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Why Is It a Bad Idea to Overprice Your Home? – For Sale By Owner Power Hour

Dec. 7th, 2010
in Real Estate
by Paul Amos

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Because overpriced homes usually take longer to sell and sell for less than market value. This concept is so important that I am going to repeat it – overpricing your home is the biggest mistake you could do when selling your home. And once you have done that it is very hard to recover if you change your mind.

And to help you make a decision, I put together the following list of things to consider: How much time do you have to sell your home? Are you in a hurry? The more time you have the better. One option is to try to sell your home yourself first and if it doesn’t work you can always hire someone down the road.

This includes your neighbors and the houses located within less than a mile from you. Those are the houses potential buyers will likely see when they are looking to buy in your area. Potential buyers will compare your home to those houses in your local real estate market and make a decision whether your home is fairly priced or not.

In the end of the day, the owner of that overpriced house is really helping all the other owners sell their homes faster and for more money.

How many similar houses are available for sale in your neighborhood and what are their asking prices. If all the similar houses in your area are being offered below $350k, it would be difficult to sell your home for $400k.

How many similar houses are in pending status and what are their asking prices. Houses in pending status are houses that have an accepted offer but hasn’t sold yet. Typically the buyer is doing his due diligence and inspections and waiting for his lender’s final approval of the transaction. A review of the pending sales will give you an idea of what prices are generating successful offers right now. Your goal is to put your house in the list of pending transactions within a couple of weeks of listing it.

If you decide to sell your home yourself, you should get a copy of those documents and familiarize yourself with them. They are not rocket science, but you should have a good comprehension of their content. An option may be to spend an hour or so with a REALTOR or a Real Estate attorney to review those documents and ask questions.

And remember that although most people thing it is an all or nothing proposition, you can always go half-way. You can hire a REALTOR to help you with some parts of the process, and do the rest yourself. For example, you could hire a REALTOR to negotiate and do the paperwork on your behalf, but do the marketing yourself. Or you could hire a REALTOR to keep you updated on the local real estate market trends while you manage the marketing and negotiation yourself. In the end of the day, selling a home is time-consuming and can be stressful, but it is not rocket science. REALTORS are trained to do that and most do it on a daily basis. However an engaged and dedicated homeowner can be successful selling his own home.

Paul Amos is an Author His latest website is about Are you looking to Refinance. your existing car loan? calculator, payment ? Mortgage loan calculator

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