Part 2 Pricing your house

• Don’t ask for too much.Everybody seems to value their own property above the market value. If you want a quick sale, you should be realistic. This is the most important factor when selling any property.  If the price is above market value then it will not sell.  Try not listening to rumours about what another seller sold theirs for or even pay too much attention to what other sellers are asking for their property because there are many properties for sale and have been for a long time due to the owner asking for an unrealistic price.
• If your home is on a housing estate (moo baan) then look at what the developers are selling the same size house for, even if your house is fully furnished you can expect the actual sales price to be much less than a new one costs. Get the opinion of a reputable real estate professional who knows the market and see’s the actual sales prices for many similar houses. Be prepared to lower your expectations if you genuinely want to sell.  The current market is very competitive due to oversupply of new homes, in order to sell your price should be competitive too.
• Sometimes, a lower-than-expected price on a house can be a good thing. A low price can spark a bidding war, causing the price of the house to go up.A bidding war isn’t guaranteed, but it’s a lot more likely to happen when the price is lower than it is if the price is higher.

• Look at comparables when arriving at a price.Comparables are what other similar houses have been sold for in your neighbourhood. Your agent should be able to provide some examples this will help to gauge what the real price is.  However be careful listening to prices other have claimed to achieve as this can be misleading.  If you have a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house, ask your agent how much other 3 bed, 3 bath homes in your immediate area sold for to get a good idea of how to price for a quick sale.

• Be scrupulous in arriving at a specific number.What’s your final number actually going to be? There’s a little bit of science and strategy involved in figuring the exact price of the listing. Here are two big things you can keep in mind as you arrive at the magic number:
• Use charm pricing and “under a century” numbers. Instead of choosing to list your house for ฿4,100,000, consider listing it for ฿3,995,000 so that it fits just under the psychologically important round number. You see retail shops and businesses using charm pricing all the time, and for good reason: People favour these numbers because they have the allure of not tipping a certain scale they have in their heads. ฿3,995,000 sounds so much more intriguing than ฿4,000,000 even though they are functionally the same.

Give yourself a timetable for when you’ll lower the price if you don’t get an offer.A lot of the time, homeowners stubbornly cling to a price that’s too high and refuse to move. Then it takes months, sometimes years to produce a sale. Set a date on the calendar, before you price your home, by which time you’ll lower the price if you haven’t gotten a buyer. This will take emotion out of the pricing and help you sell your house faster.  Most of your offers will come in the first 2 months if the initial starting price is attractive enough.  Listen to what the market is telling you by getting feedback from your agent as to what viewers thought about your property.

Thanks to WikiHow for some of these helpful tips and images.

Part 1 Cleaning Up Your House

As a seller, how do you plan on making your home stand out among the thousands of available properties? Don’t fall into the category of stumped sellers whose properties linger on the market for months to come.

• Make the first impressions of your house count.  If the appearance of your property is not tired and in need of repair, a lot of potential buyers won’t even walk through the door. The front of your property is crucial when selling. Gardens should be in good condition and well looked after. Walls, doors and window frames newly painted if needed. Bright colourful flowers always make the front of a property more appealing.
• The garden can often be the factor that makes people feel welcome and closes the deal. If you don’t have the time or energy to garden, hire someone. It will be money well spent when the house is sold.

• Clean up the inside of your house. Buyers are looking to buy their dream home and if you want them to part with their hard earned money then you need to sell that dream. The last thing they want to be faced with is dirty kitchen cupboards and floors covered with dirt, dust and grime this is more of a nightmare and will put most buyers off. Remember they are trying to imagine themselves living in your property. Make sure it’s immaculate.
• Take the time to replace a ripped fly screen, add a fresh coat of paint or colourful flowers to a dining room table. Simple touches like these can add thousands of baht to the price you achieve.

• Neutralise. Buyers will generally be looking for a blank canvas on which they can impose their own personality. If your personal taste is stamped all over your property, especially in the form of strong colours, the potential buyers will only see this as more work to change it to what they want. Neutral light colours in your rooms with creams and whites in order to provide that blank canvas and also help to make a small dark room feel much larger.

• Declutter.  Clutter such as clothes, toys, papers etc. discourages potential buyers by making rooms seem smaller and a lot less appealing. Again, it’s hard for buyers to imagine their own possessions in your property when faced with a mountain of mess.

• Stage the home.  Staging the right way can have a dramatic effect on how quickly you sell. Burn scented-candles, or some say bake a fresh loaf of bread, so the smell emanates into main living areas. Pay special attention to the kitchen and bathrooms — “added value” here can have a more pronounced effect on the price people are willing to pay.

Now that you’ve transform your property into a more desirable and appealing dream home for the potential buyers we can move on to Part 2 which is equally if not even more important.

 Thanks to WikiHow for some of these helpful tips and images.