Whether you’re trying to sell your Columbia SC home because you’re moving or if you’re just trying to flip a property for profit, you need to know about how the real estate market works and what you can do to sell your Columbia SC home easily.
Paint Your Columbia SC Home
Paint your house in neutral colors; this will allow potential buyers to more easily picture themselves living in it. Light candles or bake cookies, so potential home buyers are greeted with an aroma they can relate to. An atmosphere they feel welcome in may determine whether they choose to buy your Columbia SC home.
Get a Mechanical Checkup
Have someone check your air conditioner and heating before listing your house. Buyers generally don’t want a home that needs large investments, like a new furnace, so if the AC and heating are fine, it can appeal to more buyers.
Get a Columbia SC Real Estate Agent
You may not always want to listen to what they say, using the services of a trained real estate agent will save you money in the long run. They do know what they’re talking about. You may not like some of the things your real estate agent tells you, following his or her advice will help you sell your Columbia SC home faster and for more money.
While you may think that selling your home yourself will save you a commission, statistics show that using the services of a real estate professional will get your Columbia SC home sold quicker and with much less hassle than selling it yourself.
Check Your Curb Appeal
Curb appeal is a major factor in whether or not buyers will stop to look at your home. Your house and yard will look better maintained if you mow the lawn and trim the shrubbery. Keep in mind that the first impression is a lasting one, so present the exterior of your house in its best light.
A home that looks inviting is far more appealing to buyers than one that looks neglected. It will definitely impact how many people coming to view your home.
Get Rid of Pets
If you have a pet, your home will have an odor to potential buyers who enter. You get used to your home’s scent from your pet and may not think this is an issue, but be aware that others can sniff out your pet’s smell as soon as they walk in the door. Take measures to eliminate the odors, so buyers won’t be put off.
At the same time, don’t overwhelm potential buyers with air fresheners, candles or other fragrances. You may offend the buyer, set off their allergies and even drive them to leave your home without seeing it in full! Why compromise a sale by making the potential buyer feel like they have to rush through the viewing? Put potpourri inside of a bowl if you want a nice-smelling home.
There is a lot to consider when selling a Columbia SC home, but the time you spend learning what is important and sprucing up before your home goes on the market will certainly pay off!
Find more tips for helping you sell your Columbia SC home here.
Most people don’t realize that it takes a lot more know-how to sell your Columbia SC home than just finding a buyer, and in order to sell a house in this difficult economy, there is a lot more to know than during good times. Most people don’t even think about selling a home they just bought, especially if it’s the house where they live.
Best ways to sell your Columbia SC home
Learning the best ways to sell your Columbia SC home is often times as simple as learning some of the real estate terminology. Whenever you buy or sell your Columbia SC home, having a few real estate terms handy will help you.
Let’s start with the word “agent”
A real estate agent works for a real estate broker, the one who has the legal responsibility to represent you as a client. The office broker is the person who has a fiduciary duty to you and all his or her agents must meet that standard of responsibility, too.
Commission When You Sell Your Columbia SC Home
Next, let’s look at the phrase “Exclusive Right To Sell Listing Agreement”: Chances are, you will be signing one of these agreements to give your broker the right to collect a commission when you sell your Columbia SC home. Then your broker splits his or her commission with any other agents involved in your sale, like a buyer’s agent, for example.
Sales Agreement to Sell Your Columbia SC Home
Finally, we come to the term “Purchase Agreement,” “Sales Agreement” or “Sales Contract” – this is the form on which a buyer makes an offer to purchase your house. This form is something you absolutely need to have on hand or make sure your agent provides.
Obviously there are many other things you need to be aware of when you decide to sell your Columbia SC home, but these are just a few of the basics to get you started. You’ll find many other tips to help you buy or sell your Columbia SC home under the categories to your right.
Showing a home for sale can be a tiring process, since it involves keeping your home in tip top shape and clean at all times, just in case you get a short notice looker wanting to see your home.
The following tips will help you effectively show your home for sale.
One important step is to list your home with a real estate broker. A real estate broker is professionally trained and very knowledgeable about selling homes. While trying the “For Sale by Owner” (or FSBO) method seems tempting in order to avoid paying a commission, most “FSBO” homes are eventually listed with real estate brokers anyway.
Hire a real estate broker to list your home for sale, and then follow their professional tips to move your home through the process as quickly as possible.
Your real estate broker will want your home available for showing at all times. While this can be quite inconvenient for you and your family (especially if you have children and pets), it is important. Real estate brokers need to have access to your home via a lock box on your door.
Ignoring this advice will only make your real estate broker’s job more difficult, since they will have to call you to make an appointment to show the house, and coordinate a time that works for you and the potential buyer wanting to see your home. This can actually make a potential buyer just skip your home altogether, opting to just see homes that are convenient for them to see on short notice.
