Why You Need a Realtor to Price Your Home to Sell

You can easily go online and find out what price you should put on your home when you are ready to sell. However, that may not be the best way to get the highest or even the most accurate price for your property. Instead, it is best to work with a real estate agent who can go beyond automated systems and give you real numbers.

How Automated Systems Work

These automated sites don’t do a bad job in pricing properties. They have a solid method that calculates the value based on what other homes similar to yours have sold for in recent months. These sites, called automated valuation model sites or AVM for short, use information that is available publicly. They may come from listing services and other data from your region.

Why You Need a Real Estate Agent

While these tools are pretty interesting to use and provide a valuable service, you are selling yourself short if you rely on them. Instead, think of them as a starting point to give you an idea of what your home might be worth.

One reason you should not rely on the tool as your sole pricing agent is that it is not always accurate. They may be off as little as 5 percent or as much as 20 percent. If your house is priced off by that much, you could either lose out on money for being underpriced or on buyers by being overpriced.

Market data is an important of the pricing process. However, it is not the only aspect you should consider. For instance, these tools won’t take into account whether you have made major upgrades to your older home. It also won’t consider what work still needs done.

Bonus features for the area may also overshadow market value. For instance, if you live near one of the best schools in the state, your home may be worth more than market data reflects. Walkability of the neighborhood may also be reflected in the price.

Realtors know your home and others in the neighborhood. They actually visit your property and comparable homes in the area to prove their price is the right one. An agent can rely on past experience to help them make the right decision for your home’s price. While automated tools can be a valuable addition to selling a home, there is no replacing the real-world experience and past performance of real estate agents to help you get the best price for your home. Contact me if you are ready to price your home to sell.