We all want the sale of our house to go smoothly. We know that somewhere between sticking that sign in the front yard and packing up the moving van, there are a lot of details that need to be handled. With these details comes stress, all bundled up in emotion. Selling a home means more than just signing on the bottom line. That’s where hiring the right real estate professional can be invaluable.
Listing with a trustworthy real estate agent that you feel comfortable with can save a lot of money and time, but also a great many headaches and heartbreaks. A knowledgeable, experienced agent understands the nuances of the real estate transaction as well as the emotions of the sale of one’s home. It takes a special understanding of what happens between the seller, or sellers, and potential buyers to keep everyone on track during potentially difficult times.
Contacting a real estate agent early in the process will help alleviate many of the problems that could arise in those first discussions about selling a house. Once the right agent has been chosen by the seller, it’s time to get to work finding out how to build a good relationship with their client. This starts with learning about their clients and what motivates them.
A homeowner may be highly motivated to sell their home quickly. For this type of imminent sale, the time-frame may be tight. Perhaps a job transfer is coming soon, or a new school year starts, or any number of reasons; some pleasant and some unpleasant. A good agent wants to know the motivation in order to better serve you. Be open and honest with the agent you choose. There is no need to beat around the bush, your agent will soon know more about your personal life and finances than you would believe. That is why choosing an agent with experience and integrity is so important.
Sometimes, a move is not imminent. A homeowner may want to test the market for future decisions. Instead of guessing, homeowners should use a real estate agent’s expertise to find out the true value of their home. It prepares them better for making decisions for the future. In other words, guessing what your home is worth is no way to prepare for a future sale of your home, or purchase of another. Your agent will want to know if this is the case so he or she can do some projecting into the future markets for you. There is no reason to ‘fool’ an agent into thinking you’re ready to list your home when you’re not. A good agent wants to help you determine the value of your home whether or not you’re ready to list.
Whether the sale of your home is planned soon or in the future, it is best to contact a qualified agent early in the process. An experienced agent will help by getting the information straight right from the beginning in order to avoid mistakes early on. The right agent will assist the seller in defining what is important during the process, provide a sounding board for ideas, and then help customize a plan of action.
Once you have interviewed several agents, asked all your questions, and finally chosen the one that’s right for you, it’s time for the agent to turn the tables and ask you a few questions. Any good agent will be sure to ask a potential client these simple questions:
- Do you need to sell your home soon?
- What is the reason you’re selling your home now?
- Will you be open to negotiation with a buyer?
- Are you prepared financially to repair items that show up on the home inspection?
- Are you listing your home now in order to sell at a future date?
- Are you pricing your house as a way to test the market for a future sale?
- Have you tried to sell your house by yourself? If so, what have you tried?
- Are there back taxes owed?
- Are there liens on the property other than a mortgage?
- Are there any reasons that would prevent you from accepting an offer, other than price?
Of course some of this information will be discovered as the paperwork is prepared, but hearing it from the seller first matters. If these questions seem intrusive, they are only designed to avoid an embarrassing, or worse, situation down the road. Be prepared to share your story; this is only a short list of the questions you will expect a good real estate agent to ask a client.
There is much more to selling a house than getting the paperwork done. An agent needs to learn first about the homeowner’s reason for selling, how desperately they want to sell, and how much they are willing to sacrifice in order to sell. All these questions may feel very personal, but a good agent will help their client understand that this confidential information is necessary in order to get their home sold as smoothly as possible.
As the holidays fast approach, a question that is asked every year about this time is, “should I wait and try to sell my house after the holidays?”
Homeowners looking to sell their home during this time of the year need to do a few things to set their home apart from all the others on the market.
Maintain Your Landscaping
Consider adding some fall flowers like mums to your porch or a wreath on the front door to brighten up the home as prospective buyers approach. In addition, grass should be cut and trimmed and leaves cleared as much as possible. If your lawn has already gone dormant for the season, be sure it is trimmed and not weedy in appearance.
Keep Your House Warm
You don’t want prospects coming into a cold house. Spend the extra money while the home is for sale to make your home as warm and inviting as possible. But don’t go to the extreme and keep the house too warm or buyers will be uncomfortable and your utility bills will go through the roof.
