Are you thinking about selling your home in San Diego, El Cajon or La Jolla? One of the most challenging parts of the real estate sales process is figuring out what your starting or listing price should be – in other words, the value of your home. Below we'll explore a few strategies for determining how much your house or condo in the San Diego area is worth and what you might receive if you were to sell.

Start by Considering Other Similar Homes

The fastest and easiest way to put a number to your home's value is to study other similar homes in your local market. For example, if you live in North Park and own a three-bedroom home with two bathrooms and a garage, you can use this data to search through our real estate listings to find homes that share the same attributes. Of course, since this doesn't any renovations or upgrades into consideration it's only good for a rough ballpark figure. Small factors like a larger front yard or the age of the home can make for large differences in property values, so take these rough figures with a proverbial grain of salt.

Completed Sales Are Better Than Active Listings

When you're browsing through local property listings and doing comparison research to gain an understanding of local home values, it's important to remember that recently sold home prices are a better indicator than the prices of homes which are still up for sale. A home's price can change numerous times during the sales process, reflecting local market trends and whether or not real estate is moving quickly in the area. Using prices of successful recent sales is a more accurate indicator of what local homes are worth, but the downside is that this doesn't take rapid price spikes or declines into consideration.

Take Your Emotions out of the Equation

It's perfectly normal to have a deep emotional attachment to a home – especially one that you've lived in for many years. However it's critical to keep your emotions out of the valuation process as buyers are unlikely to share the same sentiment and will be looking to purchase homes which are fairly and objectively priced. Try to be as scientific as possible with your approach; you're simply trying to do a bit of math to figure out what a reasonable buyer might pay for your house and property.

When in Doubt: Consult the Experts

Trying to determine the true value of a piece of San Diego real estate can be very tough, so if you're struggling with your valuation, get in touch with us. The team here at Whissel Realty has many years of experience in the San Diego real estate market and an immense amount of market data which will help us to determine how much your home is worth in today's property sales climate. Contact us today at (619) 618-7997, or you can click here to access our property valuation tool to get a quick estimate of your home's worth.