Information from our Experts

Learn How Much Your House Is Worth

by Garry Edwards

Before you put your house on the market for sale, one of the first things you must do is to find out what your house is worth. The buyers of today are very well educated and know whether the asking price of a house is above, at or below the market. If your house is overpriced, chances are that there won't be too many buyers passing by to look at the house much less give you offers to buy the house.

The bad news is that the price of a house depends less on how much blood, sweat and tears you put into your house but rather what the market will bear. What this means is that a buyer really doesn't care how hard you worked on or fixed up your house but rather what comparable houses in your neighbor sold for.

The easiest way to tell what is the market price of your house is to ask a friend who is a real estate agent to give you a list of what comparable houses in your neighbor recently sold for. The more recent the date of sale of the house, the more close the sales price of the house is to the price of your house.

If you can't find a friendly real estate agent that is willing to cooperate with you, another approach is to search on the Internet at websites such as http://www.dataquick.com for your own list of comparables in your neighborhood. Make sure that the comparable houses have the same number of rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, approximately built at the same time, and have approximately the same square footage (both living space and lot size).

In the case where you have done a lot of custom work to the house, sometimes it is better to get a professional appraiser to pass by and take a look at your house. They are better qualified to judge the value of the customized work.

In summary, knowing what is the market price of your house is the best way to get your house sold. And if you do your job right, it will sell quickly and for as much money as you can get!

About the Author:

Garry Edwards is with http://www.topforsalebyowner.com - a free website offering owners listing services and other helpful resources.