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Pricing your home is both an art and a science. It is probably the most important decision you and your real estate agent will make. This is especially true as the hot housing market turns from a seller’s to a buyer’s market. To be comfortable setting the listing price for your home, consider these key factors?

1. Think Like a Buyer Buyers will look at your home with impersonal and calculated eyes. They won’t have an emotional attachment or your personal interests in mind when they make an offer. Regardless of weather the overall market favors the buyer or seller, the buyer will want your home at a fair market price. They are not considering how much you paid for the home, the value of the memories that you have in it, how much cash you need for to close on your next home, or how much time and money you have invested in your home’s landscaping, bathroom updates, painting or other improvements. When you first decide to sell your home, it’s no longer your home. It belongs to the buyer with the best offer for you. Emotional detachment from your home will help you see your home the way a buyer will be looking at it. Brush up on more selling advice.

2. Start with CMAs Invite a few real estate agents to work up a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) for your home. A CMA compares the price of homes recently sold, homes that were on the market but didn’t sell, and homes currently on the market to give you and your real estate agent an idea of how to price your home. Ask the agents why each particular home was included on their CMA. Have a list of questions and compare the answers you get from each agent. As you will find out, a CMA will show you varying prices for what each agent thinks your home is worth. Look for what seems to be a reasonable price. Some real estate agents will want to price your home below market value, looking for a quick sell or a bidding war. Some will overprice it looking to play on your hopes that your home is worth more than it really is, but an overpriced home will sit on the market longer and will likely need to be reduced later. Most real estate agents will provide you with a home value estimate or Comparative Marketing Analysis (CMA). It as good idea to find real estate agents who have plenty of experience pricing homes in the area, especially as the market turns to a buyer’s market.

3. Consider a Professional Appraisal A CMA will give you a good idea of the value of your home, especially if the agent is familiar with pricing homes in your neighborhood. However, for several hundred dollars that it usually costs to purchase a professional appraisal, the money could be well spent for several reasons. If the CMAs you get from real estate agents are not reasonably consistent, you might want to get an totally unbiased view point, one that you pay for. An appraisal of your home will make clear anything that may be wrong with your home and it adds an additional layer of assurance for prospective buyers. Appraisers rely on in-person inspections of your home, recent sales of like-homes in your area, and other data to arrive at their opinion of your homes’ value. The report you receive from an appraiser is more detailed than a common CMA. The appraiser’s report is a full-blown description of your home and the criteria used to formulate the valuation.

4. Research On Your Own You can research several ways. Stop by homes that are for sale in your area and pick up a flyer. Spend an hour or so on the Internet looking at homes in your zip code with the same square footage, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Finally, visit open houses around your home and make an impartial assessment of how those homes compare to your own in terms of condition, location, size, ages, and upgrades. As you visit the open houses, make an honest assessment. Given similar condition, age and square footage, would you buy your home or the home you are touring?

5. Price per Square Foot Some agents may want to price your home solely on price per square footage. While this is an industry standard way of calculating home prices, there are many other tangible aspects that go into your home’s price. The average price per square foot in your neighborhood should be the starting point for setting your home’s price.

6. Market Conditions Consider the overall housing market in your area. Are home prices moving up over time? How long do homes stay on the market before they are sold or withdrawn? Where are interest rates? Is the overall economy in your area and state strong or weak? Are employers hiring or are they overly cautious of bring on new employees? Are builders actively building new homes? Will you be entering a buyer’s market or a seller’s market.

7. Determine Your Selling Costs
There are many costs involved in selling your home. Don’t shy away from getting to the bottom line as this is essential information. Use a variety of mortgage calculators and financial calculators.

8. Flexibility and Options Both you and your buyer may have needs that go beyond the bottom-line. If you are willing to close escrow quickly, you will attract buyers who want to move in right away. A lease-option can help first-timers who need down payment assistance. If you can offer seller-financing, your home will appeal to buyers who need to stretch their financial resources. The more creative and flexible you can be in meeting the buyer’s needs, the more success you will have in pricing your home to sell. If your home has been on the market for a while, can you offer a point or two back to the buyer to help with closing costs or needed repairs.

9. Use a Discount Real Estate Broker There are many good reasons to use a good discount real estate broker. The obviously reason is that you keep more of your home’s equity, but in a buyer’s market, using a discount real estate broker gives you pricing flexibility and that gives you not only a cushion to negotiate but a distinct competitive advantage over the other homes on the market using full-commissioned brokers.

Jeff is the owner and partner of We List homes 4 Less, a full-service real estate broker in the Santa Clarita Valley. Jeff is a strong advocate of using the Internet to promote niche local business and pass the savings onto clients. Their site rates in the top 99.75% of all Websites according to Alexa, a traffic rating service owned by Amazon. Find more house selling advice and mortgage
calculators at We List Homes 4 Less.

