Tips for Picking an Asking Price for a House in Sacramento

Picking an asking price for a house in Sacramento starts with statistics.

Do you want to talk about picking an asking price for your house in Sacramento, or would you like to start by asking me questions? That’s how I opened my meeting with two potential sellers I met with yesterday at my office. My meetings with sellers are client-centric. My goals are their goals. Further, ordinarily, I do not go into the office on Saturdays and work from my home office, but sometimes I am working with sellers who live out of town and can only drive into Sacramento on the weekend, so I do my best to accommodate. My gut instincts told me this couple seemed a bit unsure of how the meeting with a Sacramento Realtor would commence, and I don’t do “canned” listing presentations. Hence, the question.

My clients are never subjected to “salesmanship.” I don’t follow scripts or spew forth stuff I’ve memorized. Each client is unique; every situation is different. Even though the basics of picking an asking price for a house might remain the same. I explain that without including the sub-sets, there are 3 primary home asking prices:

Three Types of an Asking Price for a House in Sacramento

• the price sellers expect
• the price buyers expect
• the price appraisers determine

I try to incorporate all three into a comparative market analysis. That’s the science part of picking an asking price for a house. It includes comparable sales within a 1/2 mile radius over the last 3 months. Not last year or even 6 months back. Those stats show trends but not today’s marketplace and most sellers are not interested in trends; they want to know what is happening right now today. What kind of market applies to the selling of their home.

In a seller’s market, like we have right now in Sacramento, the asking price for a house is typically somewhere between the price a seller expects and the final appraised value. Buyers just have to fall in line. I’ve run into a few buyers lately who don’t seem to have a firm handle on what they can get in their desired price ranges and demand concessions, upgrades, to fit their individual dreams but, for the most part, those guys have a long road ahead because they are aiming above their means. My sellers compare the upgrades in their house to the upgrades in similar homes when choosing a sales price. We discuss interior photos.

There is also the intangible part, the “art” of picking an asking price for a home. It has to do with the presence, the emotional tug, the way the home hits your center core upon entering. Hokey as it may sound, every home has a soul. And you can feel it when you walk into the house. It hits you immediately. That “feeling” has a price tag. You notice I am not talking about square-foot values because although square feet matters, you would not compare a home varying more than 20% or so in square footage; it is not how you pick an asking price.

Bottom line is a Sacramento Realtor can give you an estimated range of value, but she really should tour your home in person to determine an accurate asking price for a house in Sacramento. To mix the “art” with the “science.” Not to mention, a top producer Realtor is more likely to attract top dollar for your home through her marketing strategies, and it might sell with multiple offers in this Sacramento market. If you’d like to talk about selling your home, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.