The spring housing market is about to launch with a BANG! Many sellers and buyers wait for the better weather (and better looking landscaping) to buy or sell their homes. Competition for buyers gets a little tougher and sellers need to know that pricing their homes correctly means a faster sale.
When you put your home up for sale, one of the best ways we use to determine the asking price is to look at comparable sales. There’s rarely a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, so a pricing decision often relies on comparisons to several recent sales in your area.
Here are five different criteria we look for in a sales comparison.
- Location: Homes in the same neighbourhood typically follow the same market trends. Comparing your home to another in the same neighbourhood is a good start, but comparing it to homes on the same street or block is even better.
- Date of sale: It varies by location, but housing markets can see a ton of fluctuation in a short time period. It‘s best to use the most recent sales data available.
- Home build: Look for homes with similar architectural styles, numbers of bathrooms and bedrooms, square footage, and other basics.
- Features and upgrades: Re-modeled bathrooms and kitchens can raise a home’s price, and so can less flashy upgrades like a new roof or HVAC system. Be sure to look for similar bells and whistles.
- Sale types: Homes that are sold as short sales or foreclosures are often in distress or sold at a lower price than they’d receive from a more typical sale. These homes are not as useful for comparisons.
Buying or selling real estate should be exciting, comfortable, informative and stress-free. Please contact us for a FREE home evaluation.