When selling your home, you may ask yourself, "How much is my house worth?" The most important first step you can make in selling a house is calculating an accurate fair market value. Price your home too low and you may lose thousands. Price your home too high and you may price yourself out of the market and never sell your home.
 
If your house is for sale for a long time (buyers and agents can find out how long your home has been for sale), a potential buyer will think you might be getting desperate, so they will make low (and often insulting) offers.
 
CMA (Comparative Market Analysis)
 
Price Varies - A CMA is an informal estimate of your home's market value compared to comparable homes in your neighborhood. If you don't have the time to do your own research, a real estate agent can whip one up in no time. If you are considering listing with an agent, they will usually do a CMA for you at no charge. This will also give you a great idea of what your asking price should be. This report is also useful in helping you make the changes needed to make your home for sale more desirable than your neighbor's home for sale.
 
Factors that affect a home's value
 
There are other considerations that will raise or lower how much the home is valued at. They are:
 
The condition of a property relative to the neighborhood. For example, a beautiful professionally remodeled home will sell for more than a similiar home that has not been updated.
The condition of the current real estate market. If it'a a "Seller's Market" (known as a Hot market), where there are many buyers but fewer properties for sale, home prices rise due to the higher demand. In a "Buyer's Market" (a Slow market), there are many more available properties for sale and few buyers, prices of homes for sale will be less.
A Sellers' motivation. How quickly a seller needs to unload a property will affect the value of a home. The two most common seller motivations for needing to sell quickly is if they are facing financial difficulty and are about to be foreclosed on or if the seller has already purchased another home. Estate Sale homes are often valued much lower to sell quickly. On the other hand, a seller may just be "testing the waters" and the asking price would be much higher to start out.