First-time home seller: Don’t sell your home without reading these 5 pricing strategies

Published 14 July 2018, 7:03 PM SGT

If you are a first-time home seller, pricing your home can be a tricky thing to do. If you are serious on selling your home on your own, learning some basic pricing strategies can go a long way in helping you get the best price for your home (and even if you are intending to use an agent).

So as a (clueless?) first-time home seller, one of the first things you will need to do is establish a price. Previously we wrote about 5 tips you need to do before you start to sell your home now it is all about how you should go about pricing your home. To start off, you will need to do some homework. If you are selling your condo or HDB visit the links to find out the past history of similar units sold. Now get a range of prices from low to high. For higher priced properties expect the spread to be bigger, and for lower priced properties these will be relatively smaller.

Once you have this range of prices in mind you can more accurately narrow it down.

Here are the 5 pricing strategies for the home seller:

Reader questions like the one above rarely have a clear-cut answer. The “right” move depends on your finances, timeline, long-term goals, and how much downside you’re prepared to accept if things don’t go to plan.

That’s the hardest part of any property decision, not finding information, but understanding what it means for your situation before committing.

Over time, that’s also why we decided to work with agents who shared the same data-driven and advisory-led approach behind our editorial, consultants who could help readers think through decisions more objectively, rather than simply push transactions.

Today, the team has worked with more than 2,000 clients across over $5B in property transactions.

See how the consultation works →

1. Price smartly to be found

90% of home buyers have searched online at some point during the home search process. So it is only right to play your cards right when it comes to pricing your home. For example, if a home buyer has a budget of $700,000, the search parameters that they would be using would most probably be anything under that. So if you price your home at $720,000 you might miss out on a whole group of interested buyers.

2. Think low, not high

Although it seems counter intuitive, pricing your home too high is often not a good idea. You might think that pricing it high allows you leeway for negotiations, but in reality it puts off many potential buyers. As a first-time home seller, it is better to price low and invite views to create more interest and demand. If you want to know more about this, here is an extended take on this.

3. Snuff out weird numbers

Sometimes home sellers like to put certain numbers because they believe it is their “lucky” number. So it is not uncommon to see homes with pricing like $567,888. Of course, this may be done to stand out from the other listings too. But sometimes it can lead to unwanted opinions formed of you as the home seller before any negotiations are even done. Research has also shown that an exact asking price like $567,888 can indicate that the price is less negotiable than a round number such as $580,000.

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4. The power of 9

If you look at most prices in any store, you will see prices that end with the number 9 everywhere. In fact, it is even rare to see a whole number at all. No doubt many of you would know about this tactic, and most will be skeptical about it. But according to research by MIT and the University of Chicago, the number 9 still sells the best even when compared to cheaper price points. This is because it sways buying decisions on a subconscious level, it makes it seem like a good deal. The aim is to play on the way our brain looks at numbers, pricing it as such just helps to reinforce it.

5. Prepare a pricing plan B

If all else fails and you still believe that your home can fetch top dollar and do not want to price it lower, it is still worth preparing for the worst case scenario and have a backup plan. Having a plan B pricing helps to set appropriate expectations so when the time comes, you will be better prepared. At the end of the day, you need to know that pricing for a home will never be fixed and will be an ongoing negotiation. There are many different elements when it comes to selling a home. Things like market forces or government rulings can all come into play and affect property prices. So always do your homework to be prepared.

As always, feel free to leave a comment or if you have any questions you can reach us at stories@stackedhomes.com!

The questions our readers send in are rarely about the market in general. They’re about a home they’re considering, a timeline they’re working towards, or a trade-off they’re trying to make.

That’s where we usually help readers go a step further, applying the same research and decision-making framework behind our articles to their own situation.

If you’re facing a similar decision and would like someone to help you think it through before you commit, you can book a one-to-one consultation here.

And if you simply have a question or want to share a thought, feel free to write to us at stories@stackedhomes.com. We read every message.

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Druce Teo

Druce is one of the co-founders at the Stacked Editorial. He was first interested in property since university but never had any aspiration to become an agent, so this is probably the next best thing.