Of course there are many internet pages with seller tips indicating what one should do when preparing to sell their home. These tips are all very valuable and we have several pages on our site with this same kind of reminder check list, some specifically related to Huntsville Real Estate. …Yes you should de-clutter your home, make minor repairs, perform spring cleaning, and address curb appeal among other things when you are staging your home to be viewed by the buying public.
However all these activities will likely occur after you have made your final decision to sell, thus, What should you be considering in the early stages of ‘potentially’ selling your home?
Whether or not you must sell your home, as in the case of employment relocation, or you are moving to a new home for other reasons; financial planning and considerations should be first on your agenda!
Questions that need accurate measurement and answers are: What is the current market value of my home? …How long will it take to sell my home? …Should I market my home myself or use the services of a professional REALTOR® or both?
The first financial step in selling your home is to obtain the results of a free service offered by many Realtors called a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). This analysis will generally narrow its focus on your specific home, your neighborhood or area of town, and provide extremely valuable insight into:
- Active Listings – It is important to note that these prices are ‘NOT’ indicative of market value since listing prices are often higher than current market prices. Yet these are comparable homes in your area that should be considered carefully because they directly represent your competition.
- Pending Listings – These are homes currently under contact but pending the close of either buyer or seller imposed requirements. The contract closing price is not publicly available until after closing, nevertheless these listings should be scrutinized especially for their time-on-market attributes, because they can give you a general feel for local market direction and how long it may take to sell your home at a specific listing price.
- Sold Listings – These are listings of recently sold homes in your neighborhood or area and are your comparable sales. The vast majority of these sales indicate that professional appraisers have recently met or exceeded these prices. These homes will most closely match your current market value however your home’s condition and amenities must also be compared closely.
- Withdrawn/Expired Listings – These homes were on the market and then withdrawn. A home can be withdrawn for many reasons but often the reason may be that the listing price was simply too high. For example, the median price of this group is almost always higher than the median price of sold listings, so look at them closely.
If you are at this stage of your home selling analysis and would like a CMA please visit our online CMA request form and we will email your report free of obligation. Once you have a feel for the general market value of your home given your CMA report, how should you market your home? A future post will take up this question in some detail.
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