1. You’ve got to know your local Real Estate Market –
What is moving the market? If you don’t know, make sure hope your agent knows. If your agent does not know, immediately locate another agent who does know. The housing market is hyper-local. In order to sell your home, it’s mission critical to know what the local insights and trends are for your neighborhood.
2. Having a clean, decluttered home sells faster –
A dirty home reduces thousands of dollars off your net profit. It’s true, a nice chunk of money might be lost for not putting in a little elbow grease. Possibly one of the best payoffs to selling a home will be the time you invest in cleaning and decluttering your home.
3. Price your home right the first time –
For the love of moving, price your home to sell. From the very first moment that you put your home on the market, you will appeal to the most qualified and most interested Buyers. The first couple weeks of a new property listing will shine the brightest. A fresh new listing attracts the attention of Buyers waiting in line for a new property to hit the market. These Buyers who just began searching will see that your home is priced right, and will be lining up at your front door to take a closer look. A property listing that sits on the market for several weeks and months on end becomes stale and often gets buyers wondering as to why has the home hasn’t sold. These buyers either assume something is wrong with the property or that it’s over-priced. If Buyers think there’s something wrong, they’ll want to offer you less and if it’s been sitting on the market based on being over-priced, they’ll think you’re starting to get desperate because your property hasn’t sold and that you’d likely begin considering lower offers. Avoid the reductions, price it right the first time, and highly increase the likelihood of having numerous interested Buyers and possibly multiple offers.
4. Selling your home is not convenient –
We get it. Being aware ahead of time that you will be inconvenienced once you’re ready to sell your home, will make the home selling process much easier to deal with. You’re going to need to get your property ready to sell, plan on doing some packing and you’re regular everyday living schedules will most likely be disturbed by prospective Buyers. When you’re able to plan for this, it will definitely make the process less stressful. Expect to be inconvenienced.
5. Most repairs left unfinished will cost you more money than the repair itself –
Those repairs you’ve been planning to do will be less costly to finish if you do them “before” you sell your property. After the needed repair is obvious to a Buyer, they’re going to increase the actual cost to repair as they’re including a layer of time and emotion to the actual repair cost. What exactly do we mean by this? When the buyer sees a basic repair that should have been fixed, they wonder what else is in need of repair and they’ll start thinking if you really maintained the home properly. They will also wonder what may be hiding underneath the surface, lurking and not visible to the naked eye. It’s common for Buyers to get a bit worried about the unknown and will want more of a credit during the request for repairs or a reduction in price, just in case something else pops up once they close escrow on your property.
6. Overpricing your house helps to sell your neighbor’s house –
Believe it. Imagine this… Buyers who are qualified to purchase at a specific price range, therefore they’re looking at properties that they can afford: the competition, it’s your neighbor’s home. If your home is over-priced, buyers will never see it as it and it will not come up in the home search. Your property will be appearing in a higher price range. Most often, houses that are larger with nicer upgrades and are more desirable are what the buyer actually want. This price point of active home Buyers will look at your property but will pass over yours because they can purchase a bigger home with the same features for the same amount of money. Ugh! The million dollar question is “Why would anyone pay more for less space?”
7. “After” the home inspection, Buyers love to negotiate the property sales price –
Yup, we see it often where a buyer wants to nickel and dime for all the necessary repairs. With a buyer’s property inspection, there will always be a a few dozen minor items and hopefully, you’re not blind sighted with an mystery major health or safety repair. If you have any known major repairs, this should be disclosed ahead of time and clearly understood by any prospective Buyers before the presentation of their offer. This way you would know the buyers offer reflects the deficiency. As mentioned above, address your repairs so as not to give any Buyer a reason to want a discount or renegotiate. The buyer’s inspection period will always welcome an experienced negotiator. Make sure the agent you hire, is an optimal negotiator as they’ll be worth their weight in gold should this arise.
8. Buyers love to question a Seller present at home showings –
When a Buyer has scheduled showing at your home, it’s critical for you to leave for many reasons. First, you want the prospective Buyers to be able to walk through your property and feel at ease without you looking over their shoulder as you wish them to envision themselves living in your home. Imagining themselves in your Kitchen, gathering around the dinner table, or relaxing in the living or family room listening to their favorite tunes or watching TV. Also picturing your home to be the perfect place to entertain family and friends. And, most important is that you don’t want the buyers to try and obtain any details from you as to why you’re moving that may give them a reason to offer you less money for your property. A sought after ploy for Buyer’s Agents and Buyers is to try and find out specific details that point out that you “have to” sell your home.
9. Homes that smell sell for less –
We’ve seen buyers turn and walk out of a home within seconds of opening the front door. Nothing is worse than a home that smells from smoking, pets, or even specific styles of cooking. Absolutely we love our pets, however they can leave behind those not so pleasant odors. If you smoke, you need to plan ahead of time to take your smoke break outside to keep a fresh scent in your home’s interior. Possibly you love foods with very strong seasonings. These types of culinary dishes that you cook are better off putting on hold until after your home is sold and you move out. A deep cleaning of your home, along with the upholstery, area rugs and carpeting will go a long way with removing animal, smoking and food odors. If you have any carpeting where pets have had accidents, a professional carpet cleaning is advised.
