Ready to sell your home? How long will it take? At what price is it likely
to sell? You can determine both the price and the time by doing a little
math.
First, ask your agent for the average number of days homes in your
neighborhood have remained on the market before selling. Throw away the
longest and shortest times, and average the rest, using sales for the
previous 6-12 months. This will provide an average expected sale time -
provided you price your home at "fair market value."
Next, ask your agent for the "list-to-sale" ratio for those same homes.
This tells y ou how close tot he asking price those homes have sold. Let's
say the ratio is 97%, which means the homes have sold only 3% less than
the asking price (on average). Base on that knowledge, you should price
your home no higher than 3% over your agents estimate of "fair market
value."
For example, say your home's market value is $97,000, and the sale time is
93 days. You could as $100,000, and reasonably expect to receive $97,000
within the average marketing time. If homes are appreciating at 5% per
year in that area, and you ask $105,000(5% + 3% over market value) you
could conceivably wait an extra 12 months plus 93 days before it sells.
