Step Two: Understand What You're Offering

Although homes share many similarities, every home is unique. That means you have to be honest about what your home has (and what it doesn't have) when you sit down to price it.

The single biggest variable in a successful home sale is the price of the home. A home priced too high can sit on the market for months or years. A home priced too low may cause buyers to wonder what's wrong with it. Finding the right balance is critical.

My formula for helping you price your home is based on the following criteria:

• First, you have to know what comparable homes (or "comps") in your area have sold for recently. If homes like yours have sold for an average of $350,000 over the last six months, you're unlikely to get $500,000 for yours. A comp will give us a range of prices. Since this information is part of the public record, buyers will be using it to influence their decisions.
• Second, I'll help you price based on the specific features of your home and my knowledge of the market. I see dozens of homes each week, and can tell you what's going on in the market right now.
• Finally, we may adjust your asking price based on intangibles. While hardly scientific, intangibles affect the value of a home. Topping the list is the appearance that the home is clean and has been well maintained. Buyers also respond positively to homes which "show" well, or are staged by a professional. Whether it's "charm," "character," or the simple beauty of sun streaming through freshly cleaned windows, there's potentially more value to the home.

Once we know what we've got, we can then offer it to the market.

NEXT: The Internet.