Let In Plenty of Light
Open all of your blinds and drapes, and turn on room lights. If you have particularly dark rooms, consider adding accent lighting to brighten up the room.
Decorate, But Don’t Overdo
Take advantage of the holidays and brighten your home with some tasteful decorations. But keep in mind, most homes are viewed during the daylight hours, so a lot of ornamental lighting, Christmas trees, etc., won’t show up all that well, especially on the outside of the home. So just remember, everything in moderation.
Just because the holidays are upon us is no reason to not put your home on the market if you’re needing to sell. Just consider these tips, and do what you can to always keep the home in showing condition.
Open houses are a great opportunity for both the buyer and the seller. It gives the seller the chance to showcase their home and the buyer can view the home in all its glory. Buyers love to scope out potential homes. After all, open houses are really sales presentations. In order to have a successful open house, there are some tasks that should be completed by the seller beforehand.
The most obvious task is cleaning. The house should be spotless, including appliances. If you work full time and don’t have time to get the house cleaned properly, hire a house cleaning service. The money spent is well worth it if you are able to sell quickly. It might be hard to keep it clean if you are still living there, but you must make a concentrated effort to try. Your home presentation must be impeccable.
Keep foul and mysterious odors away. The first thing a potential buyer will notice is an offensive odor and you will probably never see them again. Regularly inspect your home for potential odor sources and keep a steady supply of candles and air fresheners on hand. If you have an indoor cat, keep the litter box out of sight and scooped out daily.
Clutter is a major turnoff to potential buyers. It just isn’t very enticing to see piles of clutter everywhere. Keep small appliances stored instead of out on the countertops. Remove photographs and knick-knacks. You want people to envision their belongings in the house. Clean out and organize the closets. If there is no reason for something to be displayed, get rid of it.
If you can, remove non-essential furniture to make the rooms appear larger. Spacious rooms are more appealing to the eyes. Keep your boxes of junk stored out of sight. It is a good idea to start figuring out what you need and what you can live without. It would be a good idea to have a garage sale before you put the house on the market. If you can’t bear to part with anything, rent a temporary storage unit.
You cannot ignore the outside of the house either. The outside presentation has a major impact on the buyer. Clean the leaves out of the drain gutter, don’t let garden hoses or other tools pile up outside. Pick them up and store them elsewhere. Make the effort to beautify the front entry. If the door handle is rusty or the whole door looks junky, get a new one. Keep the flower beds neat and free from weeds.
Look at the walls and try to put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. How would you look at the walls in someone else’s house? Is the paint chipping or is the color outdated? It would be well worth your time to give the walls a fresh coat of paint. Nothing makes a room come alive more than a fresh coat of paint. Give the rooms a little bit of a makeover with new decor that compliments the wall colors. If you have a garden, bring in some fresh flowers and put them in attractive vases.
Establish a pleasant atmosphere by baking bread or cookies. Candles add a nice touch along with background music. Classical or jazz music are both good choices. You want to convey style and elegance to your audience. First impressions go a long way.
When trying to sell your house, you should be prepared for a showing at any time. Last minute requests are very common and can turn into offers. You have the option to request 24 hours notice before a showing, but in doing so you limit your home’s exposure. Try to be as flexible as possible. Accommodating the hectic schedules of a potential buyer will make you and your home look that much better.
It is a good idea to not be present for the showing. Buyers might not feel comfortable in your presence or they might be afraid to ask a particular question for fear of offending you. If they can’t view the house fully, they will probably just move on to the next one. You don’t want that. They are supposed to fall in love with your house.
Selling a house in this economy has its challenges. A seller must make a careful assessment of the pros and cons of their property before they put in on the market. One question that must be answered right from the start is establishing whether now is the best time of the year to sell.
Generally, fall and winter are not the best time to sell a home, but due to the increase of foreclosures and short sales, there is an abundance of available homes to choose from, but with many of these properties it is truly buyer beware. The market is plagued with potential hazards for the unsuspecting buyer. Many homes for sale have not been properly processed in the foreclosure process so a new buyer may find themselves in a legal maze where they could lose money. It is up to their real estate agent to inform them of the obstacles.
