Researching and setting your selling price

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How much is my house worth? It’s the number one question in property, and when you’re selling without an agent, you’re the one who has to answer it. That turns out to be less scary than it sounds, because the same data agents use is now sitting on your phone.

Get the price right and everything downstream gets easier: more inspections, better offers, a faster sale. Get it wrong in either direction and you pay for it.

Start with what the market says, not what you hope

Three sources feed a good asking price. Use at least two.

1. Your own comparable-sales research (the non-negotiable one). Nothing beats knowing what homes like yours actually sold for. Here’s the method:

Search recently sold properties in your suburb on realestate.com.au’s sold section: sold prices are evidence; asking prices are just other people’s hopes.
Filter to genuinely comparable homes: same suburb (or the same pocket of it), within one bedroom of yours, similar land size and parking, sold in the last six months.
Shortlist the five or six closest matches and note their sold prices and dates.
Adjust for condition and features: renovated versus original, the north-facing yard, the main-road position. Be as hard on your own place as you’d be on theirs. (And remember buyers don’t pay extra for things they can’t see; our guide to what not to fix when selling helps calibrate this.)
You’ll end up with a range. Your asking price lives inside it, not above it.

2. A free data-driven estimate. Automated estimates give you a fast sanity-check range built from sales data. They have real limitations on unusual homes (we’ve compared them in what’s the most accurate property value estimator), but as a cross-check on your comps they’re valuable, and PropertyNow’s free property value report includes comparable sales data and market statistics alongside the estimate.

3. Agent appraisals and professional valuations. Agent appraisals are free, and some agents are conscientious and local-smart. Just remember the appraisal is also a sales pitch for their listing, and over-quoting to win your business is a known move in the industry; treat a flattering number from someone who wants your signature with appropriate suspicion. A registered valuer, by contrast, has no horse in the race: a few hundred dollars buys you an independent figure and a written report you can even show buyers during negotiation. Worth it when your home is unusual or the comps are thin.

Setting the actual number

With your range in hand, three practical rules:

Price inside the range, and think in search brackets. Portal buyers search in bands: up to $750,000, $750,000 to $800,000, and so on. A home at $805,000 is invisible to everyone capped at $800,000. If your range straddles a bracket line, pricing at or just under it puts you in front of two audiences instead of one.

Overpricing isn’t a free option. The “we can always come down later” plan has a cost: your biggest surge of buyer attention happens in the first couple of weeks on market, and an overpriced launch wastes it. Meanwhile every extra month is another month of mortgage interest, rates and insurance, and a listing that visibly lingers makes buyers wonder what’s wrong. There’s more on typical timeframes in how long it takes to sell a house.

Underpricing has costs too, just less obvious ones. A price well under market can spark competition, but it can also simply get accepted. If you’d be gutted to sell at your asking price, it’s set too low. Price at fair market value and let the negotiation find the ceiling.

One more thing: when you sell privately, the asking price is entirely yours to set and yours to change, whatever any appraisal said. You’re taking advice, not orders.

How to know if your price is wrong (and what to do)

The market answers quickly. Signs your price has missed:

Plenty of clicks, no inspections: buyers looked, compared, and filed you under “too dear”. Usually a price problem.
Inspections but no offers: buyers walk through and buy something else. Could be price, could be presentation; ask the ones who don’t proceed, since honest feedback is free market research.
Silence: almost always price or invisibility (wrong search bracket, weak photos).
An offer in week one at close to asking: not a sign you priced too low. Early offers come from the best-prepared buyers who’ve been waiting for exactly your home.

If the evidence says adjust, adjust decisively. One meaningful correction that lands you in a new search bracket beats three timid $5,000 shavings that make the listing look like it’s melting.

The bottom line

Pricing your own home is research, not guesswork: five comparable sold prices, a data cross-check, an independent opinion if the home is unusual, and a number set inside the evidence. Do that and you’ll go to market with something most sellers never have: confidence in your figure when a buyer starts pushing on it. For everything that comes after the price, our step-by-step guide to selling your home online has the road map, and listing with PropertyNow is a flat $979 with licensed agents to sense-check your thinking seven days a week.

Start your research with real data

Get a free property value report with comparable sales and market statistics for your home, the same evidence base this article shows you how to use.

Get your free property value report

FAQ

How do I work out my selling price without an agent? Research recently sold comparable homes in your suburb (same size, similar condition, last six months), cross-check with a free data estimate, and set your price inside the resulting range. A registered valuer is worth the fee for unusual properties.

Should I price my house high to leave room for negotiation? Build in a modest buffer if you like, but big “negotiation room” backfires: it prices you out of buyers’ search brackets and wastes your high-attention launch window on lookers who can’t afford the real number.

What’s the difference between an appraisal and a valuation? An appraisal is an agent’s free opinion (and part of their pitch for your listing). A valuation is a paid, independent assessment from a registered valuer, with a report you can rely on and even show buyers.

How accurate are online property value estimators? Good for a ballpark on typical homes, less reliable on unusual ones. Treat them as one input alongside your own comparable-sales research, never the whole answer.

When should I drop my asking price? When the market’s feedback is consistent: weeks of good exposure with no inspections, or inspections with no offers and price named as the reason. Make one decisive adjustment into a new search bracket rather than several small ones.