MI Homes

Raymond Realty Group

Voice: 219-405-7269

"Ray Knows Homes"

In almost every homeowner’s life, there comes the point when, for whatever reason, it’s time to sell your home. But, although the selling process may seem a bit overwhelming –especially if it’s the first time – it can go a smoother than you mightthink, and less tiring than the buying process – if you follow the tipsrecommended by many real estate professionals.

First and foremost, you will need to determine the value of your home. This is not an easy process -- real estate pros recommend using avariety of sources and methods to find out what your home is reallyworth.  After that, you can combine the information you’vegathered to arrive at the “right” price.

Many Realtorswill offer prospective sellers a comparative market analysis (CMA) asan incentive to try to win your business.  This analysisis very helpful in that it will let you see the prices of houses – withsimilar characteristics of your home -- in the local area that havebeen sold recently.  In addition, prices of similar homescurrently on the market can be viewed.

 The CMA can alsoallow you to determine if your local real estate market is a buyer’smarket or seller’s market by pointing out “Days on the Market” (DOM)figures for each comparable house sold in the recent past.  Ifmany houses have been selling in a matter of a few days, for example,you can safely say your area is experiencing a seller’s market. If, however, many homes are languishing on the market for some months,it is a buyer’s market. 

If it’s a seller’s market, it’sgood to price your home a bit above what you would expect the house tobe worth.  On the flip side, for a buyer’s market, you would wantto lower the price so that it appears to be a bargain for the buyer,and so that it won’t pine away on the market for too long.

Through a professional market analysis, the Realtor will perform the following services:

• Examinethe appearance and condition of your home’s exterior and interior, andoffer suggestions as to refurbishing or repairs, which might result ingetting a better price.
• A comparison will be done comparing your home with others currently on the market or recently sold.
• A review of the assessed value of your home, its previous sale prices, local taxes, and utility costs will be prepared.
• Anevaluation will be done of your home’s location, size, lot size, age,the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, as well as the total number ofrooms, in addition to any extraordinary features or amenities.

Basedon this data and other local market conditions, the Realtor can giveyou a pretty decent idea of what your house is really worth.

Professionalappraisers can also help sellers to discover the value of theirhomes.  However a formal written market-value appraisal, which canset you back a few hundred bucks, is usually not needed unless thereare extraneous circumstances surrounding your home or property whichwould make it difficulty to determine its value.  For example, ifthere hasn’t been much sales activity in your neighborhood as of late,the appraisal could be well worth the money spent.

Anothervaluable source of information can be garnered from attending some openhouses in your local area.  There, you can meet other sellers andreal estate professionals face to face to discuss current marketconditions, and get a real sense of how the market is behaving. However, be aware, that the asking price of a for-sale home can bemisleading – based on the homeowner’s biased opinion surrounding thevalue of the house – thus, it’s often not an accurate reflection of thehome’s true market value.

Also, the internet can be a veryuseful tool in your quest to set the “right” price for your home. And, now that many counties have property appraiser websites set uponline, one can access a lot of data concerning current and past realestate sales – often free.