The Key to Pricing Your Austin Home for the Highest Net Profit

Austin Texas Real Estate Podcast With Shawn Culhane

You've probably heard that old real estate myth that when you sell your house, you should price it above market value to 'leave room for negotiation.' I have two examples today that show why that's a terrible idea.

When homeowners sell their house, one of the most common questions they have for real estate agents is how to price it properly to sell. I think many people believe the myth that in order to sell something, you need to elevate the price to 'leave room for negotiation.' It sounds logical on the surface, but it can actually be one of the worst things you can do.

When we help people sell their house, we analyze what's currently active on the market, home sales that are pending, and recent sales to give them a number or range for the current market value of their property. That's the first step. The second step is to determine the marketing and pricing strategies.

Consider West Lake and Lakeway as an example.

In Lakeway between the $1 million and $2 million price points, there have been 38 properties that sold in the last 365 days. Of those 38 homes, 17 elevated their price to leave room for negotiation and sold for an average of $1.358 million. The other 21 sellers were more aggressive with their pricing and averaged $1.329 million, which is $29,000 less.

Remember, the value of the property and the pricing of the property are two very different conversations. Just by elevating their price, those 17 sellers netted almost $30,000 more on average.

In West Lake, we can look at homes in the same price range and see that the sellers who priced their homes aggressively made $125,000 more on average than those who elevated the price of their home to leave room for negotiation. This is just a small example of what we see all around the Austin area.

In West Lake, sellers who priced aggressively netted $125,000 more on average last year.

As part of the selling process, we'll help you make sure you price your home well to maximize your bottom line. It's something we enjoy doing, and we know that the numbers don't lie. We even use special software that helps us analyze pricing to help you find the best price for your home. To boot, we've added a third office in San Antonio to help serve you at an even higher level.

If you have any questions about pricing your house to sell or you're thinking about buying a home in the Austin or San Antonio area, give us a call or send us an email. We'd be happy to help you.