriced. Additional marketing, open houses, advertising, etc. are not the solution. A lower price is.

Buyers always want to know how long a house has been on the market. If it's been on the market for long, they ask "what's wrong with it? Why didn't it sell already?" Their sense of urgency is far less. But if it's new on the market and well-priced, they'll want to move fast, and will assume that you, the seller, are not sufficiently motivated to accept a lower offer. If it's been on the market for a while, they'll be in no hurry. They'll put off action, shop around some more, and maybe find something better and cheaper, expecting your house to still be there to fall back on if necessary.

Buyer agents will frequently make a market analysis of properties their buyer is considering purchasing. A house that's been on the market for a long time encourages "low-ball" offers, since buyers assume that the seller is getting desperate, and maybe they'll be right...

Even if you do get your (high) price, unless the sale is for cash or you are carrying a mortgage note for the buyer, a lending institution will require an appraisal of the value of your house. Appraisers are neutral third parties who confirm for the lender that the buyer has not paid too much for the property. They get paid whether it sells or not, and are only interested in protecting the lender from lending money on a property that is not worth as much as a buyer has agreed to pay. They will compare it to three other properties in the immediate neighborhood that have sold within the past six months. Contracts on houses at prices higher than market value will not appraise at the contract price, and this is a contingency built into the contract price. Even if the appraiser somehow comes up with the contract price, loan underwriters sometimes reduce the appraisal amount themselves unless at least one of the three comparable properties sold at a higher price than the contract price of your property.

There is a direct correlation between the initial asking price, time on the market, and the final selling price. And it is a fact that houses that are correctly priced from the beginning actually do sell for more than houses that are initially overpriced.

Real estate agents and their clients like to look at new, fresh listings. It is also a fact that most homes are not sold by the listing agent, but by another agent, either in the same office or in a cooperating Realty. The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and its computer are the primary tool enabling an agent to set up an itinerary of houses to show their prospective buyers, and any real estate agent can tell approximately how long a house has been on the market by looking at the MLS printout of your property.

They are looking for houses that are most attractively priced within their buyer's resources, hoping for a quick sale. The other agents will be working as agents for their buyers, trying to find the best house at the best price for their buyers. And they will freely offer their opinions on the pricing of your house.

If, in their opinion, your house is overpriced, they will bypass it to show more competitively priced houses, or they will show your house in order to show how much better another similarly priced house is by comparison. They will use your overpriced house to sell your competition!

If you've had your house on the market for a while and it doesn't sell, and you do lower the price, many agents will not notice the new price, and will only remember that it is "overpriced" and won't show it. In the meantime, your house will get shopworn, you will become tired of leaving frequently so that an agent can show your home, and you will get tired of trying to keep it in "show" condition all the time.

You might be concerned that we might want to underprice your house in order to get a quick sale. Our commission usually relates to the final selling price, and any real estate professional will want to get top dollar for your house as well as a quick sale. It will surely sell quickly if it's underpriced, but it will also sell quickly if it's correctly priced.

The real estate profession is extremely competitive, and listings are hard to get. This leads many agents to attempt to "buy listings" by promising a seller that they can get a higher price for them than what other agents tell them, hoping to get the listing, then get the sellers to reduce the price to a realistic level later. A seller that lists under these conditions runs all the risks associated with overpriced listings, and will probably get disgusted with Realtors as a whole, and their Realtor in particular. Remember that pricing your property is not a "bidding war" between Realtors, and that the Realtor is not the buyer!

Any real estate professional that provides a reasoned evaluation of the market value of your property, high or low, must be able to back up their opinions with hard data, or you should be suspicious. The best Realtors don't play the game of trying to "buy" listings. However, if we make our best evaluation, and still are unable to get your house sold within a reasonable period of time, and you are satisfied that we are doing a good, thorough job of marketing your property and keeping you informed, then the solution is not changing Realtors, but lowering your price.

If you have made a number of expensive improvements to your property, you may not be able to realize all, or even part, of your improvement costs in the sale of your house. The neighborhood is more important than improvements, and frequently homeowners improve their home to the point that it is much nicer than those around it. Lots of prospective purchasers will "drive by" your property, and if it is high-priced compared to the neighborhood, they will never ask to see the inside of your house. The "best home in the neighborhood" may not bring a significantly higher price than those around it, but it will sell much quicker at a competitive price. However, improvements made to a house that is initially less desirable and expensive than others in its neighborhood may significantly increase its sales price, even more than the costs of the improvements in some cases.

Many houses are sold on contingencies, frequently involving the prior sale of another house somewhere else. If you need to sell your house in order to buy another, proper pricing is even more critical. You will have a built-in time limit, and if your house doesn't sell within that time, you will lose the house you want to buy, and will frequently lose appraisal costs, credit fees and other loan fees, and possibly some earnest money as well. What you think you need to realize from the sale of your house really is less critical than a quick sale, because you may be able to make it work with slightly less proceeds, but you probably can't make anything work if your first house doesn't sell!

Whatever your ultimate intentions, you must ask yourself as objectively as possible what your timeline really is - and plan accordingly. A house that is for sale causes a lot of stress and anxiety. A house that sells quickly causes peace of mind and security and allows you to realistically plan for the future. Approach selling your home with as little emotion as possible and try to give it a hard look as a buyer would. Take a big dose of reality when you price it, and you will do fine. Do you want to have your house FOR SALE, or do you want to have it SOLD? The choice is yours.