When people think about selling their home they often wonder, “How much should I sell it for?” The number doesn’t just appear out of thin air. The number often comes from having a real estate agent perform a market analysis in order to arrive at a number that will help the property sell quickly and for a good price so that both the buyer and seller are happy.

A market analysis involves a realtor taking a look at what prices comparable homes sold for in the neighborhood. So, for example, say there’s a similar home a few doors down from yours that was built around the same time yours was, and features a similar layout, including 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a backyard deck and pool. If it sold for $150,000 a month ago, then your realtor would likely say your home would sell “in that ballpark” too. Or perhaps there were five homes sold in a half mile radius of your home within the past year, with an average sale price of $150,000– that would inform your agent as to “what the market will bear” locally.

If you were to ask a real estate agent how price is determined, they’d generally reply, “Price is dependent on what others are willing to pay for a particular home/property.” It’s no wonder, then, that homes on the waterfront go for much more than homes near highways and electric lines.

A market analysis involves statistics such that an informed decision can be made on how to price a property accordingly so it will likely sell in a timely manner.

Interestingly, some people will hear the number an agent gives them and they will not agree to it. Oftentimes, there’s an emotional response involved, such as, “I put all my sweat and tears into building and decorating this house. I won’t settle for anything less than a million.” The realtor may say, “The market analysis suggests this house would sell for somewhere between $750,000 and $850,000.” A seller is free to set the price they “want,” though they may find few people will “bite,” because the price is set too high. That’s why having a realtor do a market analysis is probably the best bet toward setting a fair price whereas the home/property will sell, and sell quickly.

Have you been wondering what your house might be worth these days? Have Donna Littlefield perform a FREE market analysis for you; call 716-578-1788 to arrange that today!

What determines property value? That’s a good question that gets a couple different answers depending whom you ask.

For people who want to sell their home, the property value is what a ready-and-willing-and-able buyer is willing to pay for the house. It’s a number that’s typically calculated by looking at comparable homes in the neighborhood which sold recently.

Similarly, when a municipality is figuring out property values in order to assess taxes, their assessor may also check properties which are similar nearby in order to value residential, vacant and/or farm properties. For example, if a nearby ranch home with 3 bedrooms built in 1979 with a two-car garage and a fireplace is just like your house and it sold for $150,000 a month ago, then it’s likely your house is worth about the same. Assessors may also use the cost or income approach to figure out property value.

The cost approach to determining property value equals the cost to replace a structure with a similar one using today’s labor and material prices, minus depreciation and plus the market value of the land it’s on. This cost approach is typically used to find industrial, utility and special purpose property values.

The income approach includes an analysis of how much income a property will produce if rented, taking into account things like maintenance costs and operating expenses.

Meanwhile, assessors may use computer assisted “mass appraisal” techniques in order to estimate values.

One other major factor that plays a role in determining property value is supply and demand of land in an area. Certain neighborhoods are more desirable than others for a number of reasons, and since land is in limited supply, its price mostly increases over time. Therefore, a home bought in East Amherst in 1970 for $50,000 might be worth $500,000 today simply because that area has built-up and become a bustling place where people want to live. Land underneath a structure doesn’t depreciate (for tax purposes).

So property values are typically determined by the land where they’re at coupled with figuring out how much similar structures have been selling for in recent times.

Some people are active when they want to sell their home, while others are passive. The active ones end up getting a better deal in the end. One of the “active” things you can do when thinking of selling your home is to have it “staged.” This is where the house gets spruced up to look magazine-worthy. Cleaning out the clutter, bringing in some nice, new furniture (which can be rented, by the way), and perhaps painting some walls to freshen up the place can truly make it more inviting and alluring to potential buyers.

Ultimately, if you want to get the highest price for selling your home, staging is going to help you do just that. You want to make your place look and feel so good that buyers desire to have it. You want them to feel compelled to buy it because it’s so perfect.

Staging not only helps up the purchase price of a place, but also helps it sell better. Staged homes sell more quickly than non-staged homes, and that’s no surprise. If you’re in the market to buy a place, and you find two similarly priced ones but one’s prettier and nicer looking than the other, you’re going to go with the nicely staged one.

Meanwhile, staging can be good for sellers because it essentially forces them to finally clean up all their stuff and figure out what they want to do with it. For some people, this means putting stuff in boxes and storing it out of sight. For others, it means having a big garage sale and/or donating stuff that’s no longer useful or needed in their lives. As a bonus, staging helps teach people about decorating rooms to make them have a strong visual impact. It informs people of how to make rooms feel more open, too. This can come in handy when moving to a new place.

Finally, staging a place helps create a favorable first impression. Buyers, once they walk through the door, will sense right away whether they could see themselves living there easily… or not. Staging puts people’s minds at ease because things are arranged nicely and in a pleasant and open way. Non-staged homes, on the other hand, give buyers too many things to think about as they make a long mental list of things they’d have to change and/or do to make it look and feel the way they’d want it to.