3 Costly Pricing Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Home

Want to sell your home for the most money the market will bear faster than your competition? Avoid making these 3 costly pricing mistakes when selling your home.

OVERPRICING YOUR HOME

Overpricing a home is THE costliest mistake a home seller can make.

Putting your home on the market at a price that reflects what you want and not what the market will bear costs you time and money. 

The longer your home stays on the market, the greater your chances of getting less for it. Offers that come in after the home has been on the market for months are ALMOST ALWAYS lower than offers received in the first 7-14 days.

A large portion of your success in selling your home for more faster than your competition comes from pricing your home at "the sweet spot", the list price that generates enough buyer showings to generate offers for your home.

USING THE WRONG DATA

The home sale market is a hyper-local phenomenon. Using city locally advertised for sale, Realtor.ca®, and zip code-level data or relying on automated algorithms to decide on a list price are recipes for failure.

The only way to arrive at your home's sweet spot is by gathering and analyzing clean, granular data including:

1. The sale price of similar homes in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD that sold in the last 30-90 days (aka Comparable Sales).

2. The list price of similar homes in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD that have SOLD conditionally in the last 5-10 days.

3. The list price of similar homes in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD actively listed for sale (aka Your Competition).

4. The list price of similar homes in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD that were actively listed for sale, but failed to sell (aka Expired and Cancelled Listings).

5. The absorption rate for all homes in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD and homes in your price range (Supply and Demand).

APPLYING THE PRICE/SQFT APPROACH

Applying the price-per-square-foot approach to arrive at a home's list price is another mistake lots of homeowners make.

The price-per-square-foot approach does not account for many things.  Architectural styles differ.  Floor plan functionality differs.  Finishes and condition differ.  Lot sizes and shapes differ.  Amenities and extra features differ. And so on and so on.

Also, not all square feet are created equally.  You would probably value an additional 200 square feet of space in your dining room.  But what if those 200 square feet went to additional closet and storage space throughout the home instead of the dining room nobody uses?

In the eyes of most buyers, the additional storage space adds more value to the home than a larger dining room. 

The price-per-square-foot approach doesn't account for that.

Can this approach work in condominiums and cookie-cutter communities where architectural styles, floor plans, finishes, etc. are more homogenous?  Maybe.

However, the price-per-square-foot approach is best saved for analyzing overall, long-term trends in an area or neighbourhood.  It works well for identifying macro trends but is generally not a good idea for micro-pricing strategies.

WORRIED ABOUT "LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE" WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME?

What your home requires is exposure - When you work with us to sell, your home will be seen, discovered, and understood in the marketplace.

With our proven Marketing Plan, your home will have high-definition photography, interactive 3D tours, professional short films, StoryBrand copywriting, targeted social media advertising, and more.

When you match the right images with the right words and showcase them to the right people in the right places, more qualified buyers discover your home and you sell for more faster.