Of all the decisions required when selling your home, the most important these days could well be choosing the initial listing price.

?Our agents are largely unanimous in saying that the biggest challenge sellers face in the current Illinois housing market is avoiding the temptation to overprice their property when it is first listed,? reports Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

Overpricing a home is a big risk these days, contends Julie Wenzel of RE/MAX Town Lake and Country in Freeport, Ill. The reason for the risk, she says, 'is that each property has a short window of time when it is going to attract the maximum amount of attention. Once a property has been on the market more than 60 days that window closes and it is more difficult to get it sold right now though that may change somewhat as the spring home buying season gets into full swing in Illinois.?

According to Sherry Justice of RE/MAX '10' in Home Glen, Ill., homes that sit on the market for months can become difficult to sell even if the listing price is adjusted to a realistic level because buyers will shy away from homes that have been on the market for an extended period.

?Buyers today are better informed than ever before,? Justice says. ?They are getting daily updates on the Chicago-area housing market prices through Internet research or directly from their agent, and with so much inventory to choose from, they will quickly see how well one house stacks up against properties with a similar list price.?

Therefore, deciding on the right price can be more art than science in what experienced real estate agents agree is a rapidly changing market in Northern Illinois real estate.

?When you do a market evaluation prior to determining a list price for a home, the information you use must be current,? insists Marc Perlove of RE/MAX Villager in Glenview, Ill. ?Any sale more than six months old shouldn't be used because the market for Chicago-area homes has changed substantially since then. I recommend basing a competitive market analysis on sales that closed in the prior three months, and even then you have to be aware of the trend shown in the most recent sales. Are prices for that type of property in that area holding steady, rising or falling? Whatever the trend, you have to take it into account.?

Overpricing a Chicago home may be more of a risk today than in years past, but it certainly is not an unusual impulse.

?Every seller wants to get a bit more than their Realtor tells them the property might bring,? acknowledges Jan McNulty of RE/MAX Suburban, Mt. Prospect, Ill. ?It's just human nature, and it might not make a big difference if that 'bit more' is within 2 or 3 percent of the list price suggested by the agent. It's when sellers try for 5 percent more that they run into real trouble in this market.?

Avoiding these mistakes can be the main factor in how well a home is received on the real estate market in Illinois. With warm weather approaching, and more and more buyers out to shop, now may be the necessary time to get an educated opinion on how to initially price your home in Illinois.

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