Selling

How do I set an asking price?

Get some insight on how a home's asking price is calculated.
By Tibor Pollak

What you'll learn:

Quick ways to check your home’s market value online
How a professional estimates your home’s value
Setting your asking price

Knowing your home’s value is key to setting an effective asking price for your home’s sale. Read on to learn how you can make a rough estimate of your home’s value and what professionals offer.

Using an online tool

For the quick way of estimating your home’s worth, you can use a free online valuation toollike Online tools scan your area and use public data to give you an estimate. Rocket Homes pulls from publicly available records, gathers real estate transaction data, and asks users to share updates about their property. An algorithm is able to make sense of those numbers instantly and give you a valuation.  

Getting a professional estimate

Comps is short for “Comparable sales.” With this approach, recently sold homes similar to yours in size, age, location and condition are identified as “comps,” which serve as a baseline for calculating your home’s worth.

Your realtor’s Competitive Market Analysis takes data available through their real estate group, and often an in-person walkthrough of the property. 

To make life easy on you, we made a survey here so you can get a free CMA from a pro, commitment free. With your answers, I'll get you a solid estimate and next steps for how to go about selling your home. 

Looking for a professional estimate on your home?

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Setting your asking price

Of course, your asking price will be based on the estimated value of the home on the market. Depending on your needs, however, your real estate agent may recommend adjustments.  

For example, realtors often recommend setting a fair market value price than setting a higher price, even if there’s a chance your home could sell for more. 

Homes priced more than 3% over their market value take longer to sell, which can cause potential buyers to wonder why it’s been on the market so long and skip over the listing. This can cause you to have to drop the price below market to get a sale. 

Talk to your realtor about your home specifically to see what asking price would be optimal for getting an offer.