Interest rates are at all time lows, making now an attractive time for anyone who’s been sitting on the sidelines to jump in, meaning if you’re thinking of selling a home, now could be a great time to take advantage of record low interest rates.
Forecasts of possible further declines in housing prices may or may not happen, but if your home is in good selling condition, you may have an advantage over all the foreclosures and short sales that are flooding the market, simply because of the high risk a buyer must take when buying these properties.
If you need to sell a home, consider the condition of your home, and what you will be competing with in your neighborhood. It may just be the best time ever to sell your home.
Selling a home may seem like a simple task, one that only entails a ‘for sale’ sign, a few flyers, and possibly posting the home on Craigslist, but there is much more involved than meets the eye. Real estate agents help countless people buy and sell homes, attend many hours of education, and develop systems, all in an effort to guarantee successful, smooth, real estate transactions.
Homeowners who decide to sell on their own usually make many mistakes, some of which they are unaware of, that can come back to haunt them. Let’s take a look at the most common mistakes made by the homeowner during a for-sale-by-owner listing:
1. Emotional Pricing – One of the most critical mistakes often made during a for-sale-by-owner listing is pricingf the home out of alignment with the market value. Homeowners tend to view their property with emotional attachment, resulting in an escalated price because they include their personal experiences in the home as part of the value.
For example, a homeowner may personally paint a child’s bedroom with a fun mural, full of bright colors. The homeowner believes the mural has value because it is special to the child, but in reality, the mural is not only a hindrance to attracting a buyer, it devalues the home in the buyer’s mind because all the buyer sees is the fact that they will need to paint the room. Your decorative touches, no matter how much you love them or how much you paid for them, do not add value to the home.
2. Improper Staging – Buyers are very demanding when looking at homes they are interested in, especially in the current market. They have a lot of homes to choose from, and the slightest problem with a home can cause them to move on to the next place of interest. For sale by owners often make the mistake of ‘what appeals to them will also appeal to all buyers’, such as the mural story above.
Simple things such as paint, flooring condition, cleanliness, well-lighted rooms, uncluttered walls, all play a part in impressing buyers. It is a good idea to actually hire a home staging expert to provide advice on how to best show the home. A staging professional will advise you about what changes can be made to not only attract, but keep buyers interested enough to make an offer on your home.
3. Old Fashioned Marketing – Over 80% of people who are looking to purchase a home, surf the Internet to find the right property. Homeowners may not know how to properly market their home on the Internet. Not only does a seller need to know all possible Internet marketing avenues, but also must possess a very good understanding of the ins-and-outs of using all the search tools available.
If this sounds like a tall order, it is. There are hundreds if not thousands of for-sale-by-owner sites, as well as the popular auction sites, that are vying for the home seller’s listing. How do you know which is best? Where do you even begin to look? Without a strong background in real estate and marketing, along with a firm grasp on Internet posting, your home may be lost in the shuffle and never be seen. With an uninformed eye on the Internet, the for-sale-by-owner could be missing thousands of potential buyers.
4. Improper Paperwork – One of the most frustrating, and costly, mistakes made during a for-sale-by-owner transaction is the lack of experience in managing the paperwork and communication that is necessary once an offer is received and accepted. Considering just the pages of the contract, there are dozens of documents to understand with numerous disclosures that must meet precise dates for signing and filing.
Aside from simply signing and accepting an offer, there are inspections to be scheduled, appraisers to meet, and unacceptable conditions that must be negotiated. If anything is missed, it could cause the contract to fall through, meaning that the home must go back on the market. Most homeowners are not expected to know all these details; that’s what real estate schooling and training is meant for.
Bottom Line – Although it is possible for a homeowner to sell their own home, it is extremely difficult and time consuming. Homeowners are involved with only one, or maybe two or three, real estate transactions in their life, whereas a real estate a professional is involved with hundreds or thousands. Leaving such a large investment to the professionals is often in a homeowner’s best interest.