Selling Pearl District condos takes so much more than looking at the price per square foot for the neighborhood and settling on a price. I won’t patronize you by overcomplicating it, because it truly isn’t rocket science. It does however take a systematic and proven approach to succeed at selling for top dollar.
Have you ever been in the market for buying a car? If you are anything like the rest of the world, I’m guessing you have. Let’s say just for this instance that the car you are looking for is a Prius. You head over to Auto Trader or whatever your favorite website is and begin searching online for the car. You quickly find that Prius’ range in price from $10k to well over $30k. But I thought they were all Prius’? (I hear this all the time from clients, thus the blog post) No there is a Prius C and a Prius V in addition to the regular Prius and there are 5 differing trim levels of each.
Do you see where I am going with this yet? If not, let me expand my thoughts. You see there are many factors that play into the value of a car from age to miles it has on it, to trim level and body style. The same make and model can have drastically different values based on these factors.
For this same reason, when pricing Pearl District condos, you cannot just merely look at the price per square foot for the neighborhood or even the building. Even exact same floorpans in the same building hold differing values. So what drives the value of a condo?
Size and Layout
The size of a condo is a real factor however the layout and functionality trumps size 10 out of 10 times. There are 900 square foot condos that live larger than 1200 square foot condos, and for this reason you must factor this variable into the pricing. Only spending time in lots of different condo layouts gives an appraiser the understanding of this type of pricing nuance.
What Floor The Condo Is On
The floor the condo is located on dramatically affects pricing. The floor is usually directly correlated to the breadth of the view the Portland condos will provide. Even though, I prefer the feel of a condo that nicely fits into the skyline, the vast majority of people feel that being on top is best. I think there is something about feeling like you are top of the world. Maybe a power thing? I don’t know. So typically (emphasis on typically) values go down as you go lower in the building. There are exceptions to this rule like the impacts of what is located directly adjacent to the building.
Which Direction The Condo Faces
The direction the condo faces is relative to the placement of landmarks and natural landscape. A river view may out price a park view, or a city view might out price a mountain view. There is no hard and fast to this reasoning. You must look at the trends not only within the building, but also the community as a whole. A sunset view might out price a sunrise view as a general rule for the city, unless there is something to the west of the building that is an eye sore like a freeway. So you really have to take things on a case by case basis.
Upgrades and Condition
Just like a Prius comes in 5 different trim levels, Pearl District condos finishes can vary greatly. The biggest difference is that there is not set trim level for condos. The tile could be from Italy and the cabinets could be hand made custom and sourced from a single tree. Or on the flip side everything could be from Ikea. It takes a trained eye to really understand the separation in quality, especially when you are talking about a condo that has been remodeled. Another factor is the condition of the unit. Often I show condos that look amazing in photos but when you actually see the upgrades in person, the workmanship is shoddy at best.
Marketing and Market Conditions
The biggest and often most overlooked factor that determines a condos value is the marketing and the market conditions. Just because you neighbor sold for a certain price 3 months ago doesn’t mean you can get the same price or more now. Supply and demand has to be considered and compared agains the supply and demand at the time of the other sale. Rising or declining interest rates, inventory and time of year all play a factor in value. They way the home is marketed directly effects the number of eye balls that the listing reaches which directly correlates to the sellers bottom line. So choose wisely when hiring a marketing company.
Selling Pearl District condos is a high stakes event that should be taken very seriously. Taking the time to truly look at things from an objective perspective can go a long way towards achieving your goals of selling for top dollar.
Like this article check more insightful advice and tips at the Portland Real Estate Blog.