CHAPTER 2 First Steps to Home Selling
"But You Gotta Know the Territory" - and Terminology
Location! Location! Location! as you may have heard, is the most crucial consideration in real estate and a major factor, if not the predominant one in real estate pricing. Novice (and not-so- novice) home sellers alike must know the considerations — such as location — that determine a home’s price. Setting the price at which to sell your home is not a simple formula, nor mathematical. Many elements factor into the decision. Throughout this book, you will read examples of similar and similarly situated houses that sold for very different prices, along with the reasons for the disparities. A calculated home value many times is not necessarily what you believe your home is worth. Recognizing this helps avoid overpricing, a major factor that leaves homes languishing or unsold and ultimately ends up selling for less than they would have had they been priced properly in the first place. Familiarity with the real estate terms: market value, appraisal value, and assessed value can save disappointment and frustration, and allow the home seller to more meaningfully engage in setting a home’s listing price. The most-used definition of market value is “the most probable price a property should bring in a competitive, open market under conditions requisite to a fair sale.” Essentially, this is a pre-
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