HomeDiary Home Selling Tips

Selling My Home Tips

• Interview three and hire a full time real estate professional who specializes in your immediate market area and ask them to share with you what their plan is to market and eventually sell your home. You want specifics here no ambiguity… If it needs staging is that something you can expect from them, will they use a professional photographer, how do they intend to market the listing online. What is unique about what they are offering.
• Marketing aside, you also need a personality fit. How close does the agent’s personality line up with yours. After all this is going to be a process with a lot of twists and turns along the way and you need to be sure there is an alignment here.
• What are your preferred communication methods and make them know to the agent … Phone call, text message, emails.
• Google agents ahead of time, do they have a website, are they part of a larger team, how are they marketing their listings, do they have any testimonials, how many active or sold listings do they have. All these things or lack thereof are a good indicators of their experience and how successful they’ll be in selling your home.
• Ask for references
• Have certain goals in mind ahead of time… Are you looking for a quick sale or are your prepared to do some work and take or take the time to wait and get the maximum value of your home… The condition of the home and the price you and your agent set has a lot to do with how quickly it sells….
• No contingencies are best. If you want to sell your home as quickly as possible and for the highest price you need to try and remove any contingencies on your end of the sale. As an example if you need to find a home before you sell your home don’t make that a contingency of the sale… Start your home search now and list your home after you’ve found your new home
• Pricing of your home is perhaps the most important aspect of the sale so you need to take your emotions out of the equation and price the home correctly. This is where a professional real estate agent comes in and does a thorough evaluation for you based on comparison sales in the area. If you want to sell your home you need to accept the fact that the price is not based on how much you paid for it, how much you owe on it or what you think it’s worth. It’s the value the market places on it and what the home will appraise for. There might be a few buyers who have a special attachment to your home and might be willing to pay more but chances are the mortgage company will only lend up to the appraised value so unless they come up with cash they won’t be able to purchase it. If you still feel your home is worth more than the agents says it is then be prepared to prove it with facts, not fiction.
• Help your agent help you…. You want your home to stand out from others and one way to do that is use the HomeDiary service to document repairs and improvements you’ve made. A new HVAC system or roof is a key selling point and can make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Think of it as a carfax for the home… If you were buying a used car you’d want a carfax, right? No difference here and a lot more dollars and long term ramifications at stake.
• Are you selling your home as is or are you willing to make concessions on the price subject to the findings of the buyers home inspection. If the answer is subject to a buyers home inspection then you might consider having a pre-inspection done to uncover anything that may need repair prior to the buyers home inspection. This will speed up the process and make negotiations go smoother.
• Home Warranties are a nice value added feature as well which gives the buyers protection for unforeseen issues.. They are surprisingly affordable, are usually paid monthly so the cost can be assumed and transferred to the new buyer… You can purchase one just prior to the sale so not a lot of costs to you, yet it affords additional protection to the buyer.What are the things you can do to improve your home prior to the sale that will make your home more attractive and increase the value and more then offset the cost of the improvement? https://www.hgtv.com/design/real-estate/top-home-updates-that-pay-off-pictures

To reinforce the right things to do, let’s talk about the the most common mistakes people make when selling a home.

• Once you’ve decided to sell set your emotions aside. You need to think objectively about what your home is worth and try to see it through a buyers lens.
• Don’t price your home too high, if you do your risk letting it sit on the market and people will wonder if there’s something wrong keeping it from selling. You’re eventually go to wind up with the market price anyway so why not start there.. If anything, you might even think about pricing it lower to generate more interest and offers and create a potential bidding war.
• Don’t make needed repairs after you list. Buyers get turned off by neglected homes and that could mean less interest and or lower offers. You’ll eventually end up paying for these repairs anyway.. You’ll either have to reduce your price to cover the repairs or pay for the repairs yourself, so why not take care of them before you list.
• Make sure your home is always accessible and show ready… This will be important to do before it’s professionally photographed and for showings. Photography is what will get them to come to your home in the first place and showings will make them stay so you want to be ready and make your home show ready and accessible at all times.
• Don’t overlook curb appeal since you never get a second chance to make first impression. Many buyers won’t even consider looking inside the home if the outside is a mess. Keep up with lawn, trim or remove overgrown hedges and spruce things up to make them want to see the inside.
• Don’t let real estate commissions stop you from using a professional real estate agent…Unbenounced to most, commissions are in fact negotiable and your mission is to find the right agent to work with at a fair commission rate. The rate should be directly proportional to the time, money, experience and effort they put into marketing, negotiating and orchestrating the closing of your home. All these can be daunting tasks to take on yourself if you aren’t familiar with or have the stomach for them .Pay a professional who does this for a living just like you’d pay an accountant to do your taxes, a doctor to treat an illness or a mechanic to fix your car. The experience a productive full time agent brings to the table is worth every penny. If it weren’t, most would be selling their homes themselves.