Your home is a major investment, and naturally you want to maximize the asset as much as possible when it comes time to sell.

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing the right list price for your house, though. Sure, you’d like to get the highest price you can, but if you overprice it you risk seeing it sit on the market with no offers. On the other hand, if you price it too low, you might end up leaving money on the table.

Finding the sweet spot is a process, but it can be achieved with some research and legwork. Here’s how to price your home for sale, whether you want to DIY it or tap into the expertise of listing agents and other real estate pros.

How to price your home

There are a number of tools available to help determine how much your house is worth, from automated online systems to experts who can provide essential insight into the local market. Here are three methods that can ease the process of figuring out what dollar amount to put on your home.

Automated valuation model: When preparing to sell your home, online price estimators can give you a basic ballpark idea of how much your home is worth. The most common version of this tool is an automated valuation model, otherwise known as an AVM (Zillow’s “Zestimate” is one popular example). These online algorithms estimate the value of your home by taking into account many different criteria and publicly available data, including lot size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and info about recent nearby sales.

Comparative market analysis: To get specific insight into your area’s market and a more complete assessment of your home’s value, work with a local real estate agent. Agents are experts in their local markets and can create a comparative market analysis, or CMA, to determine how to price your home. This will be a more thorough, insightful and location-specific estimate than an AVM can provide.

For any given market, this can include:

•Number of homes sold

•Average days on the market

•Average sale price of sold homes

•List price to sale price ratio

•Price per square foot

Home appraisal: While agents are key evaluators of the local market, the most accurate way to price your home is to get a professional home appraisal.

A home appraisal is performed by a licensed pro who specializes in this type of assessment. Similar to an agent creating a CMA, a home appraiser will consider factors like recent sales of comparable homes, as well as details about your home and its location. An appraiser will also perform an in-person walk-through of your home to consider upgrades, additions and other renovations that might impact its value.

Key takeaways

•When selling a home, it’s important to find the right balance between overpricing and underpricing.

•Online home-price estimators are useful, but agent analyses and professional home appraisals are far more accurate.

•Your home’s list price can influence how buyers view the property — or whether they view it at all.