Determining the True Price of a Property

One of the first questions sellers often ask a real estate professional is how much can they get for their homes. Properly pricing a property is no small task. Although sellers set the list price for their homes, the market ultimately determines the value through the actual sale price. It’s important to understand the factors that go into smartly pricing a property: home valuations and sale prices of comparable homes – size, location, features, etc. Plus, data about homes sold on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), as well as those that are sold off-MLS, those sold by owners, and in transactions that never hit the market.

It takes a lot of leg work to synthesize this volume of information, with the level of detail needed, and then analyze the data, taking into account nuances that may never even show up in the data. For example, a home that sits on the south side of a street may be zoned for School A, while a comparable home that sits on the north side of the street is zoned for School B. School B may have much higher scores, or ratings, in terms of excellence; however, this type of information will not show up in a typical search of consumer data sources. So where do you start? A seasoned real estate professional. As subscribing members of an MLS, they have access to professional tools, which can quickly aggregate years’ worth of data on every property. These tools provide a lot of flexibility to the agent or broker, which enables them to look at the data through filters and get to a granular level in order to deliver the right pricing recommendation. Although popular consumer real estate sites tout their ability to provide users with market and valuation information, the data is basic and only delivered in one way. The tools used by agents and brokers can be formatted and delivered in ways that give the seller a true picture of the market and the value of their property. A real estate professional is your partner in this process. Your agent knows how to do the legwork and analysis, and will help you determine the right list price for your home.