Boston Real Estate for Sale

Boston Condos for Sale 

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When it comes to selling your downtown Boston condo for sale, price is one of the most important factors in your success. While everyone would love to get the most for their Boston home, it is important as a seller to distinguish reality from fantasy when it comes to your home’s market value. A well priced Boston condo for sale is much more likely to sell quickly and may even end up getting you more money than if it is overpriced to begin with. At the same time, you want to make sure that you aren’t leaving money on the table. The paragraphs below outlines the ideal realtor pricing strategy to pricing a home correctly and how to price your home to sell for top dollar.

Reality VS. Fantasy in Real Estate

Boston condos for sale

Boston condos for sale

Even before you consider selling your Boston Back Bay home, you probably have a number in mind that you think your home is worth or what you would like to get for the home. Unfortunately, this amount doesn’t always align with the current Boston real estate market values in your area. This gap in value is what we are referring to when we say “reality vs. fantasy”. When pricing a home, you want to look at the “reality”. These are properties that are comparable (in size and condition) to your home that have sold within the last 3-6 months,( the key point here being that they have sold). On the flip side, you can look at the active properties and see what the “fantasy” is. The reason that we say the active listings are “fantasy” is because they are listed at the price the seller would like to get. You can list a home at whatever price you would like, but there is no guarantee that it will ever sell for that amount. Once the home does sell, the sales price becomes the “reality”.

If speed is a priority. Check out our latest article on How to Sell your Home Fast

Comparable Boston Condos for Sale

You may have noticed in the previous paragraph that we asked you to compare your home to other “comparable” properties that have sold. So what makes a property “comparable”?

Boston Condo Location

The first factor, and the most important, is location. No other features influence a property’s value more than location. When analyzing the value of your home, you want to find properties that are within half a mile to one mile of your address. The closer it is to the subject property, the more accurate the information.

Boston Condo Size

The second important factor is size. Although the number of bedrooms and bathrooms does play a role in the value of your home, the most reliable way to compare properties to one another is based on the square footage of the home. As licensed agents, when evaluating a property’s value, we will look for homes that fall within ±20% of the subject properties size. For example, if we are evaluating a 1,000 sq. ft. home, we would consider homes in the 800 – 1,200 sq. ft. range. The reason that square footage is a more reliable measurement than bedroom and bathroom count  is because there is no standard size for a bedroom or bathroom. You may have a 1,500 sq. ft. home with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths, but in most cases, a home in the same area that is 1,800 sq. ft. with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths will be worth more.

Boston Condo Condition and Finishes

The next factor to consider when comparing your home to others is the home’s current condition and finishes. To accurately gauge the value of your home, you want to not only make sure you are comparing homes that are of similar size and in your area, but also what the home is like on the inside and outside. If your home has been very well maintained or has had some recent upgrades, you will want to compare it to other homes that are in nice condition or may have been recently flipped. However, it is important to be realistic with yourself. If your home could use some work, make sure that you are comparing it to other properties that need fixing, as well.

Evaluation Boston Condos for Sale 

After you have gathered the comparable properties to your home, you can begin to evaluate your home’s value. With each property, look at how much the home sold for and how its features compare to your home. If the other home has a nicer feature than your home, subtract the estimated value from your home’s price. Likewise, if your home has features that are considered to be better than the comparables, you can add the value to your home’s estimated price. Using this method with three to five comparable properties in your area should give you a very good idea of the value of your home.

Boston Condos for Sale 

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In today’s Boston real estate market, setting the right price for your Boston condo for sa is one of the most valuable things you can do.

According to the U.S. Economic Outlook by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing home prices nationwide are forecasted to increase 4.7% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021. This means experts anticipate home values will continue climbing into next year. Today, low inventory is largely keeping prices from depreciating. Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at realtor.comnotes:

“Looking at the sheer number of buyers, low mortgage rates, and limited sellers, the strength of home prices–which are now growing at the highest pace since January 2018–makes sense.”

