Before you put that “For Sale” sign in your front yard, check out these tips for selling your home. They may help you get top dollar for your home and avoid common mistakes home sellers make.
- Know what kind of housing market you’re in
- Know where you’re going after you sell
- Get your home ready to sell
- Find the right real estate agent
- Make sure your home price is right
- Decide on your showing plan
- Review offers carefully
- Understand how long it can take to sell a home
Hire an experienced real estate agent.
If you’re selling your home by placing it on the market, as opposed to selling Shortsleeves Real Estate, finding the right real estate agent is a necessary step. As you interview potential agents, pay close attention to their experience level. You want to find an agent you can work well with who also knows the market.
Price your home competitively
When the market favors sellers, it’s tempting to inflate your home’s listing price because it seems like the demand is there. However, you’re probably better off working with your real estate agent to set a fair price based on recent sales data of similar nearby homes.
A strategic price tag will draw more interested buyers, who may naturally drive up the price by bidding against each other. Buyers who are searching online for a home within a certain budget might not even see your home if the listing price is too high, potentially driving down competition.
Boost your curb appeal with colors
First impressions are everything. And when it comes to selling your house, your curb appeal is where it all starts.
Buyers will have an immediate reaction within seconds of pulling up to your home. A lackluster appearance can convince potential buyers to drive off. But one that gets their attention can make it feel like a new home and enhance their emotional state.
This is what you want.
Why?
Because buying a home is an emotional decision. And the condition of your exterior plays a factor.
Does this mean you need to go all out and spend thousands of dollars?
Nope. The key to making any type of improvement before selling your home is to think visually. When it comes to your curb appeal, this means colors.
Think you need new sod to make your landscaping pop?
You don’t. Spray paint your grass instead. Plant colorful perennials and annuals.
A few hundred dollars at Home Depot can go a long way and make a huge difference. But putting a fresh coat of paint on your front door can make your home really stand out. Stay with neutral colors and go with something that is the perfect match with your exterior paint.
A few popular colors that can work well are gray, black, dark red, navy blue, and brown. But you don’t need to invest a lot of money to apply a fresh coat of paint and make the exterior of your home stand out. You just need a little imagination and the right colors.
Handle the repairs from a pre-listing home inspection
It might be tempting to put off small repairs and let the next owner handle them. Unfortunately, if you list a house with evident and necessary repairs, prospective buyers will also scrutinize your property more closely for larger deferred maintenance issues. If you want to be proactive, one of the best real estate tips for selling your home is setting up a pre-listing home inspection.
When you choose to fix everything the inspector finds before you list your house, you gain valuable peace of mind during the closing process. Your buyer will most likely want their own inspection as part of the sales contract, but when that inspector finds everything is in perfect order, your buyer will have confidence in the sale.
CLEAN!
This may be the most important step you take toward getting your home ready to sell. For a home to live up to the “move-in condition” description, it has to be clean. If you already keep a clean house, simply keep up the good work, checking to make sure you don’t overlook little-used closets and other nooks and crannies that aren’t part of your weekly routine. This needs to be a deep cleaning. For the rest of us, it’s time to get serious. Start at the top (the attic or second-story rooms) and work your way down. Clean ceiling light fixtures first, scrub walls and woodwork and finish with floors. As you work your way from top to bottom, don’t leave one area until it is completely clean and then move on. Don’t drag dirt from one area back into the place you just cleaned. Finally, don’t underestimate the power of clean windows. Buyers won’t walk in and think, “Wow, clean windows!” But, freshly cleaned windows look great from the outside and with the lights on, they sparkle on the inside. And with this method, window cleaning is not all that bad.
Stage your home
One of the most important real estate tips is staging your home. Key staging tactics involve placing furniture and throw pillows invitingly. You can also set a dining room or kitchen table. And placing a vase or two of fresh flowers around the home is a nice touch. The purpose of staging is to show buyers the home’s potential. You want all the main rooms – kitchen, dining room, living room, bathrooms, and master bedroom – to create the feeling that they are already home.