When selling your home, one of the first hurdles that you will face is pricing your home. Naturally, everyone wants to profit as much as they can, but it can be tricky since there are several different ways you can go about pricing your home. Here are some tips to maximize your profit:

1. Don’t Use a CMA

This will be our little secret. The most common way realtors decide what to price a home is to run a Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA. When I started in real estate 24 years ago, they taught us to do a CMA when pricing home by finding what other homes in the area sold for then listing the client’s home a little above that.

Nowadays, that is a mistake. There are too many other factors that matter to pricing a home these days that only looking at just the prices of other listings in the area will not do your home justice.

If a realtor comes into your home with a CMA already in hand, run away. If they have already done a CMA, they already have a price in mind and will not be open to whatever you want to do.

• Use a Market Absorption Report

The best report for today’s listings would be a Market Absorption Report. These reports take into account seasonality, staging, pre-inspection, the condition of the home and property, and more. It’s more than just letting the market dictate the price of your home.

For instance, if you are selling a five-bedroom home and another five-bedroom home recently sold two streets over, a Market Absorption Report will note that the home had tremendous pet odor. The odor was reflected in the price and would affect your CMA. But, with the Market Absorption Report, your home will not be lowered to the price of the home with pet odor.

Another thing the Market Absorption Report will do is look back on the history of homes sold during a specific period of time. The report would tell me that last December, there were 26 houses sold in a particular community and we could expect to sell about the same number of houses because the rates are still somewhat the same.

• Don’t Let Your Agent Buy the Listing

Another thing an agent will do that you need to stay away from is called buying the listing. When they do this, they start with a price that is way over what you’re really going to get as long as they get your name on the contract. What happens is you’re locked in for six months and they’ll slowly reduce the price of the home until it is a more marketable price. By then, you’ve missed your honeymoon period. Make sure you don’t fall for this.

• Get Multiple Opinions

Before you set a price for your home, or even invite an agent in, get a general idea of what you want to get for your house. When you are ready to invite an agent in, don’t invite just one. Invite in three. Even try to invite in a broker instead of an agent. Invite them in, get their opinions, and take a look at their values. Even if you’re going to sell it for sale by owner. It’s your responsibility to get the most amount of money you can for your house.

Once you’ve taken all of these steps, you will be on the right track to maximize your profit from selling your home. Make sure to let me know if you have any questions by commenting or messaging me. I’d be happy to answer them!

Always Demand That Your Agent Use a Professional Photographer

Whether you realize it or not you realize it, photography can make or break a home listing. Bad photos can really turn away potential buyers. The best way to avoid this is to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of your home for the listing- it can make all the difference.

It’s Your Home’s First Showing

Think of it this way: if you were scrolling through dozens of home listings online, would you be more interested in learning more about the home with crystal clear photographs of every room, or the house with blurry photos of just a few rooms when the photographer’s finger can be seen too close to the lens? The first one, right?

The photos on your home’s listing is the first impression your home will make on a lot of people, and you want to make a good first impression if you want all those buyers flocking to your house. Since it’s the first showing your home will get, make sure the photos make people want to buy, or at least learn more, with professional photography.

It Could Lead to Bad Publicity

If you’ve ever searched for a home online, you know that there is a lot of bad photography associated with home listings. In fact, I just came across one in the MLS today where you could literally see the tips of the shoes of the person taking the photo.

There’s a website out there called, something along the lines of, Outrageous Pictures in Real Estate. They feature different pictures of home listings and the lousy photography that people use. Do you think people would want to buy your house if it ended up on this website?

Don’t Skimp Out on Photographs

It may cost you a couple hundred dollars to have a professional take pictures, but when you are potentially making $250,000 from selling your home and paying $14,000 in real estate commissions, it is only a small investment to get the best you can get. There are professional photographers out there that this is all they do and they know how to touch up a photo properly. Not to say that they will photoshop stuff in there, but they will know how to make it pop and catch the eyes of your buyers.

And please, please, please, don’t let your realtor use their iPhone. In fact, ask that they don’t even deal with the photos. Use a reputable photographer whose work you can see and know that it’s good. Get the best pictures that you possibly can to attract more buyers.

The way I see it, professional photography is the ONLY option when listing your home. So, take my advice and make sure you hire one! If you have any questions, please comment or message me! I’d be happy to answer them.