Pricing Your Home

Pricing your home correctly is critical. If your price is too low, you won’t receive your home’s full, fair value. If your price is too high, your home may not sell quickly, or you may not get any offers. Barker Realty brokers—experts in Santa Fe real estate—analyze the market and set home prices every day. Barker will work to ensure that we get the best price possible for your home in a suitable time frame.

Before we price your house, we’ll complete a free Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), which will provide us with the listing and sales prices of similar houses in the area (as well as information about houses that were on the market but never sold). We’ll determine your home’s market value by comparing it to similar properties that have sold in the past six to twelve months. Market conditions also influence price. We'll factor in interest rates, the local school system, how quickly houses are selling in your area, and whether the current market favors buyers or sellers. Houses sell quickly and for the best price when they are valued properly initially. Consider your goals:

• Is your primary objective to obtain the maximum sales price for your house?
• If so, are you willing to have your house on the market for many months?
• Is your primary objective to sell your house quickly? If so, are you willing to sacrifice some of your potential profits?
• Would you prefer to balance selling your house quickly and selling it at the highest price the market can bear?

What Influences Price?

Location:

• Is your home near the Plaza, restaurants, shops, and/or galleries?
• Are schools, businesses, and community services nearby?
• Do you have a view, privacy, or access to open land?
• Are any “lifestyle amenities” (swimming pools or water features, golf courses, etc.) nearby?
• Is your home’s location is less than ideal? Ask your Barker broker what you can do to counteract it.

Architecture

• Does your home have a discernable style? Pueblo, Territorial, northern New Mexican, and Contemporary are common styles in Santa Fe.
• Does your home have traditional characteristics or more modern features?
• Does your home have any distinctive touches, such as vigas, latillas, nichos, or bancos?
• Who was your home’s architect?
• Was your home built with real adobe or modern stucco?
• Is your roof flat or pitched?
• Is your home single-level or multilevel?

Age

• When was your house built?
• Is your home historic?
• Have fixtures, appliances, and other appointments been updated?

Property

• Does your home have any distinguishing “environmental” features, such as significant acreage, a vista, or landscaping?
• Do you have access to hiking, biking, or horseback riding trails from your property?

Condition

• Is all your paint (both inside and out) in prime condition?
• Does all your flooring (carpeting, tile, hardwood) look good?
• Do any walls need patching?
• Is the roof in good condition?

A Note on Overpricing

The most common reason that a home doesn’t sell is that the asking price is too high. Overpricing can

• reduce advertising response and number of offers
• attract the wrong prospects
• drive away otherwise interested buyers
• help sell “competitor’s” houses
• make financing difficult for prospective buyers
• cause appraisal problems
• extend market time

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