Though it may not be the case in your locale, nationally one real estate trend is abundantly clear: It’s a buyer’s market.

Gone are the halcyon days for sellers who could once enjoy bidding wars over their house as they fielded multiple offers after just days of the house being on the market. Call it what you will, a “downturn” in the housing market, or simply a “correction.” Either way, now is not the best time to be a seller.

One way to help ensure your home sells in a buyers’ market is to make sure your house is priced appropriately. To do so, follow these simple steps:

Don’t over-price of the home to give yourself room to negotiate down. Back during the height of the real estate boom, sellers could routinely tack on additional 20 percent to the home’s price, hoping they could get the windfall, but also knowing they could negotiate down, if need be. But those days are long gone. Now, if potential buyers see what they view as an inflated housing price, they may go to the next listing without giving you the chance to negotiate a lower price.

Round the price down. Consider following a pricing tactic retailers have used for years. Rather than pricing a home at $400,000, consider selling it for $398,000. Not only does a $390,000 home sound a lot cheaper than a $400,000 home, more importantly, as buyers’ and real estate agents are increasingly turning to the internet, your house will be viewed by folks searching for homes between $300,000 and $399,999, but would be skipped if you listed you home at an even $400,000.

Research similar homes in your area. It has been said that “all politics is local,” and that’s also true of real estate. When looking to price your home, forget about what houses are going for nationally, or even across town. To get an idea of how much you should sell your house for, take a look at other comparable houses in your neighborhood have sold for. To find these, check the listings of your local newspaper or head to the internet, where you can search for comparable homes by imputing your zip code. Be careful to look at the price homes have actually sold at, not what the asking price was. Also, make sure you are looking at up-to-date information. In today’s changing real estate market, homes that sold for a certain price six months ago may be selling for a lower (or higher) price today. For the most accurate information, try limiting you search to comparable homes that have sold in the last three months.

By pricing your home wisely, you should have a much better shot of selling it, even in a buyer’s market.

By David Plowman

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