Well it’s been a busy summer so far. What I am hearing is buyers are out there looking and making offers. Of course summer is a great time for most families as they try to move before the kids go back to school. It’s also a little easier moving when the weather is nice. Although…. it sure has been hot this year hasn’t it?

We want to share with you one of the secrets we learned while staging and selling a home this summer. Here are some HOT tips on pricing your home to sell.

 - Take a good hard look at what you need to net at the end of your home sale.  What do we mean by “Net”? That’s the bottom line. The check you take home (or have direct deposited) after all closing costs, repairs and your outstanding mortgage balance are deducted from your sale proceeds.

- Have your realtor do a comparative market analysis or use Zillow and Trulia to find recent sales in your immediate neighborhood. This gives you an idea of how to price your home so that it will sell quickly.

- Now there’s your sales price and your “net”.  Let’s say your sales price is $200K and you want to net $30K. Use this handy chart to estimate your closing costs by state. How close are you to walking away with that $30K? If you live in Texas your average closing fees on $200K are about $5000. Deduct 6% of $200K for average Realtor commission. And of course if you have a mortgage on your home you will have to pay that off so deduct that too. Your numbers may look like this:

  $200,000 Sales Price

-     12,000 6% commission

-       5,000  Closing costs

-  150,000  Your Mortgage Payoff

=   33,000   NET

- What is the bottom line? In this case, you would net $33,000 if you had no seller repairs or other expenses related to selling your home and if you got a full price offer. This shows you have $3,000. worth of wiggle room if you want to net or receive at least $30,000 from your sale.

Make sure your sales price is at or just below market if you want a quick sale. Is $200K your bottom line and at or just below market? Perfect.

- You now have a very good chance of selling your home quickly AND realizing your desired net amount.

- The old days of pricing high with the idea in mind you can lower the price later does not work in this new market place. You will waste valuable days on market and valuable time waiting for that “perfect” buyer.

- What if your mortgage payoff is a lot higher? Then you will have to adjust your net expectations and be very proactive about getting your home ready to sell by staging it to perfection. Staging your home for sale will give you the best opportunity to realize your selling goals for a quick and profitable sale.