[tags]House Selling, Realtor, Real Estate, Santa Clarita,[/tags]

Experts are looking closing at the real estate market in Salt Lake City. Population trends for the area are indicating a strong future. The Salt Lake City metropolitan area has a total estimated population of 1.2 million as of 2003. Salt Lake City alone has a population of 181,743. It’s the central part of the Wasatch Front which in total contains 1.7 million. The Wasatch Front is roughly 80 miles long with Ogden approximately 40 miles north of the Salt Lake Valley and Provo approximately 40 miles south of the Salt Lake Valley. For a state boasting a total population of 2.5 million the Wasatch Front is home for a significant proportion of the population. The Salt Lake City real estate market is strong due to the areas highly favored location.

Utah’s population growth of 29.6% more than doubled that of the nation (13.2%). Utah’s growth is attributed to natural increase (88%) rather than net in-migration (12%).Net in-migration occurred for the 13th straight year. Salt Lake City real estate is a growing market attracting more national attention than ever before. The large homes and the low prices are attracting home buyers from the rest of the country. Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the country and ranks 35th in the nation for population growth. The state’s rapid growth is attributed to both the area’s high birth rate and to in-migration. Utah’s population reached 2.5 million in late 2005, positive increases every year since 1990. The State of California continues to be the major source of the flow of migration to Utah. Employment-related migration accounts for the majority of population movement to and from Utah.

Overall, Utah is expected to continue to have the youngest population in the nation. Utah’s median age during 2005 is 27.1 years, well below the national figure of 35.2 years. Utah’s population is younger (27.1), lives longer (77.7), has higher fertility rates (2.68) and more persons per household (3.13 persons). Utah is number one in the nation in the number of persons per household at 3.13, compared to the national average of 2.62. In addition, Utah’s number of people per family is 3.67, compared to the national figure of 3.16. This is attributed to the Church of Jesus Christ’s belief in and support of large families!

Currently the median home price for available homes is $300,000 with homes ranging from an affordable $69,900 to $5,000,000. Salt Lake City real estate is a good buy. The average home price is $184,756. The average condo price in Salt Lake City is an affordable $132,979. Utah recently ranked among the leaders for appreciation. Due to the State’s new found popularity property is becoming a high demand asset. Local realtors say the key to buying Salt Lake City Real Estate is to buy early when rates are low and appreciation will still likely occur. Now is a great time to get involved with real estate here because home values are steadily increasing. If similar patterns are followed as in other states around the country there will be large increase and it will happen soon. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to jump start your real estate investing career or to find your dream home. With the help of a realtor in the Valley I recently purchased a town-home for $159,000 and now it is worth over $176,000. That appreciation happened in less than 5 months.

The population trends, the quality of the area, and recent history all indicate Salt Lake City real estate is ready to flourish. Acting now could save you thousands. Salt Lake is a great area with beautiful mountains and very family centered communities. Buying real estate here will be one of the best decisions you have made.

Mark Keller is an Internet Marketer for http://www.10xmarketing.com Learn more about Salt Lake City real estate by visiting the http://www.LucidiaGroup.com at http://www.lucidiagroup.com/salt-lake-city-real-estate.aspx

[tags]real estate, utah, home, realtor, salt lake city[/tags]

1. Make yourself an informed educated buyer. There is so much information at our fingertips. Use the Internet to research neighborhoods, prices and the home buying process in general. Checkout the website of the city your researching.

2. Find a realtor. Feel free to research online, but use a realtor. They will provide you with an invaluable insight to the process. If you are buying a home the seller ends up paying your realtor. You pay them nothing.

3. Get pre-approved for your home loan. The biggest mistake buyers make is starting to look for a home before their financing is in place. Its free to get pre-approved and it will allow you to plan better ahead of time.

4. Budget. Now you are preapproved, which is great, you know what price range to search in. But this means nothing if you dont have a budget in place. Plan out ahead of time what your mortgage will be, living expenses etc. to determine for yourself if you are looking in your right price range.

5. Determine your housing needs and wants. Determine the functionality required in your new home. There are plenty of “cute” homes in Milwaukee were I am from- but if its not close to work, or too small it means nothing.

6. Determine your ideal location. Verify proximity to work, shopping and schools. And search within this range.

7. Don’t make quick uninformed decisions. it’s easy to do, especialy if you have looked at a ton of homes and are ready to move. If you are unsure about an aspect of buying your house don’t be pushed until you are clear.

8. Do a pre-inspection home inspection. There is a great article about this at my website http://www.himilwaukee.com/
in the forum section.

9. Now that you found your home, sit down and review all aspects before writing an offer. Pros and cons, and items listed above.

10. Meet with your realtor and write an offer. Be sure to get a home inspection preferably by a reccomended certified home inspector.

Kerry Mann is a former real estate agent from Milwaukee Wisconsin. He also runs home inspection Milwaukee website. It is a direcotry of local home inspectors from Milwaukee and Wisconsin. http://www.himilwaukee.com

[tags]House, Home, Real Estate, home inspection, home inspector, buying a house, realtor, writing an offer[/tags]