Selling your home can be a tricky task if you have never attempted it before. However, even experienced home sellers sometimes make mistakes when they put up listings for their home. So here are 10 essential tips to follow when you are selling your home.
1. Understand real estate trends
Prior to listing your home for sale, it’s important to observe real estate trends in your neighborhood. Are the property values in your area appreciating rapidly? Or are they expected to drop in the near future.
The real estate market also follows annual cycles, so you should be aware of the time of year you are selling your property. For example, a higher percentage of houses sell above their list price in Spring compared to Fall.
So if you’re considering selling your house in September, you might want to wait a few more months longer until March rolls around to fetch a higher price.
2. Take care of major repairs
Many people sell their homes as a way to avoid dealing with costly repairs. However, this practice often leads to homes being sold for far less than they are worth. Once prospective buyers realize they will need to spend time, effort, and money on repairs, they may reduce their offer by an amount that exceeds the cost of the repairs themselves.
You may try to conceal any room features or items that need repairs, but this approach could backfire if buyers discover what you are hiding. If things go wrong, they may start to assume that there are other rooms that need repairs too. This could lead to them losing interest and moving onto another seller.
3. Keep a tidy house
One of the worst mistakes you can do when selling your home is to show it to buyers when it is messy. A home that is located in a nice neighborhood in Davie, FL could fetch a much lower price if your messiness gives it a rundown appearance.
It may be helpful to get your home professionally cleaned prior to showing it off to prospective buyers. If you are a smoker or keep pets in your home, you will need to clean your carpets and furniture upholstery thoroughly to get rid of any smells or odors that may be present.
4. List your home for a fair price
Homes that are listed far above their worth usually remain unsold for a long time. This problem is worsened by the fact your home becomes harder to sell the longer it appears on listings.
Prospective buyers who see the same house on listings for several months may start to believe that it hasn’t sold due to its overly high price, or that there is something wrong with the property itself. So remember to get a proper home valuation done and list it for a fair price.
5. Take great photographs and videos
Many prospective home buyers start their search in online listings. Each home listed on these pages is competing for the attention of the buyer, so it’s crucial that your listing features good photos and/or videos of your property.
The unfortunate truth is that even great looking homes can appear dull if your photos aren’t taken well. A buyer searching for homes in Plantation, FL could sift through hundreds of listings in the area but will pay attention to only the ones that feature attractive photos.
Due to this reason it’s important to take bright and vibrant looking photos of your property. If your photography skills aren’t very good, you could always hire a professional photographer to take photos for you. Your real estate agent may know a few photographers that are experienced with photographing homes for listings.
6. Be ready to negotiate with buyers
Once buyers visit and inspect your property, they may start negotiating on the spot. There’s a good chance they will try to haggle for a lower price based on repairs or defects they have spotted on the premises. Due to this reason, you should have all your repairs done beforehand.
However, it’s also important to possess good negotiation skills so that you aren’t pressured into selling your property for an unfairly low price. If you aren’t very good at countering the buyer’s haggling tactics, you should leave negotiations up to your real estate agent. Your realtor understands the full value of your home and will be able to defend its pricing during negotiations.
7. Stage your home with good decor
It’s important to stage your home using attractive decor that has universal appeal. You should always play it safe when you are advertising to strangers, as they may not appreciate your unique or eccentric taste in furniture.
You should seek help from an interior designer to make your home appear as attractive as possible. Some interior designers in Cooper City, FL possess furniture that they use exclusively for staging homes, so you won’t have to spend money on buying new items for staging.
Special attention should also be given to your home’s entrance and porch as they are the first things prospective buyers see when they attend an open house.
8. Check if prospective buyers can afford your home
You may come across many different prospective buyers when you are attempting to sell your home. It can be exciting to see your home receive this much attention; however, not every prospective buyer will be able afford the price you are offering.
There’s no point in spending time showing your property to people who aren’t going to buy it, so you should try to differentiate prospective buyers from the people who are simply window shopping.
9. Plan your move out date according to your closing date
Once you have finally found a suitable buyer for your home, you will need to prepare to move out. You should plan your move out date to coincide with your closing date. You won’t be able to come back to the property after closing, so it’s crucial that you prepare to remove all your belongings before this date.
Moving out usually takes longer than most people expect, so it may be wise to keep an extra window of a day or two to ensure everything is set.
10. Selling your home is always an inconvenience
The truth is that selling your home is always an inconvenience. It entails various activities such as conducting repairs, packing your belongings, performing valuations, putting up listings, and staging your home. All these preparations can take a mental and physical toll on home sellers.
However, you may be able to lessen the burden by hiring an experienced real estate agent to help take care of some of these duties.
My name is David Rogers, and I’m a licensed realtor who loves to provide high-level service. Please let me know how I can serve you!