How to Price Your Home to Sell

Pricing Your Home - 7 Minute Read

2/3/2023(Updated 7/8/2023)

Setting the right price for your home can be a delicate balance. Price it too high and you may struggle to attract interested buyers and find yourself in a long, drawn-out sales process. On the other hand, pricing your home too low can result in leaving money on the table and potentially selling for less than its true value. Finding the sweet spot in pricing your home to sell can be a tricky task, but it's crucial to getting the best outcome in terms of time and money. Whether you're a seasoned homeowner or a first-time seller, it's important to understand the factors that influence the value of your home and how to price it appropriately.

How to Price Your Home

• Understand the market
  • Start with an Automated Home Estimator
  • Obtain a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
  • Tour Homes to Understand the Market
  • Track Market Activity using Online Services
• Define Your goals
• Employ a Pricing Strategy

Understand the market

Park City is a small, yet complex real estate market. The Areas page lists all the major areas and tags show the major features of each area, such as gated community, ski in/out, Park City Schools, nightly rentals allowed, and more. Each area presents detailed statistics for each area, such as sold prices, activity level, and property type distribution. As long-time Park City Reators, we have experience guiding clients through the process of setting the initial selling price. Setting the initial price requires a feel for the market pulse and technical acumen. Pricing a home in a custom built neighborhood that has zero sales in the last four years requires deep technical analysis to draw inferences coupled with wide ranging personal experience working with customers in similar though different neighborhoods. Selecting the right agent is key to gaining a deep market understanding.

Some important tools for gaining a deeper feel for the market are provided next.

Start with an Automated Home Estimator

Using Slope Style Realty's Home Price Estimator is a great first step in understanding the current market value of your home. This specialized home price estimator is unique to Park City, incorporating local agent knowledge to provide a more accurate estimate. The best part? It's completely automated, free, and quick to use with no registration required. Simply enter your address in the auto complete search box to view your home's estimated value. The initial price reflects the average price for a home in your neighborhood with similar characteristics (beds, baths, square footage,...). Look carefully and you will notice a price range is presented in smaller font. By moving the slider presented below the price, you can adjust the 1 – 10 rating to see an updated value. An above average ratings reflects on-point improvements from recent renovations can be improved by renovating, staging, amazing views, main floor living, extra large garage, and many more features.

In addition to Slope Style Realty's estimator, it's also a good idea to check out Zillow's Zestimate or Redfin's Estimator) for a more comprehensive understanding of your home's value. With these resources at your fingertips, you'll have a solid starting point for understanding the current market conditions.

Obtain a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)

A comparative market analysis (CMA) is a report prepared by your real estate agent to determine the current market value of a property. It involves comparing the subject property to similar properties recently sold in the same area and includes factors such as location, size, age, and condition. To properly create a CMA, the real estate agent must physically view the home and gather information about the subject property and recently sold properties. The CMA provides a comprehensive overview of the current real estate market and helps inform property-related decisions. Data analysis technology has advanced rapidly and your agent should come armed with a CMA based on years of sales data and tens to hundreds of comporable property sales; the days of a CMA pricing based on 6-8 comps is long gone.

Utah is a non-disclosure state, which means that the sales prices of properties are not publicly available to the general public. Only real estate professionals who are licensed by the state and have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) can access this information. This makes it difficult for individuals to determine the market value of a property without the help of a real estate agent. By working with a licensed agent, property owners and buyers can take advantage of the agent's access to sales price information, as well as their expertise in analyzing the local real estate market, to make informed decisions about buying, selling, or valuing a property.

Tour Homes to Understand the Market

Touring homes is a great way to get a feel for what the market favors in real estate. One way to do this is by attending "broker" open houses, which are hosted by Park City real estate agents on Wednesdays. These events are open to the public and are a great opportunity to see new listings and get a feel for what is currently available on the market. If you're interested in attending, you can look online or just give us a call and one of us will be happy to show you around.

