How To Price Your Naperville Short Sale Home

After you have decided that a Naperville short sale is your best option to avoid foreclosure, one of the first things you should do, together with your Naperville short sale agent, is to come up with the right price for your Naperville short sale home.

Pricing a short sale property is not as easy as it sounds. You, the seller, may be tempted to price your home too high. You run the risk of not getting any offers if your property is priced way above market values. It may also be tempting to list the short sale at a low price to sell it quickly. If the price is too low, the lender may not approve the short sale since they are already taking a loss on the property.

How do you choose an appropriate listing price for your Naperville short sale home?

1. Work with your Naperville short sale agent.At this stage, you hopefully have found the right Naperville short sale agent with extensive knowledge and experience in short sales. Your agent will help you determine the best price for your Naperville short sale by evaluating your home and looking at comparable sales. Comparable sales are the recent sales in your neighborhood during the previous 6 months, which your agent will use to come up with a reasonable selling price for your home.

2. Look at the current market.Your Naperville short sale agent will do a comparative market analysis (CMA) to analyze the sales price of recent sales of similar homes in your neighborhood. They will use this as a basis to determine the best price of your home. The listing agent will also prepare a broker’s price opinion (BPO), which is an agent’s personal evaluation of the value of the home based on its condition, current market condition, and recent sales in the area. The listing agent provides the BPO for the lender’s use in determining whether or not to approve the short sale offer.

3. Make sure the listing price will be attractive not just to the buyer, but to all the parties involved in the short sale.The price of your short sale home must be attractive to the following 5 parties involved:

● The Lender. Lenders will usually approve the offer price on short sales based on comparable sales in the neighborhood.

● The Buyer. Buyers of Naperville short sale homes are looking for great deals, otherwise, these buyers wouldn’t have any incentive to wait for 3 months or more for a short sale to close. If your Naperville short sale home is priced a little below the competition, it will be more attractive to buyers.

● The Buyer’s Lender. The buyer’s lender will usually have their own appraisal done on the Naperville short sale home to determine its market value. The home should appraise within the value of comparable sales in the neighborhood. If the home is priced higher than the appraisal, the buyer would need to cover the difference between the appraisal and the approved short sale price or back out of the deal altogether.

● The Buyer’s Agent. Short sales are not usually a favorite with buyer’s agents since they earn lower commissions and the deals take longer to close compared to traditional real estate transactions. The short sale’s listing verbiage has to give the buyer’s agent an assurance that it’s going to be worth his time and effort.

● The Seller. Some short sales are subject to deficiency judgments, where lenders pursue the buyer for the shorted difference. With the expiration of the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act in January 2014, sellers may now be subject to taxes from the forgiven debt (which is considered as taxable income). This means sellers need to get the highest price possible for their short sale homes to cover all these expenses. This does not mean you have to start with a high price right away. A short sale that is priced just right will attract multiple offers and start a bidding war, which will gradually hike up the short sale listing’s price.

It may seem an impossible feat to appeal to all 5 parties involved in a Naperville short sale, but with the help of an experienced Naperville short sale agent, it is possible.

If you feel you are qualified for a short sale and need help in pricing your home, please contact certified Naperville short sale agent Teresa Ryan on 630-276-7575 for a free consultation.