You're selling up and moving on. The time has come for your beloved Arlington, Virginia home to be passed on to someone else. Whether you're moving to another house in the Hampton Roads area or changing the pace by looking for a home in Uxbridge, Ontario, the fact remains that you've got a house that needs to be sold. Before you can get any offers, however, you need to give buyers a place to start negotiations. That means setting a sale price. Here are some steps to follow to get it done right the first time.
Step 1: Detach Yourself Emotionally
You may think you're already as impartial as they come with regard to your home, but if you've lived it in a house for years you may have developed a blindness to its weak spots, or at least have gotten used to them. You have to get over the assumption that your old resale property in Arlington is on par with homes in Princess Ann Manor and look at your house with a critical eye. What are the good features? What needs work? It can often help to have a friend or relative around to offer their opinions on your opinions.
Step 2: Consult a Realtor
In fact, consult several. What you're looking for is a Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA, in which the realtor compares your home to others that were or are on the market, and whether those homes have sold and for how much. The focus is less on comparing your property to Central Toronto real estate and more on judging its worth against homes in your neighborhood or in Arlington in general. There is no right or wrong answer here, each realtor will be using different properties as guidelines and some may under or over price as part of a scheme to get your business or the business of sellers, but if you're seeing a consensus emerge you may be onto something.
Step 3: Market Research
It's important not to just blindly trust the word of your real estate agents, because realtors are people too and therefore it's possible they may have motives other than your best interests. Before assuming you must give up your dream of owning a condo at 100 Yorkville in Toronto because your home won't fetch a high enough price, look over the statistics yourself to see if you agree. Look at houses, both sold and unsold, that are listed in your area, comparing by square footage, number of rooms, and condition. Do the realtors' estimates seem accurate?
Step 4: Do an Appraisal
The appraisal can either be done informally by you, where you wander through your home and decide, as objectively as you can, what a buyer would be willing to pay for it. You can base your figures on Arlington's statistical standings against Halton real estate, your realtors' estimates, your own research, or all of the above. Alternatively, for a fee of $200 to $300 you can have a professional home appraiser do the work for you.
|