Let’s talk about what your home is worth. What is it going to sell for when you’re ready to move?

Figuring out what your home is worth is so important when you’re moving. Apart from the obvious: how much money are you going to get, it tells you what price range you can shop in for the next house and at the end of the day, that’s what really matters. Where you’re going next. And we know this intuitively when we make any kind of purchase; before we start shopping, we have to understand our budget. It’s no different when you’re buying a house. Knowing what your home is likely to sell for with as much accuracy as possible will allow you to shop with confidence, knowing that you will be able to afford the house you fall in love with.

Maybe you’re looking for more space to entertain, or maybe you want to downsize and put some money in your pocket. You might want a shorter commute to work or to live closer to your kids school. Whatever is driving you to look for a new home, the very first thing you need to do is figure out how much you can spend and in order to do that, you need to know what your current home is worth. So how do we do that?

There are a few obvious places to start but there is a lot more to this than just ball parking it based on what your neighbor across the street just sold for. Let’s say an identical house just sold across the street for $600k. Most people would be inclined to believe that their home is probably worth around the same. And generally speaking, they probably wouldn’t be completely out to lunch. But we’re talking about the biggest financial decision of your life. Close enough isn’t close enough. There’s so much more to this picture that goes into your home’s sale price and none of it should be left to guesswork. Maybe your neighbors had already bought their dream home and they needed to sell fast. They might have accepted an offer well below market value. If you were to rely on their sale price to determine the value of your home, you might be missing out on tens of thousands of dollars that could go towards your next home. That might be an extra bedroom or a bigger backyard that you don’t get because your value estimate was off.

This is why it is so critical to account for all kinds of little things that might not immediately come to mind when evaluating your home and it’s why We take so many different approaches when performing a market evaluation for my clients. We really need to get into the head of our buyers to determine how they will determine what to offer for your house because that will ultimately decide how much it will sell for. What kind of comparisons will buyers make when shopping for homes and how do we make sure that your home stands out in the price bracket? Of course the most important thing to consider is what similar homes in your neighborhood have sold for. That house across the street that sold for $600k will definitely be on your buyers’ mind but it’s not the only thing they’re considering. We also need to look at your competition; what are similar homes listed for across the entire town? If your buyer is looking for a home with similar features to yours, we should look at what they’re selling for across town and determine how much location factors into those prices. Inversely, it’s important to consider what dissimilar homes are selling for in your neighborhood and how they compare to their competition across town. Do similar homes typically sell for more or less in your area? By how much?

Finally, and this is one that often gets overlooked, we need to look at market trends. It’s boring and tedious but it really does matter when it comes to strategic pricing. Which way is the market headed? Are we on a downward trend? Then maybe we should price a bit more aggressively and get out before prices drop further and you’re stuck on the market with more competition. Are prices heading up? Let’s hold out for the right offer and play a bit more hardball. We can even consider things like how much an extra bathroom or bedroom is worth in your area - is there a significant premium for 3 bathrooms over 2? Maybe we finish that rough-in in the basement to boost your value a bit.

All of these factors and more go into determining your home’s value and with so much going on, it’s easy to leave money on the table if anything gets overlooked. That’s why it’s so important to get the evaluation right. To make sure you don’t miss out on any of your home’s value, we want to offer you something incredible. We want to offer all of you a free home evaluation. We will go through your home and come up with a custom market evaluation to help you understand what your home is worth. We’ll go through the math step by step and figure out what you’re likely to sell for. No strings attached.

Use the form below to book your free home evaluation or call us at 519-939-8504