How Do You Determine the Right Listing Price?
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when selling your home is where to price it.
Price too high and you may discourage buyers, lose valuable early momentum and help competing homes look more attractive.
Price too low and you may leave money on the table.
At the Moving Memphis Group at Emmett Baird Realty, we don’t believe pricing should be based on a guess, an automated online estimate or simply what a seller hopes to receive.
Pricing is a strategy.
Led by Tracie Benetz, a full-time Tennessee REALTOR® since 2013 with more than $187 million in career real estate sales, our team uses market data, local experience and the specific characteristics of your property to develop a pricing strategy designed for today’s market.
What Is Your Home Really Worth?
Your home’s market value isn’t determined by what you paid for it, how much you’ve invested in improvements or how much you need to receive from the sale.
Ultimately, the market determines value.
To help estimate where your home fits in that market, we’ll analyze factors such as:
- Recent comparable sales
- Current competing listings
- Pending sales when useful information is available
- Location and neighborhood
- Square footage and floor plan
- Age and overall condition
- Updates and renovations
- Lot size and characteristics
- Features and amenities
- Current inventory
- Buyer demand
- Recent market activity
No two homes are exactly alike, which is why simply looking at a price-per-square-foot number rarely tells the entire story.
Comparable Sales Matter
One of the most important parts of pricing a home is understanding the comparable sales—or “comps.”
We’ll evaluate recently sold properties that are reasonably comparable to yours and consider the differences between those homes and your property.
A renovated kitchen, updated bathrooms, newer major systems, superior lot, additional living space or other features may affect how buyers compare your home with another.
Just as importantly, we’ll look at competing homes currently on the market.
Those are the properties buyers will be comparing with yours.
The Danger of Overpricing
It’s tempting to start high because you can “always come down later.”
But that strategy can have consequences.
The first days and weeks on the market are often when a new listing receives some of its greatest attention. If buyers believe a home is significantly overpriced, they may simply move on to competing properties.
Over time, repeated price reductions or extended market time can also change the way buyers perceive a listing.
That’s why we believe it’s important to have a thoughtful pricing strategy from the beginning.
What About Online Home Estimates?
Automated home-value tools can be useful for getting a general idea of value, but they don’t walk through your house.
An algorithm may not know the quality of your renovations, the condition of your home, how your lot compares with another or why buyers may prefer one property over another.
That’s where local market knowledge and an experienced real estate professional become valuable.
We’ll evaluate the data and the actual property before recommending a listing strategy.
We’ll Tell You What We Think
We believe sellers deserve straightforward advice.
We won’t recommend an unrealistic price simply because it’s the number you hoped to hear.
We’ll show you the market data, explain our reasoning and give you our professional opinion about where we believe your home should be positioned.
Ultimately, you determine the listing price.
Our responsibility is to make sure you have the information and experienced guidance necessary to make that decision confidently.
Your Pricing Strategy Doesn’t Stop on Listing Day
Once your home is on the market, we’ll continue watching what happens.
We’ll monitor:
- Showing activity
- Buyer and agent feedback
- New competing listings
- Pending and closed sales
- Changes in inventory
- Market response to your property
If the market begins telling us something different from what we expected, we’ll discuss it with you.
Pricing isn’t something we set and forget.
What Could Your Home Sell For?
The best way to estimate your home’s potential value is to look at the property and analyze the current market.
The Moving Memphis Group helps homeowners throughout Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Arlington, Lakeland, Bartlett, Cordova, Millington, Atoka, Oakland and surrounding Mid-South communities understand what their homes may be worth.
If you’re considering selling—even if you’re not ready quite yet—we’d be happy to talk with you about your home and the current market.
Moving Memphis Group at Emmett Baird Realty
Service You Deserve – People You Trust.
Contact us to request a personalized market analysis.