The price is the thing. Getting maximum value for your home. Part 1

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Pricing your home for market is an inexact science but we have many sources from which to draw to get as accurate a price as possible.  Many times the question is asked “Can we get back all the money we’ve put into our home?”  The answer is a definite “well, that depends.”  It depends on the following…

  • When were the improvements made?
  • At that time were you planning to sell or stay?
  • If you had known then that you were going today, would you still have made improvements?
  • If the improvements were removed, what percent of today’s buyers would put them back and pay what you did?

Another related question is, “Shouldn’t I expect to get back what I put into it?”  And that also depends.  Let’s say a builder built a $500,000 home on a lot and included a well that cost $20,000.  Then a similar home was built on the next lot but the well went through harder rock and to a deeper water table costing the builder $40,000.00.  How much is the home worth?  $500,000.  Even though the cost of building it was an additional $20,000.

According to the principle of substitution, value is determined not by what a seller puts in a home, but by what a buyer gets out of the home.  In both cases they get water.