Most brokers will give you as much notice as possible that they may be showing your home, but you should try to have your home available at all times.
When your real estate broker brings a potential buyer to see your home, do your best not to be there. If you’re home, the potential buyers will feel like they are intruding, and will not look things over the way they will if you’re not there.
You want potential home buyers to feel welcome in the home–not that they are interrupting your day. Do you have errands to run? Can you take the kids to a park or the library? If not, at least stay out of the way of the buyer and your real estate broker. Most real estate brokers will recommend that you not offer any information or “chit chat” with the potential buyer; instead, just allow your broker to answer the questions they may ask. That’s what you hired them for.
When you know your home is going to be shown, go around and “tidy up”. Empty the trash, turn on lights, make sure beds are all made, dishes clean and put away, junk mail and magazines put in their place. Keep the counter tops in the kitchen free of clutter. Do what you can to make the home show well, not look like a storm just hit.
Above all, follow the advice of your real estate broker, and you’ll be on your way to selling your home.
When trying to sell a home, correct pricing of that home is crucial, and the psychology that goes into determining a price can leave your stomach doing backflips.
Should you start out high and see if you can get top dollar? Should you start low knowing the competition out there is tough? If you just drop your price later, how many buyers did you miss out on at the start?
The decision to price your home is extremely important. Pricing your home not only dictates how much money you will make, it also dictates how many people will see your home. Here are a few things to consider before you set the price of your home.
Change Your Mindset
Emotional attachment to a home can end up costing a home seller thousands of dollars. Sellers tend to price their homes too high because they are stuck in the mindset of: My home is worth more because it’s mine.
This is called the “endowment effect” and is a psychological human emotion. We tend to think, even with something of little value, since we own it, the item is worth more than it really is.
Buyer’s don’t really care how much you paid for your home when you bought it. They care about what comparable homes are selling for today. This is a large step for home sellers to overcome.
You can’t price your home to sell for what you owe if the market says it’s worth less. Once you understand this and overcome the emotions of pricing your home, you’re on your way to a successful sale.
Identify your homes true value and price it just below.
For example; if your market analysis comes in at $250k, pricing your home at $245k will give you a lot more activity.
Even though you’re priced slightly below market value, with the amount of activity that price will bring, you may end up getting multiple offers which will drive the price back up. If you don’t get multiple offers, you will at least get an offer close to asking price.
How fast do you need to sell?
What’s more important to your situation: Time or money? If you need to sell within 30 days, price your home lower than if you could hold out for 60-90 days. You may get less with the 30 day sale, but you will get rid of the home faster. If you price for 90 days, you may get more money, but you’ll lose out on time.
If you sell within the first 90 days, you’ll be okay. If you’re home sits longer, you could end up losing a lot more money and time than anticipated with your original list price. Pricing your home too high will end up netting you less money in the long run during a declining market. You will end up chasing lower prices, and you should try to avoid that situation if at all possible.
If your home sits too long, don’t be afraid to get aggressive.
The longer your home sits on the market the more stale it becomes to buyers in that price range. Obviously, after sitting for an extended amount of time, your home isn’t worth what your asking.
To get out of that “stale” market, take decisive action and drop your price a substantial amount. By doing this, you will attract new buyers in new price ranges. If you drop the price in small increments, it’s like dying a slow death by torture.
Buyers can see all your price reductions, and it shows you’re getting more desperate the more you cut the price. A quick, substantial cut in price is going to give buyers a real incentive to take another look at your property.
If, after all of this, you still can’t get your home sold, it may be time to take it off the market or consider a short sale.
If you can’t afford to price a home at a price that will allow it to sell, talk to your agent about the possibilities of a short sale if you feel you need to go that route.
Selling a Columbia SC area home that is currently occupied by a tenant can be a bit of a challenge, as the tenants don’t always share the same motivation as their landlords – consequently, they may fail to keep the home looking neat and attractive to impress potential buyers.
So what can landlords do to prevent problems?
First, landlords should never attempt to deceive tenants in the first place, and so they should make it absolutely clear that they intend to list the home once the local market picks up again.
Landlords can also offer their tenants some kind of concession in return for their cooperation – for example, in return for the tenant keeping the home looking neat tidy (unlike the photo!) while it’s listed, they could be given a 10% discount on the rent. However, landlords would need to clearly communicate their expectations regarding cleanliness, like making sure the bed is always made up in the morning, and ensuring dirty dishes aren’t left in the sink for prospective buyers to see when they come to see the property.
Setting established hours for buyers to view the property will also do a lot to get tenants on your side.
Landlords need to keep in mind they don’t usually get a second chance, and so it pays to keep tenants on their side, especially when a property is first listed for sale.
If you’re a Columbia SC area landlord and would like more information and tips on what you should do if your property has a tenant and you’re wanting to sell, contact us. We’ll be happy to give you additional tips.