Figuring out the right list price for your home in Aspen, Colorado isn’t always easy. It requires a balance between the market value, the features and the location. A skilled Aspen real estate agent can certainly help you to choose the right list price for your home.
When choosing a real estate agent, they should have a clear and organized strategy for choosing a price perfect for selling your home. It cannot be too high or too low. If the price is too high, you’ll struggle to gain interest. If it’s too low, buyers may think you’re hiding something.
Setting the list price is vital to the successful sale of your home. There are some very good pricing strategies real estate agents use and some not so good strategies. Here’s a look at just a few of them.
Market Value
Often, a real estate agent will figure out the estimated market value before listing your home. They may find a few comparable properties to analyze, which are often called comps. These comps will be looked at until the real estate agent can come up with a fair market value, which they will use to help set the proper list price.
Using market value to determine the right list price is a smart way to go. This should always be at least a consideration when choosing the right list price for any home in Aspen.
The Buzz
Another rather smart way real estate agents will set the price is to monitor the buzz a property creates when it first hits the market. The buzz will often come from buyers agents calling the real estate agent and other inquiries. If the property has been listed with a good price, it will see buzz until the offers start coming in. However, if the price is too high or too low, the buzz won’t be there.
Usually, as long as there’s buzz, offered will come in. If the price is too high, the buzz will only last about a week and it may be time for a price reduction. This can help reinvigorate the buzz, which may lead to offers.
Satisfying the Seller
Sometimes, real estate agents will price a property based on what the seller wants. This is a horrible idea as the seller may not really know what the property will fetch on the open market. They may add in emotional value without even knowing it and it won’t be the true market value or a list price capable of creating buzz.
When this happens, the property usually sits on the market indefinitely. The only way this changes is when the seller realized the price is too high and needs to be lowered in order to get any type of offer.
Price Paid for the Home Plus Upgrades
Sellers may try to persuade a real estate agent by letting them know they paid a certain amount for the property and sunk in another sum of cash for upgrades. They seem to think the property must be worth at least what they paid for it plus the cost of the upgrades. This isn’t a good pricing strategy at all.
Just because a property was bought for $5,000,000 doesn’t mean it can be sold for that amount, even with new upgrades. The real estate market goes through cycles and it’s not going to be the same five years from now and it wasn’t the same five years ago. Pricing a home based on what was paid for it and the cost of upgrades isn’t a good idea.
Some upgrades don’t add value to the home at all, even if they were expensive.
Choosing the right price to list your property matters. It’s important to understand a few things that won’t play any part in creating value or in the sales price, which include:
- The price you paid for the property
- How many times you decide to reduce the price
- How much you think you need in net proceeds from the sale
- The cost of upgrades you’ve paid for
- The reason you are selling the property
- How much time and effort you’ve put into working on the home
If you price the property correctly, you may just end up with a bidding war and get more than you expected. However, this means, you need the right elements, which include a skilled Aspen real estate agent, the ability to take the agent’s advice and the ability to keep emotion out of the deal.
When it’s all said and done, the offers you receive will fit with market value, in most cases. Occasionally, you will get some low ball offers, but most of the time, buyers will may just below market value, right at market value or just above market value.