Setting a home sale price: how much is your house worth?

There are a bunch of ways of selling a home in NZ that don’t involve putting a price next to it. These methods include deadline sales, tender, property auctions or price by negotiation.

Selling your home through one of these methods encourages would-be buyers to look at your home for what it is, and offer what they think it is worth, rather than focus on the price tag you’ve put next to it.

If you’re selling with a real-estate agent, you could discuss this option with them and see what they think. Not all properties are suited for no-price campaigns, and it could be a waste of time and resources to try this route if yours is one of these homes. Of course, one possibility is to try a no-price campaign to start with, and then switch tactics if your home is taking ages to sell.

If you’ve decided that a no-price campaign isn’t for you, it’s time to decide what price tag you want to put next to your property. A few key things to consider when doing this, include:

As you probably well know, property prices aren’t static. Macro factors like the economy, politics and global affairs have important impacts on what your home will be worth. You need to bear all of this in mind, so you can’t just base your house price on what you think it should be worth.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert on geopolitics in order to set your house price. You just need to keep up with what’s going on in Aotearoa's property market. One easy way to do this is to follow the News section of our content hub, where we regularly publish free updates on the latest changes in the NZ property market. In particular, our monthly property price index, and rental price index, are published on this page, which tell you how house and rental property prices have been changing in recent times. This is broken down into different regions of the motu, and can give you the top-level context for how to price your home.

Homes.co.nz, powered by Trade Me Property, has a handy research tool that allows you to get even more granular information about what’s going on in your local property market.

Using Homes.co.nz, you can:

• Get an estimated value of your property.
• Learn what neighbouring properties have sold for.
• Track your home's value.
• Stay up to date with suburb trends.
• View insurance estimates, capital valuations, council records and other helpful insights.
• Connect with local real estate agents who are actively selling properties in your neighbourhood.

All of this data can help inform your decision on how to price your home when selling. But, it’s best thought of as a starting point. The house price value you’ll get from Homes.co.nz is calculated automatically using a proprietary formula, so it shouldn’t be thought of in the same way as a professional property valuation (see below).

The most accurate way to get an idea of what your home is worth is to get a professional property valuation. They’re usually the most expensive option (costing somewhere in the range of $700 - $1,200, but they’re also the most comprehensive. A little bit further down we’ll provide a fuller description of what these valuations include.

Free appraisals before you hire an agent

When you’re choosing a real estate agent, one of the first conversations you’ll have is about house pricing. In your initial conversation with a prospective realtor. They should provide you with an appraisal of what they think your home is worth. They’ll base this on their own market understanding, past experience in selling similar properties and a walk through of your house to identify features that might help or hinder your sale.

This valuation won’t cost you anything, but won’t be as in-depth as a valuation from a professional home valuer. While an agent home valuation is certainly useful, don’t get too hung up on what they tell you. Why? Firstly, it’s likely to be a range, rather than a precise sum, and, secondly, at this point you won’t have hired them, so they’re trying to impress you.

If you have firm ideas about how much you’re hoping to get from the sale, we advise you to communicate this to the real estate agent before investing in their services. This can head off potential disagreements down the track.

After you hire an agent

Once you’ve selected which realtor you want to work with, finalising the asking price for your home will be one of the most important conversations you’ll have.

Added to your own research, the real estate agent will base their figure on previous sales they’ve made, and take into consideration the method of selling you’re going to use.

Of course, even if you’ve hired a real estate agent, you’re perfectly entitled to request a separate property valuation from a dedicated professional to add certainty to the price you ask for.

If you’re selling your home privately, you won’t be able to rely on a real estate agent’s help in setting your sale price.

In this instance, you’ll be relying even more heavily on your own research on both the property market at large, and local sales of similar homes.

Another option is to consider a professional valuation. A property valuer would conduct a detailed inspection of both your home and its grounds to provide you an in-depth appraisal of what your home is worth in the current market. Among the things they’ll look at when giving their estimate are:

• The property size.
• The condition of the house.
• Any outstanding maintenance issues.
• The title type.
• The construction materials used.
• The neighbourhood.
• Convenience to transport and employment hubs.