Selling a house involves much more than just putting up a “for sale” sign.

In addition to some key things to consider — like knowing market conditions, preparing your home for showings and deciding whether to work with a real estate agent — it’s important to get the right asking price, according to Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com. 

Otherwise, your home is going to sit on the market for a long time, and eventually you will have to cut the price anyway, he said. 

“Getting the price right to start is really important,” Berner said. 

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Zillow’s home trend expert Amanda Pendleton agreed, and said that homes that are well priced and marketed tend to sell in a matter of weeks comparted with homes that miss on the right asking pricing. Those can linger on the market for two months or more, she said. 

Here’s what to consider if you are looking to sell your home, according to experts. 

Home sale listings have been picking up this year. This can create a more competitive environment for home sellers as buyers will have more options to choose from, Berner said.

For the week ending March 1, new listings increased 0.1% compared to the week prior, growing for the eighth consecutive week, Realtor.com found. In February, for-sale inventory was up 27.5% from a year prior, per the site’s monthly housing report. 

Meanwhile, sellers have been forced to drop home prices while homes sit on the market for longer. The average time a listing spends on the market is up to 66 days, five more days than last February and the highest since February 2020.

In February, Realtor.com’s monthly report indicated that 16.8% of listings had price reductions, a 2.2 percentage point increase compared to last year, and the highest February activity since 2021.

A January report from the National Association of Realtors indicated a decrease in homes sold above asking price (15% vs. 16% the previous month and year). Meanwhile, homes listed got an average of 2.6 offers from buyers, up from 2.1 a month before but flat from 2.7 a year ago.

It’s not the same seller’s market from the past few years, said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.

For a general idea of your home’s value, online home price estimators, also known as automated valuation models, can be helpful. Such tools use algorithms and publicly available data to estimate a property’s worth, according to Bankrate.

But keep in mind that the estimate might be helpful only for a ball-park figure, experts caution. AVMs rely on public records, and if they haven’t been updated yet, the data might not reflect renovations or changes to the home, Bankrate noted.

A professional home appraiser or a real estate agent will be able to come into your home and look at any upgrades that you’ve made and provide a more detailed evaluation, Lautz said.

“Hire an experienced local agent who’s going to know your neighborhood like the back of their hand,” Pendleton said.

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon are warning Frank Bisignano, the nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, that he will be responsible if staff cuts interfere with the agency’s ability to process and disburse benefit checks.

President Donald Trump has nominated Bisignano, chief executive of payments and financial technology company Fiserv, to serve as commissioner of the agency, which is responsible for sending monthly benefit payments to more than 72 million Americans.

“As President Trump’s nominee for SSA Commissioner, you will be responsible if the Trump Administration’s attacks on the program result in failures or delays in getting Americans their Social Security checks — in other words, a backdoor cut to benefits,” Warren and Wyden wrote in a March 11 letter to Bisignano, shared exclusively with CNBC.

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Bisignano’s Senate confirmation hearing is expected to take place later this month, according to a source familiar with the situation.

In the interim, the agency is under the leadership of acting commissioner Lee Dudek, who according to reports publicly stated before his appointment that he had been put on administrative leave after helping representatives of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Dudek replaced former acting commissioner Michelle King, who stepped down following reported disagreements with DOGE over access to sensitive data.

The Social Security Administration recently announced plans to cut 7,000 employees and close regional offices.

“This would represent a reduction in workforce of over 10 percent and will have devastating impacts on the program,” Warren and Wyden wrote.

Social Security beneficiaries already may face longer wait times because of the changes, the senators wrote. If the agency seeks to reduce its staff further, “the results will be devastating,” Warren and Wyden wrote.

In the 1980s, smaller Social Security work force cuts led to 80,000 Americans not receiving their benefits, the senators said.

The new cuts could prompt millions of Americans to miss out on the benefits they earned and limit the Social Security Administration’s ability to catch and correct payment errors, the Democratic leaders said.

“The net result could be a disaster: more overpayments and waste in the system, at the same time that Americans who have earned their Social Security benefits are unable to receive them,” the senators wrote.

In response, a Social Security Administration spokesperson told CNBC via email that improving Social Security services for all Americans is “our common goal.”

“We are identifying efficiencies and reducing costs, with a renewed focus on mission critical work for the American people,” the spokesperson wrote. “These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission critical work, and potential reassignment of employees to customer service positions. SSA is committed to ensuring that all Americans can get the help they need whether that is in our field offices, telephone, or through automated solutions.”

While Trump has vowed not to touch Social Security benefits, he has said that he plans to target “waste, fraud and abuse” in entitlement programs.

The White House on Tuesday said that Trump will “always protect” Social Security and Medicare.

“The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits,” the White House stated in a fact check statement.

The White House was not immediately available for further comment.

Bisignano did not respond to a request from CNBC for comment by press time.

As investors grapple with stock market volatility, it’s important to focus on financial plans and avoid emotional moves that could hurt future portfolio growth, experts say. 

Stocks continued to fall early on Tuesday after President Donald Trump announced higher tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. At one point, the S&P 500 was down as much as 10% from an all-time high in February. The benchmark rebounded slightly by late afternoon.

The Nasdaq Composite on Monday dropped 4%, its worst day since September 2022, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 900 points.

Despite the recent market drops, however, long-term investors should know that “volatility is part of the game,” said certified financial planner Douglas Boneparth, president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York.

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“You’re seeing the market more or less whiplash,” based on what Trump says day to day, said Boneparth, who is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

Amid market uncertainty, investors should focus on what they can control, he said, including “their ability to stay the course, monitor their own feelings, revisit [portfolio] allocations and long-term investing strategies.”

Panic selling during stock market dips often means missing the stock market recovery because there’s cash sitting on the sidelines, research shows. Many investors don’t realize that good market days happen close to bad ones.

For example, if you missed the 20 best days in the stock market from Jan. 1, 2003, to Dec. 30, 2022, that would have slashed total portfolio returns by more than half, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

“Don’t let your emotions wreck your investments,” said CFP Ed Snyder, co-founder of Oaktree Financial Advisors in Carmel, Indiana.

Advisors build portfolios based on financial planning goals, risk-tolerance and timeline. If your goals haven’t changed, you shouldn’t react to stock market declines, he said.