Listing Triangle™ - Front Street Brokers

circumstances, before we list your home so we can help you have the best outcome possible. Common Pricing Mistakes Every week we see agents and homeowners make fundamental mistakes when they price a home to sell. Here are a few of the most common pricing mistakes we see that lead to a home sitting on the market for months longer than it should. Challenging Floor Plans We see homes with less than desirable floor plans sit on the market for very long periods of time. Homeowners and real estate agents underestimate how impactful the floor plan is on pricing. Sometimes when homeowners look at comparable homes in the area that are a similar size, with the same bedroom count, in the same vicinity and neighborhood, they think their home should list at a similar price. But if the home they’re selling has an unusual floor plan, it ends up selling for far less than similarly sized homes. There are some exceptions to this rule, but it is important to realize how a floor plan can impact the sale price. Homes with Basements Homes with basements can be very desirable, but when pricing a home it’s a big mistake to give the square footage in the basement the same weight as the above grade portion of the home. For example, consider two homes on the same street that are 2,000 square feet in size. One has 1,000 square feet above grade and 1,000 square feet below grade; the other one has it all above grade. Those houses are not similar at all. They look similar on paper, but they’re not similar when it comes to the prices buyers will pay for the homes. Many basements have low ceilings, tiny windows, and undesirable living spaces. Some are daylight basements, which have more value to buyers than traditional basements. Again, basements are often desirable. But it has been proven many times over that people give a much higher value for above grade square footage. Basement square footage is often less expensive per square foot to put in which is another reason it shouldn’t hold the same amount of weight. For example, when we compare the two different 2,000-square-foot houses, we may treat the one with the basement like a house that is all above grade but only 1,500 square feet. Often a good rule of thumb for traditional basements is to cut the basement square footage in half as far as usable square The Listing Triangle™ Page 21

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