A method for pricing a listing

Pricing a listing is four inputs, in order, and then a stop.

These notes sit with London Sellers Realtor. Compare recent sold evidence the agent brings, look at the condition of this house, name repairs before photos, and decide inclusions. The asking figure belongs in that conversation, with the house this page has not seen.

Recent sold evidence the agent brings

The first input is recent sold evidence the listing agent brings. Your job is to compare it. A figure without a story about the house behind it is not evidence.

Ask which houses were chosen, and why a buyer might treat them as substitutes for yours. Ask what those sales included, and what condition they were in. A sale that included appliances and a shed is not the same comparison as a sale of the house alone. If the agent cannot say what was included, the evidence is incomplete. Ask why the agent calls the evidence recent. Then you still have the first input, not an asking figure.

The condition of this house

The second input is this house, not the substitute. Walk it and write what is true. A straight foundation line and a tired bathroom can both be true. Do not let one good fact retire a bad one.

Use plain words. "Roof replaced, invoice in the file" is useful. "Updated" is not, unless you can say what was updated and when. Include what you will disclose even if you wish it were otherwise. A damp corner you have watched through two winters is part of the condition of this house. Leaving it off the list does not remove it from the house.

Repairs before photos

The third input is a practical split, made before the photographer is booked. Some defects will dominate a photograph: a ceiling stain in the wide shot, cracked glass beside the front door, a rail that looks unsafe, failed caulking that reads as water damage. Those are candidates for repair before photos, because the photograph will argue them louder than a sentence in a description.

Some defects will not change the picture. Name them and leave them. Do not hide a defect to improve a frame. Paint over an active leak and the photograph is a false statement. A repair you will not do is still an input.

Inclusions

The fourth input is what the seller will and will not include. Walk the house with a pen before an offer arrives. Appliances: which stay, which go. Window coverings. A shed. A generator. Anything rented, including a water heater, a softener, or equipment on a contract. Rented equipment is not yours to include. Write "rented" beside it so an offer cannot treat it as a gift.

If you do not write a fixture down, the photograph will include it, and the offer will assume the photograph. What you will not include matters as much as what you will. If you are unsure whether an item stays, put it on the list and ask.

Then stop

Four inputs. Recent sold evidence the agent brings, compared rather than admired. The condition of this house. Repairs before photos. Inclusions. If someone hands you a single figure with no evidence, no condition notes, and no inclusion list, you do not have a pricing conversation yet. You have a guess.

The other two jobs are preparing a house and reading an offer.