If you are thinking of putting your Coachella Valley home or property up for sale determining how to price your home for sale is one of the most important factors. If you list too advantageously you risk your home turning "stagnant" on the market or getting mixed up with appraisal problems. If you list your home priced too low, you can lose out on thousands of dollars for you and your family. Don't fret, there are pricing strategies designed to maximize the sale price of your home.
How to Competitively Price Your Coachella Valley Home
In the crazy hot market of 2024, setting the right price for your home is one of the most important decisions you will make when deciding to sell. Aim too high and you risk turning off buyers or your property being appraised for a loan. Go too low, and you might be leaving a significant amount of money on the table. A simple technique for pricing your home is to spend time looking at comparable homes. Experienced, and trusted real estate agents know how to choose better and more recent comparable homes to ensure your home is perfectly priced.
To obtain a clear view of what a real-time market value looks like, it is imperative to spend time researching comparable homes that have sold in your neighborhood or area. This is done best by an experienced agent who understands your local market and has seen market highs and lows before.
The Importance of Appraisals
In a hot market like this appraisal values for loans become of the utmost. There are tons of cash offers in the market right now, but due to record low interest rates, there is a higher preference with most buyers to still get a loan. If a home is priced beyond the appraisal values this can cause problems with the deal and can even cause your property to fall out of the deal. If your property listed for sale falls out of escrow it can spell disaster for the sale of your home, as you have wasted time on the market and it raises red flags for new potential buyers. To prevent this from happening, an experienced real estate agent will understand this and help you price a home right from the start.
Look at It From the Buyer's Point of View
The next best step when it comes to pricing is to look at it from your buyer's point of view. Ask yourself what would a buyer pay for the home based on the current market value. Compare your home with the competition's be brutally honest with yourself and set a price that you would pay, as this is one of the biggest mistakes a seller can make. Being unbiased is extremely important in pricing a home. An experienced agent who knows your specific neighborhood and how buyers respond comes in handy. A decent agent will spot the opportune time to sell with a good market value of improvements and finishings impartially. Items like pools, golf courses vs. not golf course view, additions, and finishings can be determined with an accuracy not available without specific knowledgable and access to all MLS information.
Make Adjustments Quickly
Once your listing is live and on the market, it is important to allow for adjustments. If after implementing your marketing plan, buyers don't begin to view your home regularly, this shows the market has rejected your price. If you have a steady stream of buyers touring your listing, you aren't receiving any offers, this is often a symptom of buyers rejecting, not the price, but the home itself. Knowledgeable sellers attempt to identify the problem and take proactive action to correct it. If there is a problem that cannot be fixed the only option left may be to lower the price. If something doesn't work, successful sellers have the strength to make adjustments to their home or price quickly.
In a smaller market like the Coachella Valley finding the right balance may be more important than other larger markets in Southern California. The Coachella Valley is a secondary market, buyers tend to be more sensitive to home prices, and appraisers out of the area may not know specific price considerations for that community. Being aware of this might help you make quicker adjustments to your home price.
Hire an Experienced Listing Agent
Take the time to research local real estate agents, look at reviews on the internet, ask friends on social media, talk to friends and colleagues about who they recommend, and interview more than three agents before making a hiring decision. Any potential agent should know your local market. Be sure to agree on a specific marketing plan before signing a long-term listing agreement with your agent.
Don't Be Afraid of Being Criticized
Successful sellers aren't afraid of criticism. A good agent will keep sellers informed of any issues with their home with feedback from potential buyers. This type of feedback can provide helpful insights on everything from pricing to curb appeal, all to secure the highest possible price for their home. When hiring an agent, find an agent who is willing to hear your concerns. Review his or her marketing plan for your home. After all, you know all the details, finishings, and upgrades you have made to your home better than anyone else.
Strategically Price Your Home
A strategy that might tweak your home price is understanding how homebuyers search for homes. Most homebuyers now use internet searches to start their home search. You can use the features of these websites, along with strategic pricing, to reach the largest pool of buyers possible. Most real estate websites utilize a home price range filter for searches that increment home prices by $25,000. Utilizing this fact to your advantage, price your home at even numbers gives you the most visibility to buyers on the internet searching by these increments. Pricing comes at odd numbers seems to be a holdover from people seeing prices at the grocery store ending in ".99," though this strategy does not work for the real estate market. You run the risks of the following:
- It will make your home less visible on internet searches.
- This strategy may have the opposite psychological outcome of the intended effect of making your home seem less valuable when the buyer submits an offer.
- When pricing your home, be sure to price it as close to $10,000 increments as possible.
The Bottom Line
Learning how to price a home for sale in the Coachella Valley can seem like a daunting task. From fluctuating market trends, and the finalities of appraisals to hiring the best agent for you, and making adjustments quickly under the eye of criticism, selling a home in the Coachella Valley comes with its ups and downs. Utilize this guide to help make all the smartest decisions in selling your Coachella Valley home at a successful price, and quickly off the market! Let your professional agents at Ronald Christopher & Associates guide you in finding the best-matched house of your dreams in the beautiful Palm Desert, CA today!