All Northern VA homeowners want to maximize their financial reward when selling their home.  The question is, how do you guarantee that you receive the best price and terms for your house?  Here are 2 ways to get the best price when selling your Northern VA home.

1. Price it at or Just Little Low

I know, it sounds counterintuitive, but let’s take a look at this proven concept for a moment. Many Northern VA homeowners think that pricing their home a little OVER market value will leave them room for negotiation.   In actuality, it just dramatically lessens the demand for their houses (see chart below).

Over pricing is a strategy to ‘win’ the negotiation with only one buyer.   Home sellers should price their house so that demand for the home is maximized. By doing so, sellers have a better opportunity of getting full price and possibly multiple offers and driving a higher sales price.

Realtor.com gives this advice:

“Aim to price your property at or just slightly below the going rate. Today’s buyers are highly informed, so if they sense they’re getting a deal, they’re likely to bid up a property that’s slightly underpriced, especially in areas with low inventory.”

Those who would prefer more analytics as proof, Spencer Rascoff the CEO of Zillow wrote in his book, Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate:

"The data tells us that when a listing is overpriced, it tends to sell for less than its estimated value", and "a house that initially is priced for less will ultimately sell for more."

2. Use a Real Estate Professional

Home seller may think that they will make more money by avoiding a real estate commission, but this just isn't true. Many studies have shown that homes typically sell for more money when listed by real estate professionals.

Collateral Analytics, reveals that FSBOs don’t actually save money, and in many cases may be costing themselves more, by not listing with an agent. The data showed that:

“FSBOs tend to sell for lower prices than comparable home sales, and in many cases below the average differential represented by the prevailing commission rate.

”Here is a detailed article I have written about the subject, Study: FSBOs Don’t Save Commission

Bottom Line

Price your Northern VA home at or slightly below the current market  and make sure you hire a professional, give me call.  This will guarantee that you maximize the price you get for your house.