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SELLER
TIPS - Selling a Home
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So you've decided to sell your home. Perhaps you're taking a job in a new community and you need to sell. Maybe you've outgrown your existing home and you need to move into something larger. Perhaps your family has grown up and moved out and it is time to downsize into a smaller home. Whatever the reason, you've decided to sell your home. What follows are some useful hints and ideas to make the selling process easier.
Things to Consider When Selling Your Home
There are three main areas to consider when you decide to sell your home: pricing the home, preparing your home for the market, and showing your home to potential buyers.
Pricing Your Home
I will help be the best source for determining the price your home should be listed for. I will have access to the Multiple Listing Service database and will be able to provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis of what the home should sell for, based upon sales of comparable properties in the neighborhood in which your home is located. Remember also, that my knowledge of whether it is a buyer's market or a seller's market will have an impact on what your home should be listed for. If you are unrealistically high in your asking price, your home will not sell, and in fact may become "stale" on the market. Most of the sales activity generally occurs within the first month of a home going on the market, so you want your home listed at a realistic price, so that offers come in right away.
Preparing Your Home for the Market
The most important thing to do to your home is to make it as attractive as possible. Start with the first impression that a potential buyer has when they drive up, the so-called "curb appeal". Mow and edge the lawn, get rid of the weeds, and plant some nice, colorful flowers if it is the correct season. Stand back and critically look at your home. How do you see your home? If you stand in the shoes of a potential buyer, you will probably see things that need to be done.
Preparing your home for market does not stop at the outside. Preparing your home inside is just as important. Just as you cleaned up the outside, the inside should be just as clean. Put away any items that would contribute to a cluttered appearance. While family pictures and other treasures have meaning to you, to a potential buyer they are just things which tend to make a room seem smaller. Make sure that the lights are on and the window coverings are open when a buyer comes into your home. Light and cheerful is much better than dark and cheerless when it comes to showing your home. Sort out closets and arrange things neatly. It will make your closets look bigger, and further contribute to the sense of tidiness. Pride in your home will be seen by a potential buyer, and hopefully make them want to buy your home.
Showing Your Home to Potential Buyers
Perhaps the most invasive part about the marketing period will be
actually showing the home. Most likely your home will be on
Broker's Tour, the day that all of the brokers in your local
Multiple Listing Service will tour the home. Most likely you
will be asked to leave the home during the broker's tour so that
I can show off the home to the local brokers. This will probably
take most of the morning. If your home is placed on a lockbox,
brokers will call me if they have a client who would like to
view the home. They will schedule an appointment and use the
lockbox to gain access to the home if you aren't there. If you
are there, most sales agents like to have you remain out of the
way as they show the home, although they may ask you questions
regarding the home that you should cheerfully and honestly
answer. Unfortunately, it may be that sales agents may schedule
appointments in the early evening if they have clients that work
during the day, so be prepared for some disruption in your daily
lives. Obviously, weekends are a particularly popular time for
showing homes, so while you may prefer to relax on weekends, you
must keep your home ready for showing at almost any time. You
should try and be as cooperative as you can. If brokers can't
show your home, or you make it an unpleasant experience for the
broker and his/her client, your home is going to be "forgotten"
and it won't sell. Also, ignore comments that you might overhear
from potential buyers. Each buyer is looking for their ideal
home, and things in your home may not correlate to their dream
home. It is very normal for them to make comparisons. In the
end, a buyer will view your home and match their dream with
yours and a successful sale will result.
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