As the financial crisis of 2008 continues to unfold in the United States, many home sellers have found themselves in a bind. Prices fell, banks are failing and home buyers are having a harder time getting mortgage loans.

So how do you sell a home in today's economy? For starters, you need to properly price your home. The pricing process intimidates a lot of sellers, especially those who manage the process by themselves (without an agent). But it doesn't have to be confusing or frightening. Here are some tips to help you get it right.

1. Detach your emotions

When you live in a House for a period of time, you can develop an emotional attachment to it. This is perfectly natural. After all, it's the "safe haven" from the world. Is where you go to privacy, safety and relaxation. Could also be the place where witnessed your child's first steps, or their first day at school.

But the thing to keep in mind when selling your home is that emotional value not carry-over into financial value. In other words, it is not the price a House based on memories he holds or the good times that you gave. You cannot set the selling price based on what the place is worth to you. Instead, your numbers should be based on what your home is worth in today's market, based on the concept of comparable sales that we discuss below.

You might think that this is something of a no-brainer or an obvious point. Yet, you would be surprise how many vendors leave their emotions real estate reality get in the way.

2. research comparable sales in your area

The pricing process will be much easier for you when you search comparable sales in your area, as well as homes currently listed for sale. Real estate terminology for this is "comps", an abbreviation of comparable sales. Here, we are talking about houses that are similar to yours that were recently sold in your area. Using this information, you can determine its price-and will be based on real data, not on emotions.

If you decide to work with a Realtor during the sales process, this everything will be easier for you. This is one of the things that an agent will handle for you. Refer to it as the market benchmark, or CMA. If you would rather manage yourself the prices, you can do it too. Agents to get data from public information, not from any private source. Look at the same thing that you could watch-recent sales data on similar homes in your area.

3. Consider supply and demand

This is always an important consideration for sellers, but right now that plays an important role. Due to recent economic events, the demand and supply of properties is inclined like never before. The subprime crisis has led to a record number of Home foreclosure, which pushes the supply of houses. But it has also become much more difficult for buyers to qualify for mortgage loans, which decreases demand. When the power goes up and demand goes down, becomes a buyer's market. This is what is happening in most cities across the country right now.

Of course, there are some anomalies in some cities across the United States for example, I live in Austin, Texas, and the market here has not suffered as badly as other cities. The reasons are twofold: (1) our prices of accommodation were not artificially inflated before this crisis, and (2) there is a high rate of migration as people move here from elsewhere in the country.

To understand the situation of supply and demand in your area, you will have to do some homework. Your local newspaper is a good place to start.

Conclusion and going forward

It can be more difficult to sell a home in today's market, but is by no means impossible. The key is to go into the process with proper research and expectations. If you do your homework and price your home according to the actual market conditions-and if you do a good job and preparing and marketing property: there is no reason you can't sell in a reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, if you have evoked the asking price from thin air, you'll be in for a rude awakening.




Brandon Cornett is the creator of The Staging Bug, a site that offers tips to home staging and home selling advice to homeowners. More information on this topic by visiting http://www.stagingbug.com