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What does it take to sell my home for at least what I've put into it

Question

    I bought this home three years ago for $149,900 and have since put another $75,000 into it in improvements.  I have advertised it for sale in several newspapers and on at least 8 real estate websites with no success.  Only a few have even come to see it.  What does it take to sell a home for at least what I've put into it plus a bit of a profit for my efforts ?  I'd like to get at least $249,000 for my trouble.

Answer

    What you have told us about how much you have invested in your home does us no good at all.  The amount of money you have invested has nothing at all to do with what it is worth as a home for sale.

    Do you think that if you had been given the home, you'd be expected to sell, (forget that), give it away because that's what you had invested in it?  Do you think that if you had paid $75,000 too much for the home, someone else is going to make the same mistake in buying it from you?  Of course not.  The value of your home as a for sale property is equal to what homes similar to it in your immediate neighborhood have sold for recently.  Not much more and not much less.  Those recent previous home sales give you an indication of how much people are willing to pay to live in a home like yours in your neighborhood.

    If several homes like yours in your neighborhood, adjusted up or down for features your home has or does not have compared to those, have sold recently for about $150,000 - $160,000, then that is what you home is worth to a family wanting to live where you live.  If similar homes, again adjusted for features, have recently sold for $170,000 - $180,000, then that is what homes are worth in your neighborhood.  If you put $75,000 in improvements into the home, there is good chance that you have "over-improved" your home for your neighborhood.

    Buyers willing to spend $240,000 - $250,000 for a home probably are not looking in your neighborhood unless there is something truly unique about your home that would make them willing to own the most expensive home in your area by at least $75,000.  Under most normal circumstances, those prospective buyers are looking in neighborhoods where other homes have sold for about $240,000 - $250,000.

    Advertising your home in all the channels available to you is a good idea but all the advertising in the world will not sell a badly over-priced home.  A competent Realtor, acting as buyer's agents, like Brian Ward, a Sarasota and Bradenton real estate expert,would be shirking his or her responsibility to their clients if they advised them to buy your home in your neighborhood at the price you want.

    So to answer your question; at what price will your home sell ? I can't tell you without a close inspection of your home with its features and condition plus an ind-depth review of other recent home sales in your neighborhood. Any competent Realtor can do this for you.  But, I can tell you that you will have to reduce the price until it falls within the reasonable range of homes sold or selling in your neighborhood.

    For others contemplating buying a home, fixing it up, and reselling it, make sure you deal with a competent Realtor like Rich Stover, an experienced Sarasota Florida real estate agent who will do a Comparative Market Analysis on recent home sales in the area to let you know in what range you may be able to re-sell the home after your improvements.  If that doesn't work out with your plans for the home, don't buy it or buy it, but don't over-improve it.