Today’s real estate market presents a unique set of challenges for home sellers. While NAR estimates are that almost 5 million homes will have sold in 2008, that’s down almost 650,000 homes from the year before. As we enter 2009, it’s expected that the pace of home sales will pick up once again rising 3.1% over 2008. So how can you position yourself to be among the successful home sellers of 2009?

In a buyer’s market, price is king! The homes that are priced most competitively will sell over those that are still trying to sell at 2007-2008 prices. The market realities suggest that aggressive pricing is the only way to combat a soft buyer’s market. If you’re planning on taking advantage of the great deals on the market, but you have a house to sell first, you’ll need to make sure that your home is more attractive from a financial standpoint. Here are some steps to follow to ensure accurate pricing ranked in order of accuracy:

1) Get an appraisal – advantage: usually most accurate as these are performed by professional licensed appraisal firms; disadvantage: most expensive
2) Get a comparative market analysis – advantage: the next best thing to an appraisal, these are compiled from local sales data dervied from the Realtor MLS by licensed real estate agents; disadvantage: the agent is likely going to expect you to consider them for listing the property at a full commission
3) Get a electronic appraisal – advantage: data based on property records generally compiled from local county/city tax assessor’s offices; disadvantage: not performed with your specific property in mind.

Whichever route you choose, be realistic in your pricing your home to sell. Most sellers are inclined to believe that their home is more valuable than their neighbors. After all, you know how much work and money has gone into the property over the time you’ve owned the home. But, the reality is that buyer’s just don’t care how much you’ve put into the property, only what they can buy a comparable home for in the same general area.

One way to beat the competition is to sell with a flat fee listing company. These are firms that charge a relatively small fee for placing your property into the MLS and onto real estate websites such as Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Bloomkey.com and others. Instead of paying a real estate agent 5-6% of your home’s sale price, you can gain the same marketing exposure and lower your sales price to become more attractive to home buyers. You’ll have to do more of the work yourself, but it could make the difference between selling and languishing on the market in 2009.