“How much is my house worth? How quick will it sell?…When I first began hunting out distressed properties and would come up on a good one I would quickly call one of my contractors and ask, how much do you think it would be to add an extension? Can you get me a quick price on how much to replace a failing roof system? Can we add a bathroom etc…I would never get an answer and my questions were instead always answered with more questions such as…Are we digging out a crawl space for this extension or is it going on slab? What type of siding? How many windows are necessary? Egress? Where is the nearest plumbing to tap into? Any load walls in our way? Is there going to be a separate entrance required? Are we going to follow the original roof line or is it a reverse gable? Any dormers? What pitch? Yada yada yada etc……..I quickly stopped asking and got the point. Similarly to price out a property PROPERLY there is much data to review and an assortment of variables to factor in as well. It is not rocket science, but something that should be taken seriously considering the diverse and fluctuating values of homes especially found in Westchester NY.
If you are interested in selling your home here is a very high level overview of what to expect. Firstly most any realtor will prepare a comprehensive CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) based on your exact properties stats. It is important your realtor obtains this exact property information because when your house is appraised no one cares what you or your realtors tape measure says and official records will be utilized. This is especially important in NY due to most homes containing below grade square footage and cape homes that have varying square footage calculations to determine the 2nd floor finished attic space. Every municipality seems to differ in their criteria somewhat so it’s important to just start off correct.
According to the stats of your house you and your realtor will then review other similar properties (comparables) and come up with an appropriate listing price that is indicative of the current market standards, factoring in any variances between your property and the other comparables. Warning it is at this point your home is no longer that warm and fuzzy source of memories it once was and it is now officially a black and white raw investment commodity. Your house is worth only what the market will bear, nothing more nothing less.
Any repairs or issues that could halt the sale should be remedied at this time. Your realtor will also come up with ideas to maximize the layout and overall value of the entire property. The plan is to appeal to the largest number of buyers you will be targeting and to get them to pay that price in the quickest time frame. With that said personally I am not concerned with how quick your home sells for unless you are. I will never set a lower price to just “move a property” unless you clearly communicate there is a dire situation at hand. My only concern is to get the highest price possible for your house. This is how I would treat any investment property, this is how I treat your house.
Once your house has passed all criteria professional photos will be taken of course, and finally and most importantly your property will be listed on the big bad MLS (Multiple Listing Service). We are members of the local Hudson Gateway MLS and we partner with ALL big and small brokerages not only locally but throughout entire Westchester County to help find a qualified buyer for your home. Being long time residents of Westchester NY, and through numerous personal real estate experiences we have become very familiar with and enjoy networking with all offices. In addition thanks to the latest technologies we also employ a highly aggressive targeted ad campaign and marketing effort to help find a direct buyer for your home as well. Since our office does not incur the same overhead and fees of the larger brokerages more of our money can be intelligently allocated towards the custom marketing campaign of finding the strongest and best qualified buyer for your home. Once we receive an offer we are comfortable with we are far from over. We need to coordinate inspections, manage loan deadlines and make sure all pieces move in the proper direction to ensure a successful closing.
If the above process is something you are interested in finding more about for your home feel free to get in touch to discuss your situation.