Deciding what to price your home can be one of the biggest challenges when selling your home yourself. You want to price it high enough that you get reasonable offers, but low enough so that you do not scare away buyers. The price has to be realistic with where the local market is.
You must be objective when setting your asking price. You cannot base the price on what YOU think your home is worth. You must look at several factors.
Market Value vs. Appraised Value
Market Value is whatever price a buyer is willing to pay for your home. Market value is also determined by which similar properties sell for.
Appraised value on the other hand is what a bank thinks your home is worth and is usually determined by a professional
appraiser. An appraiser will use a comparative market analysis plus a physical inspection of your property in order to find the appraised value of your home. Market value and appraised value can vary quite a bit. You need to determine the market value of your home when deciding on a price.
Estimating the Market Value of Your Home
Option 1:
Get an online appraisal from ElectronicAppraiser.com. This gives you a property valuation report for $29.95.
Option 2:
Try a free online appraisals of your property from Ditech.com, and Zillow.com. You can't rely
completely on these online appraisal sites, but it may give you a better idea of where to start.
Option 3:
Go to the Logan County Auditors Website and click on Search Sales, on the left hand side. There you can search up to one year of completed home sales in Bellefontaine. You can enter a range of prices, bedrooms, stories, etc. For the
district code, it is usually 17, or 18 for Bellefontaine. I would suggest entering a range of prices. If you are thinking of pricing your home at $150,000 then enter $125,000 to $175,000 and search for the last 6 months. You may also want to enter # of bedrooms, or you can leave this blank for more search results. You can find comparable properties to your home and see what they actually sold for and not what price they were listed at.
Option 4
If you are having trouble determining the market value of your home, consider hiring a professional appraiser. Appraisers usually charge around $250-$500. I would suggest using someone local who is familiar with home prices in the area. To find a local appraiser please see our real estate services directory.
Another way to determine market value is to find similar homes to yours that are already on the market, and compare them to yours. You must make price adjustments. Maybe the home down the road has 4 bedrooms, and your home is 3, etc. There really is no magical formula to determine market value. Just research as much as you can.