10. Cash isn’t always King –
A cash offer is not always the best offer for you. When conventional financing buyers have to compete with an all cash buyer, they can make their offer look very attractive in a number of ways that may beat out the all cash buyer. First, by making sure they’ve presented a clean offer without any mistakes and double checking it’s accurate and complete. Next, they need to make sure their lender Pre-Approval letter indicates their solid ability to secure the loan to buy the Seller’s property. Additionally, the residential purchase agreement has a variety of time frames, while some buyers will shorten up said timeframes and also, you’ll be amazed how many buyers and their personal stories of how they will be living in the Seller’s home can tug at a Seller’s heart strings, mainly if the Seller has wonderful memories from their time living at the home.
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11. A well-kept home sells for more money –
A well-kept home gives a sense of wellbeing to a prospective Buyer as they imagine that the home having been well cared for and most likely will not provide them with many headaches down the road after they’ve purchased your home. Major repairs are far and few between with a well maintained home as related to one that appears to not have been maintained. This is peace of mind which comes with a warranted price tag that results in the Buyers readiness to offer more money for a well maintained property.
12. Delaying or ignoring communication jeopardizes home sales –
Once the decision has been confirmed to list and sell your home, it’s absolutely critical that your communication is prompt and timely. This is not the time to delay and ignore your agent’s requests for answers to questions that a prospective buyer might have or to put off signing any seller’s paperwork. This type of behavior will irritate all parties to the sale of your property. Be available, prompt and courteous when selling a home.
13. Buyers must imagine themselves living in your home –
Think “De-personalize”. This includes taking the “you” out of your house. When you’ve committed to sell your home, it is now key to understand that your house now needs to read like it could welcome everybody to suit their family. Start with packing before you get your house listed for sale and remove all the memories on display and all the items that say “you” live there. Neutrality has to be present in your house. This is because so many buyers can’t look beyond the “you” of your home to picture themselves living there. Therefore, it’s paramount if you make it simple for them, so it will be simple for them to purchase your property.
14. High quality Photographs and Videos will sell homes –
Versus ones taken with a cellphone. When you had your home on the market and you didn’t get any offers, did you know that buyers passed over your listing due to limited number of photos or poor picture quality? Yes, a profession production matters. Over 96% of potential buyers start their home search on the internet and they want to “look at” homes and not just read about them; these buyers demand to see high quality photos and videos from a professional. Poor quality photographed properties will have buyers passing your home by solely based on the pictures, or lack thereof. Don’t short change yourself in this category.
15. Trying to cover up a problem will haunt you –
You don’t ever want to get a phone call or letter from an Lawyer, specifying that the buyers who bought your property are now suing you for not disclosing that property structural issue which you were aware about, however thought you’d keep it to yourself so you can sell your home for more profit. Mom always said to me that when you lie, you will ultimately get caught. Every time was she right. Being handed a lawsuit is never comforting news to a past home seller. Disclose, disclose, disclose. Always do the right thing.
16. Teamwork will be the name of the game –
When a discussion occurs such as with the sale of your home, a tiny bit of cooperation will go far and most often, ending with a positive outcome for you the home Seller. Please don’t battle the Buyer ‘til the end, as they’ll promptly step away from putting on their boxing gloves and in this scene, everyone will lose. A small amount of give and take, more often than not, results in greater outcomes.
17. Your taste is not always the buyers taste –
Do yourself a favor and neutralize your home of your specific passions; your bold colors, your famous hunting treasures or your not so tasteful collection of (yup, those). We can look past these personal choices of yours, however not everyone can or in many cases won’t. Do not give a potential buyer any reason to find distaste in what you like. When you sell a property, now is not the time to share with the world what the beat of your drum sounds like. It’s best to show how potential buyers can fill your home with what suits them.
18. Your close of escrow date is time to move –
It’s vital to understand that when the close of escrow date comes around, all of your personal belongings has to be packed up and moved out. Delivering a clean home which is ready for the new buyers to move in once they’re handed the keys is expected. Sadly, you won’t be able to hang out a few more days after the close of escrow to finish a few last minute things you just didn’t get around to doing. Work with your agent ahead of time when you list your home to allow you one or two days after the close of escrow to allow you enough time to move out properly.
19. Requesting that a buyer meets pre-approval status increases the odds of selling your home –
First off, a licensed Real Estate agent shouldn’t even be showing buyers your property unless they know the buyers have been pre-approved with a lender and potentially have shared their proof of funds for qualifying to purchase your home. Unfortunately, not every agent follows this standard business practice and will show potential buyers properties that they don’t even know if they can afford. Have a rule in place that the agent that you work with and hire, analyzes all potential buyer’s offer for their ability and commitment to be able to purchase and close escrow on your home.
20. Proven expertise sells – Hiring a trusted, Skillful, Real Estate advisor –
Will get your home sold in the fastest amount of time and for the highest amount of money. Who you work with matters.
Thank you for taking the time to read: 20 of the best tips to sell your home. Find more great content on our blog.
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