It seems obvious, but pricing your house right is critical for a fast sale. That does NOT mean you have to price it really low to sell it fast, but you don't want to price it even the slightest bit too high either, and here's why....Buyers are looking for good opportunities, and when there are a lot of houses to choose from they'll have the luxury of taking their time to look for the best deal.And because these buyers are out there looking around, they'll know what's priced right, and what's too high. And if your house is advertised just slightly too high, then they won't even come and look at it. But if your price is set right then you'll be likely to get more people over to look, and the only way to get it sold is to get as many people as possible to come look and make offers. Once they get to your house that's a different story, but getting them there is the first step.House values adjust rapidly in a buyers market, and it's not cost effective to get an appraisal every month to know what your house is currently worth. Instead, the best way to know what your house will sell for is to use comparable sales values. Otherwise called "comps" by real estate professionals.You never want to use listing prices (the price that people have their house advertised for sale at) as a method to determine value, because those prices aren't proven that a buyer will pay them until the houses are sold. That's the mistake that many people that sell by owner make. They assume that if a house is advertised at a certain price, then they can sell thiers for that price too.By using the sale prices of recently sold houses in your area you can be sure that these are the prices that buyers are willing to pay, because they did pay it. You also want to make sure that the houses you are using are comparable in size and amenities. For example: - The same number of bedrooms and bathrooms.- Similar style house if possible (single story, two story, multi-family, etc).- Within the same neighborhood or subdivision, or at the very least in the same zipcode.- Built from the same construction material (frame, brick, block, etc).Ideally you would want to use houses that have sold within the last 6 months to get the most current sales prices. Anything older than that may give you values that are out of date and can make a big difference in your valuation.You also want to get at least three houses to use as comparables, but 5 or more will give you the best results.Once you have selected the houses that you're going to use as your comparables, you want to calculate the average selling price per square foot of these houses.Here's how that works: Take the selling price of each house, and divide it by the square footage to determine the selling price per square foot. Then add the price per square footage of all the houses together, and then divide by the number of houses you used. Here's a simple example using three houses...Selling Price - Square Footage - Price/SqFt:$195,000 - 1750 - $114.43 $249,000 - 2300 - $108.26$179,000 - 1450 - $123.45 Total Price/SqFt: $346.14 Divide By 3: $115.38 As you can see in this example, the average price per square foot of the three comparable houses is $115.38. Now you just multiply the average price per square foot by the actual square footage of your house. For example if your house was 1,800 square feet, then you multiply $115.30 by 1,800 and the estimated current value of your house would be $207,540.Then the trick is to make the number look unique from all the other houses advertised. You'll find that most of the others will be like $209,900... $229,900... $259,900... they always seem to end in some sort of 9's.Instead try using 7's and 5's like $207,500... $227,500... $257,500. This will catch peoples eyes because it looks different than all the other ads as they scan classifieds, or whatever advertising media you're using. So, the next question you're probably asking yourself is how you will find the information on the recently sold houses in your area, right? Well, there are a few ways to do it, but the easiest is to call a local Realtor and ask them to give you a list of all the recently sold houses in the MLS that are comparable to yours.Most Realtors would be glad to do this because they are hoping to get a listing from you, however if you get any resistance then you have some other great options. You can use one of the following online services:- www.zillow.com- www.realestateabc.comThese services are going to give you an estimated value, but you want to check that number against the estimated value you come up with when you do your price per square foot calculation.Also, make sure you're using houses that recently sold in the list that best compare to yours. Sometimes the estimate that is provided on those websites will use some houses that do not quite compare, so I never trust their value completely. Instead I would just use those services to find recently sold houses and do the calculation myself. Ok, now you have a good idea of what your house will sell for based on what buyers have actually paid for houses just like yours in the last few months. This is very valuable information that can save you a lot of time and frustration when you start advertising your house for sale.