What will be your best and most appropriate list price? What will you need to do to prepare and present your home to buyers? How will your home be marketed to attract the most buyers? How will your agent handle the transaction details and how much should these decisions be based on how soon you need to move?

There is more to setting your price than going online to sites like Zillow and Trulia where "estimates" are based on broad and general sales areas rather than on specific local information and statistics. Values in real estate are locally sensitive and can be different even from one side of the street to the other.  

To help sellers understand what current prices the market will bear, I provide them with the answers to the following questions:  

1.      How is the current market trending, is the trend going up or down?  How fast is it trending in this direction?

2.      What is the ratio between the overall number of homes on the market and the number of homes that are selling.

3.      How long, on average does it take to sell a comparable home in your county, in your city, in your area and in your specific neighborhood?  If they are different, why are they different?

4.      What did the most recent sale of comparable homes to yours in terms of location and other like-kind criteria sell for? What were they originally listed for? How many price reductions did they go through, if any, before they received the acceptable offer?

5.      How many of the comparable sales were short sales or foreclosures and how did their sale price compare with the closed traditional sales? Should you use these for estimating your list price?

6.      What incentives, if any, did the comparable sold homes offer to entice buyers?

7.      How do the comparable sold homes compare to yours in terms of features and condition?

8.      How my "Bringing in Buyers" marketing system will provide global exposure to your local listing.