Having an agent line up some showings for you can also help you understand why certain homes are in high demand and others are not. During these showings, be sure to pay attention to the finishes, floor plan, parking, noise level, and sun light. You can also attend open houses on weekends to see what properties are available, or visit new construction showrooms to learn about the latest and greatest in styling. By taking these steps, you'll have a better understanding of what is currently in demand in the real estate market, which will help you make informed decisions when buying, selling, or valuing a property.

Track Market Activity using Online Services

New listings move quickly when attractively presented and appropriately priced. That's why its imperative to utilize your preferred online real estate service to gain an innate feel for the market and stay abreast of inventory changes and take the measure of the competition. Online services provide handy tools to accomplish these tasks:

• Saved Searches – Saving searches enables you to receive email and/or text messages the instant a new property comes to market..
• Map Search – Easily view all currently listed homes in a selected geographical area.
• Search Filters – Reduce the clutter by setting up critera to display listings with the most desired features. This feature is key to getting the most our of map search.
• Favorites – Easily revisit homes you find interesting.
• Share – Sharing interesting listings with your agent, family members, and friends keeps everyone on the same page and increases early feedback.
• Open Houses – Visiting open houses is a great way to stay up to date on the competition, styling, pricing trends, and gathering intel. And it's fun!

Define Your goals

Selling a home can be a complex process, but understanding your goals can help simplify things. If you need a quick sale due to a life-changing event, time is of the essence. On the other hand, if you're looking to maximize your profit, it's important to price your home appropriately. Privacy during the process may also be important, and you may be willing to sacrifice some money in order to minimize the number of people who tour your home. Finally, you may simply want to see if you can get your desired price. Having a clear understanding of your goals will help you make informed decisions and find the best outcome for your situation.

Pricing Strategies

Pricing Pyramid

This strategy allows for three approaches: 1) Price at market value, 2) Price just below market value, or 3) Price above market value. Pricing at market value is a good place to start for normal markets and you do not want to "leave money on the table." Pricing just below market value is useful during hot markets to generate multiple offers or to signal the market you are a serious seller. Pricing above market can be appropriate when you have a special property with highly sought after features and you are not afraid to wait for the right buyer.

Ajdust for Online Pricing Benchmarks

A recent article from the National Association of Realtors stated that 97% of all homebuyers used the internet in their home search. In Park City, Zillow uses $100,000 bands for filtering price up to $2,000,000. Consider the searches you want to appear in when selecting your price.

When to Sell

When choosing the time of year to sell your Park City home, it is important to consider the type of property and the target market. For nightly rental properties, the peak ski season is the best time to sell as there will be more potential buyers looking for investment opportunities. On the other hand, homes in primary residence neighborhoods such as Pinebrook or Silver Springs will have more family buyers in the spring as people want to move during summer break. For second homes in areas like Promontory, it is best to have them available for sale during major holidays when owners are more likely to be looking for a change.

Room to Negotiate

Leaving room for negotiation is a wise move when selling a property. Deals are more likely to go through when both the buyer and seller feel like they've won something in the negotiations. For the seller, pricing your property slightly higher than the bottom of your acceptable range can leave room for negotiating and potentially closing the deal with the buyer. On the other hand, pricing your property at the bottom of your acceptable range can prevent you from working with the buyer to creatively close the deal, as there is no room for negotiation. The key is to find a balance that works for both parties, so it's important to consider leaving room for negotiation when pricing your property.

Contact Slope Style For Free Estimates

Our team of experts has decades of experience buying, selling, renovating, flipping, and living in Park City and is committed to providing the most accurate and up-to-date information to our clients. If you're considering buying or selling a property in Park City, we invite you to give our estimator a try and see what we think a property is fairly valued. Additionally, if you're looking for a more in-depth estimate or want to strategize on what to offer for a property, contact us for a free in-person estimate. Our team is here to help you make informed decisions about buying or selling a home in Park City.