Tips And Tricks From Agents On Selling Your Home.
In this industry real estate agents can typically nail the reason why your home isn't selling from the beginning. If this is not the case then there are some actions that you can take to make sure that your home is ready to sell. The first and most important is that you must have an agent that you trust! If you don't trust your agent's advice, then no matter what they tell you needs to be done to sell your home, you will not believe them. You need an agent that you really trust and whose advice you will take when you are selling your home. To get a collective conscious I have studied some articles from other professionals in my field and found that they too had the same basic ideas when it comes to home preparation for selling. So I have composed a list of actions for you that could make all the difference between a home sitting on the market for an extended amount of time and a home that sells quickly with multiple offers.
Remove Clutter and Personal Items
This is the one piece of advice that EVERY real estate agent has in their article! It is really important that your home looks as elegant as possible. Remove as much of your personal belongings as possible, and try to make sure the flat surfaces in your home (countertops, tabletops, dressers, etc) are clear of any debris. This will make your home look a lot more appealing. Also remove any personal items, especially any photographs! You want the person thinking about buying your home to be able to envision themselves in the house creating their own memories...you want them to imagine it's their home already so they become attached. This isn't going to happen if you have reminders everywhere of your life in the house. They will see it as your home and not want to take that from you. Check out this article 6 Reasons Why Your Home Isn't Selling from Ferris Property Group for more home selling tips!
Do Minor Repairs
This is what agent's call cosmetic work. This is not replacing the roof or putting in a deck! This is simply fixing the squeaky doors and leaky faucets...It is about fixing the broken towel rack in the bathroom and getting replacement burner plates for the stove. These repairs should be low cost and fairly easy to complete. If you can afford it, and you have the time, another good idea is a fresh coat of paint! New paint makes the house feel new even if it isn't new at all!
Clean Your Home Thoroughly And Remove Odor
When you are having company you typically straighten up a bit before they arrive. Well, when you are selling your home you need to clean like you are expecting the queen of England! The carpets need to be cleaned (professionally if possible), everything needs a good scrubbing, all dirty dishes need to be cleaned and put away, and the curtains need to be washed. Also if you own pets then you need to remove any and all pet odors from your home. If you have a cat, make sure the litter box is cleaned daily, if it's a dog make sure that the dog toys are put away and that you remove any dog hair from the floor and furniture...fish tanks should be cleaned thoroughly and so on. You are presenting your house to your potential buyers and you want to make a great impression. For more home cleaning tips for selling read Paul Sian's article 10 Great Tips For Selling Your Home.
Price It Correctly The First Time
Over-pricing your home can damage your chance of a quick and satisfying real estate journey. You should explore which homes have sold in your neighborhood that are similar to yours and which ones are listed for sale that are similar to yours. This will give you are good grasp on what the market value of your home is. Take a look at my article 7 AWESOME TIPS TO ACCURATELY PRICE YOUR HOME to get a better understanding of how to price your home.
Consider Having It Staged Or Rearrange Furniture
I love love love Deb Rhodes way of wording this in her article Don't Make These Mistakes When Selling Your Home, she says "Poor 'Buyer Eye Appeal'" which is perfect! When a buyer sees a home with a very critical eye they need to see the most appealing home that they have seen! This is a great way to generate multiple offers...if your home is the prettiest on the market then more buyers will want to see it! This applies to both the inside and the outside. Teresa Cowart has laid out some great ideas on how to make the inside of your home more appealing in her article HOUSE NOT SELLING? TRY THESE TIPS! Consider having your home staged or rearranging your furniture to create more space. Debbie Drummond in her article How To Sell Your House Fast for the Highest Price calls this process setting the stage! You want your home to feel warm and cozy but to look spacious as well. RisMedia makes a great suggestion in their article Home Seller Tips: Focus Perceptions by Enhancing Your Visual Thinking to invite a very critical and judgmental friend over when you are ready to list and have them analyze your home. This is going to help you to know what could be seen as visually unappealing before you invite actual buyers into your home.
Touch Up Your Landscaping And Curb Appeal
The front of your home is the first thing that buyers are going to see when they drive up to it. You want to put your best foot forward so rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean off the front porch, add some flowers for decoration, clean or replace your front door, and make sure that all bikes and children's toys are put away. This will help to welcome people to your home by giving your home an inviting look before they ever step through the front door. Explore Raleigh Realty's article 7 Cost Nothing Tips to Sell Your Home Faster for more landscaping and curb appeal tips.
Make Sure Your Agent Is Properly Marketing Your Home
Tina Isrealson makes another excellent point in her article 8 Reasons Why Your Home is STILL on the Market which is that you not only need amazing photographs of your home but you also need to make sure that someone is seeing them! You should have professional photographs taken and your agent should have taken a video of your home. Your pictures and video should be spread across the internet on any and all possible channels to make sure that the maximum number of potential buyers are seeing your home. This includes social media, which is often put to the wayside by real estate agents when they are selling a home but it is vitally important! There are more than 3 billion people on social media and your home should be there too!
DO NOT RENT IT OUT!!!!!
If you have a vacation home or an investment property and you are planning on selling it then DO NOT rent it out! This is vital. If someone is in the house how are buyers supposed to go look at it? When you get into contract how are inspectors supposed to inspect anything if you have a renter in the house? By renting it out you are making the process of selling your home much more difficult then it needs to be. If you want to rent it then rent until you are ready to put on the market and then make sure that the home is free and clear before you actually list the property.
Don't Let Your Emotions Dictate Your Decisions
Bill Gassett brings up an excellent point in his article Ways Sellers Sabotage Their Home Sale, when you are selling your home you cannot take negotiations personally! It is not common in America to negotiate over the price of something...we typically just pay the cost and move on, but in the real estate world negotiations are very common. Selling your home is an emotional experience so you will need to check in with your emotions regularly to make sure you are not letting your emotions run the show. A good example of this is Suzy Homeowner is selling her home because she is downsizing into a smaller home, but the home she is selling is the one she grew up in and has made some amazing memories in. The house is old and in need of a lot of repairs and Bob Buyer offers her less than her asking price to cover some of the costs of repairs. Suzy is outraged that Bob does not see the value that she sees in the house. The problem is that Suzy is seeing emotional value, not actual value. Suzy could potentially destroy her chance at selling her home to Bob because she is letting her emotions make her decisions.
