Selling your home is a very emotional experience. If you have lived there for a few years, you probably are going to be attached to it. What you have to do is un-attach yourself from it and look at it as a business transaction and not a personal transaction. I don't mean to be harsh but I have encountered this many times. I like my home, and I know when it comes time to sell I will feel attachment to it also.
Pricing your home to market value and not to what your neighbor said its worth or what he/she sold theirs for. Have a licensed real estate professional do a comparable market analysis (CMA) to find the true value of your home. You are going to get the most traffic within the first two weeks of putting it on the market. If its priced too high you are going to lose all those potential buyers. The number two reasons why a home doesn't sale is its priced to high and under advertised. I will give you an example. I listed a house priced it right, had 27 agents bring clients by, (not counting the agents that did come buy and not leave a business card) and it went pending in 3 days and sold within 30 days. Some people might think "you priced it too low, it sold within three days" I look at it that 27 agents came by (or more) with clients and only ONE wrote an offer! I believe if it was priced any higher we would have had zero offers that first week. I have heard other comments "you just want your commission" yes it is true, but the seller also wants to sell his/her home and thats what I am here for to get the highest possible return on your investment. In the years I have been a real estate agent there has been only two times where the client thought their home was worth less than what I recommended. Also you have to keep in mind if it doesn't appraise, probably won't sell. Let me give you an example: We put your home on the market for 250k, it appraises at 230k. If you want to stick with your price, the buyer is going to have to come up with 20k more out of his pocket. No lending institution is going to loan more than the appraised value, if they do there probably is fraud involved. So price it right, your home will sell more quickly, which means less headaches.
