You can clean your home, stage it and make all the necessary repairs to your home, but there are factors that can impact the final sales price of your home in Mooresville that are out of your control. So, regardless of how well you have maintained your home and despite its location, one or more of these circumstance may rear its head and ultimately get you less money at closing.
Let’s take a look at three of the factors that may impact your home’s value.
1. The condition of the current market
You have likely heard real estate markets referred to as buyers’ sellers’ or balanced markets. A buyers’ market occurs when there is a large inventory of homes for sale and small number of buyers competing for them. Since the buyer is in the driver’s seat, prices tend fall in this type of market. When the inventory of available homes is tight and there are many buyers seeking homes, we are in a sellers’ market and home prices rise.
So, what creates these markets? Many factors affect both national and local housing markets, most important factor among them is the overall strength of the economy. When times are good, people have money to buy homes and home prices usually increase. In rough times, when unemployment is high and incomes stay the same, the real estate market will likely fall. Then, we have interest rates. When they increase, many are priced out of the housing market and when they fall, folks rush to buy homes. Therefore, the strength of the economy affects the eventual sale price of your home.
2. Neighborhood changes
Your neighborhood, and the area surrounding it, may look nothing like it did when you originally bought the home. Even with careful research performed before committing to buy a home, you can’t foresee future changes in the zoning, the neighbor that builds an extra story on his home and blocks your view, or the sex offender that moves into your neighborhood. All of these events can negatively impact the value of your home’s and, therefore, how much money you will make when you sell it. Suppose a zoning change allowed a dump or landfill to be placed in close proximity your neighborhood. Nearby home values will drop by as much as 7.3 percent according to Business Insider’s Mandi Woodruff. A power plant will decrease your value up to 7 percent, a sex offender as a neighbor will reduce your home’s value by as much as 12 percent and, woe to you if a neighbor forecloses because, according to Woodruff, the national average loss of value of nearby homes is $7,200. Now, there are neighborhood changes that can help your home value, and other nearby homeowners. The Walmart Effect for instance, is a phenomenon that improves neighborhood real estate prices. The name more often refers to the economic impact on local businesses when a big-box store, such as Walmart, moves into the area, but it’s been found to apply to home values as well. So, if a big retailer comes to your neighborhood, don’t be upset– you may just get a 3 percent increase in home value, according to a study by the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University. You may not want to live in close proximity to a big box store, but if you can make more money on the sale of your home, you’ll have more to put towards a new home! Another retailer that has been shown to increase your homes value Starbucks is coming to town and hope that it’s within walking distance of your home. Real estate portal Zillow found that between 1997 and 2014, the average increase in home value nationwide was 65 percent. Homes within walking distance of a Starbucks, however, saw a huge 96 percent increase. Also, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods can add a 17.5 percent increase in real estate value.
3. Your real estate agent
Pricing a home for the local real estate market isn’t rocket science, but it’s also not something that the inexperienced can do successfully. It takes years of experience to learn how to properly research a real estate market, to gain the knowledge to find truly comparable homes and all of the intricate details that go into determining a home’s current market value. If your listing agent comes up with the wrong price, your bottom line will be impacted. An overpriced home has been repeatedly found to eventual sell for far less than expected. Buyers’ agents should know how much homes in a particular area are worth and won’t show their clients the homes they know are overpriced. So, they sit on the market. The listing becomes stale and agents and buyers think there must be something wrong with the home. Underpricing is also a gamble. Your agent may tell you that it will create a bidding war, but what if it doesn’t? Are you really willing to take bottom dollar for your home? After pricing a home, the number one job of a listing agent is to market the home and find the buyer that will pay the most money the market will allow. Marketing not only requires knowledge, but money as well. How much is your agent willing to spend of their own money to market your home? Ensure that the agent you hire has a marketing budget and isn’t afraid to spend what it takes to get your home sold. You’ll pay the same amount of money for the services of an agent who gives you bare bones service as you will for the professional – so do your homework and interview several agents. Also read about the important things you should fix to prepare your home for sale..see here!
