Selling your home in Queens – Easy or Overwhelming?

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If you own a home, whether it’s a single or multi-family, condo or co-op – it is, most likely, the largest asset in your financial portfolio. It’s hard to miss the fact that home values have soared since the pandemic hit, especially as you get further away from Manhattan.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next six months to a year, there are 13 ways to increase your chances for a successful sale. Over the coming weeks, I’ll detail each way and how to best prepare yourself.

1 – Pricing your home to sell – It may seem obvious, but a property that’s priced correctly when it’s listed should get many showings and offers within the first 30 days. When a home remains available (no offers accepted) after 30 days, your chances of success begin to decrease.

How is the listing price determined? You will work with your agent to review the recent homes sold in your neighborhood that are most closely like yours in size, style, age, condition, and amenities. These are called comparables “comps.” Comps that have sold and closed are true comps. In general, homes that are under contract or listed for sale are not accurate representations to base your list price on.

Many homeowners search online and base the price they want for their home on Zillow’s Zestimate or a similar tool called AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) offered by other real estate websites. As Zillow learned the hard way in October 2021, their Zestimate is not the most accurate representation of the value of a home. AVM’s are simply a reflection of public data of recently sold homes in your neighborhood based on general criteria.

The true and accurate way to get the correct pricing is by having a local agent visit your home in person. The information collected during this visit, along with the details of recently sold homes, gives the agent a much better idea of what price range your home will most likely sell for.

The longer your home remains on the market, the more likely you’ll need to reduce the asking price. Why? After 30 days, especially in a competitive market like we’re seeing in Queens and across the country, buyers ask, “Why is it still available?” The assumption is that it is either overpriced or there’s something wrong with it.

Once you make your first price reduction, it opens the door to offers at even lower prices. Lowering the asking price is called “chasing the market.” This usually happens when sellers want to leave room for negotiations or base their sales price on their desired net profit, rather than how the market is performing based on sold comps.

The fastest-selling properties are single and two-family homes. Condos and co-ops take longer, as it’s harder to distinguish the differences from listing to listing.

The takeaway for you is that pricing your home is extremely customized based on many factors in our market. The only way to truly know the price range your home would sell for is to meet with an agent or broker to see your home in person.

If you have any questions regarding this sales tip, feel free to reach out to me directly at mark@kresnyc.com or visit my website at www.KRESnyc.com

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