When it comes to pricing your condominium, the goal is to increase visibility and drive more buyers your way. Instead of trying to win the negotiation with one buyer, you should price your house so that demand is maximized and more buyers want to take a look.

How to Price Your Boston condo for Sale

As a seller, you might be thinking about pricing your Seaport condo on the high end while so many of today’s buyers are searching harder than ever just to find a downtown condo to purchase. You’re thinking, higher price, greater profit, right? But here’s the thing – a high price tag does not mean you’re going to cash in big on the sale. It’s actually more likely to deter buyers and have them looking at the houses your neighbors are selling instead.

Boston condos for sale

Boston condos and pricing

Even today, when the advantage tips toward sellers because there are so few downtown Boston real estate properties for sale, your condominium is more likely to sit on the market longer or require a price drop that can send buyers running in the other direction if it isn’t priced just right.

A Trusted Real Estate Professional Will Help

It’s important to make sure your Beacon Hill or high rise condo is priced correctly by working in partnership with a trusted real estate professional. When you price it competitively, you won’t be negotiating with one buyer over the price. Instead, you’ll have multiple buyers competing for the home, and that’s what ultimately increases the final sale price.

The key is making sure your house is priced to sell immediately. That way, it will be seen by most buyers. More than one of them may be interested, and your house will be more likely to sell at a competitive price.

Downtown Boston Real Estate and the Bottom Line on Pricing.

If you’re thinking about listing your house this fall, let’s discuss how to price it right so you can maximize your exposure and your return.

Now let’s turn our attention to the importance of feedback.

I have found showing feedback to be essential and extremely helpful for my Boston Beacon Hill condos for sale listings. Feedback provides insight into issues or factors that I might have overlooked or not considered important enough to affect pricing. Obtaining good feedback from showing agents takes some preparation and follow through though. Here’s what I do.

Beacon Hill condos for sale showings

After a showing, I go into my MLS login where I have a standard letter that I send to the agent with a link to the listing. I greet the agent by name and thank them for showing the listing at “specified neighborhood” on “specified address”. I ask if there is anything about the price or condition that they can give me feedback on for this specific Beacon Hill condo for sale. I think the personalized email is vastly more effective than the robotic auto-requests that so many agents set up. 

I ask, “did the buyer’s like the Beacon Hill condo?”, “are they considering making an offer?” I also, to refresh their memory, I provide a link to the listing. After this I thank the agent for his or her hard work.

I truly understand how much hard work goes into showing Beacon Hill real estate for sale and working with buyers. I also say that I would be happy to return the favor to them in the future. This is so important. We as agents are all working together to do the best job for our clients. It is so important to be courteous and thoughtful to all agents because you may (and probably will) be working with them again down the road

With this strategy, I have found 80% of the time, I get a response to the initial email. Sometimes it is a very short “they didn’t like the kitchen”. Other times it is very detailed and specific. I always thank the agent for taking the time to provide the feedback. If the agent does not respond to my feedback request email within a day, I will give them a call and talk to them on the phone. If they do not answer, I leave a message and suggest that they respond to my email if that is easier, or give me a callback.

Eventually, I get responses from Boston agents probably 95% of the time.

Sometimes feedback is helpful and I try to remedy the situation if it is something we can change or alter. Feedback like “there is a strange odor” is one that can be remedied. Sometimes others smell things that I don’t. “The Boston condo for sale is too dark” is something else we can do something about, by putting in brighter bulbs or opening windows. “The price is too high” is the feedback that we definitely take into consideration if a pattern emerges about that. I’ll do another CMA and try to make sure we have the home at the right price.

Other times, we cannot remedy the problem. “I don’t like the busy street” or “the floor plan just does not work for my clients”. These are all common feedback responses and after a while, the only remedy is a lower price to offset a busy street or awkward floor plan.

I feel it is my job to interpret the feedback and figure out if there is anything we can do, other than lowering the price to overcome the objection. In this way, between buyers, sellers, and the real estate community, we can achieve a “win-win” for everyone involved.

Boston Condos for Sale 

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Boston Beacon Hill Condos for Sale


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