Beacon Group Real Estate

Pricing Your Home: The Ultimate Fool-Proof, Non-Zillow Guide

We tell all our people, never ever look at your Redfin/Zillow estimate. While it gives you an idea of how much your home could be worth, the algorithm it uses is severely flawed and lacks the nuance that an agent (us) can provide. We recently sold a home in East Arlington $50k above its Zillow estimate. It has a big margin of error!

Instead of guesstimates – we like to provide our clients with these charts. 

From MLS data | 3 bedroom, 2+ bathroom homes that sold in Arlington in 2023

In 2023, a total of around 3-bedroom condos sold in Arlington. This includes homes that have at least 2 bathrooms. From this number, you can expect a portion to be “flawed”. Meaning it has less parking, less square footage, less bathroom than what your average buyer wants. On the flipside, a significant portion could be simply too big, or just overbudget for some. 

Let’s narrow it down to the 3 bedroom homes just in East Arlington.

From MLS data | 3 bedroom, 2+ bathroom homes in East Arlington in 2023

Looking at only the 3-bedroom 2+ bathroom condos in East Arlington, we can see there are only a total of 11 condos available for serious buyers. A couple sold for around $850k on the lower end, while the most expensive unit sold for $1.3M.

If you have an “average” 3 bedroom home and you’re trying to sell, you might think you could fall somewhere around $1.1M, like the median property. But what does average even mean? 2 bathrooms? 1600 SF? That’s when we look at the details of each property closer. Let’s take a look at the median property, as an example. 

 

22 Cleveland St, East Arlington | 3 beds, 3 baths, sold for $1.14M

The median property that sold last year in East Arlington has 3 beds, 3 bathrooms, 2077 square feet of living space, 2 parking spaces – and it sold for $1.14M. You can find the full details of this property here. 

Knowing this info – would you place your home above the median or just below? Do you have one less bathroom? Or maybe you have 2200SF? In most cases, the main features could help determine whether your home is worth more than the median or not. But other times we need to get more specific. Just because the property had 3 bathrooms, doesn’t mean it’s worth more than any home that has only 2.5. 

78 Windsor, East Arlington | 3 beds, 2.5 baths, sold for $1.17M

Aside from the main features of each property, we also look at other, less visible factors. Where in town is it located? Is it a top-floor unit? A townhouse? Is it recently renovated? A lot of this requires a lot more nuance that most real estate sites cannot provide.

Case in point, the property above has 3 beds, 2.5 bathrooms, and 2032 square feet of living space. On paper, this home would be worth less than the previous property we highlighted, except it sold $30k more. While having 3 full bathrooms is nice, maybe a garage would be *valued* more. These are the kind of things that would be harder to fine tune without access to the proper tools.

If you’re seriously considering selling your home, we’re more than happy to provide you with the data to move you forward. You can fill out the form below, and we can send you the charts, the list of properties that sold in your neighborhood, and we can set an appointment to review the data together. 

Helpful resources

Why Staging a Home is Important

Why Staging a Home is Important

One of the most effective strategies to make sure your home sells for top price is to stage it for sale. Our services are an investment that will increase the number of possible buyers for your house, and speed up the selling process.

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How to Market your Home Like a Pro

How to Market your Home Like a Pro

Not only are we experts in the Boston area, we’re also experts in marketing. We know how to market your home so it sells for the most money, in the least amount of time. Check out all the tools we use and ways we can help market your home like a pro!

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Arlington Active Listings

Here are some of the available properties in Arlington! Check them out.

Let’s talk about ways we can help you live your best life, set up an appointment with a real estate agent!

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Explore Arlington

Win a $100 Gift Card to Donut Villa!

Win a $100 Gift Card to Donut Villa! Your next brunch is on us! Sign up to our newsletter and get an entry. Follow us on Instagram at @arlingtonmalife and get a bonus entry. Fill in our form for more chances of winning! See the full mechanics below.

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