How to tell if you’re paying the right price for a home.

So, you’ve been searching for a home, you finally found the one! Exciting right? Yes! Scary? Possibly! Purchasing a home is a major life event. Nobody wants to make the wrong decision or pay too much. How do you know if the home you are buying is actually priced appropriately?

There are a number of resources to help you know if you’re paying the right price. The best resource is your agent helping you with the purchase. Whenever we work with home buyers, our primary concern is our client’s happiness. We value our clients not only as their agent — but as a trusted advisor, friend and advocate. We want our clients to make the decision that brings them the most joy. So, how can we tell if the price they’re paying for a house is the “right price”?

We always say that it starts with comfort. In real estate, you should never offer more than you feel comfortable paying for a property. What does that mean? Ultimately, that really means that’s the price that you’d be willing to pay to make sure that nobody else gets the house that you want instead of you. Also take into consideration what your intent with the purchase is. How long are you going to be staying in the home you buy? What would you be doing (and what would you be spending to live somewhere) if you didn’t make this purchase? Where would that money be going if you didn’t buy this home? What will your quality of life in this property be? All of these questions have a value attached to it. Only you can tell what that is emotionally worth to you.

Your agent can offer some assistance in the logical sense. We can’t tell what it’s worth to you emotionally, but we can pull some recent comps for a particular property — how much are similar homes asking? How much have similar homes recently sold for? How much are similar homes currently under contract for? All of these figures help you to get a good sense of what others might pay for the house and what the current market range might be for that property.

Buying a home can be one of the most empowering, joyful, and financially beneficial decisions you ever make. Hopefully this article helps you think about some of the questions to be asking and quell some of the fear that can be attached to making a purchase like this. If you need any help, our team is always here for you, drop us a line or give us a call at 323.746.4554. And be sure to check out what we’re up to on Instagram!