When you sell your house, it is important to plan ahead and take steps along the way to assure your sale goes as planned. Here are 8 steps that will help you increase the market appeal of your property and increase the likelihood of a successful and timely sale.
Step 1: Create a Good First Impression
The first glimpse buyers have of your home - both online and in person - is the front street view. Make the front of your home as appealing as possible by removing debris and garbage cans, pressure washing or painting where necessary and enhancing the landscaping.
Step 2: Deep Clean and Simplify Interiors
Deep clean the interior of your home and declutter each room as much as possible focusing on removing personal items. The idea is to allow the buyer to imagine moving right into your home. It's hard to imagine that if there are pictures of your family on every wall or there are multiple rooms that have dirty windows or carpeting. Ultimately you want your home to feel spacious and inviting to every buyer.
Step 3: Take Care of Repairs and Maintenance
Deal with any minor repairs that you’ve been putting off like fixing a leaky faucet or replacing a light switch that doesn’t work properly. While addressing these issues, be sure to inspect your entire property to attend to all maintenance needs that may have accumulated over time. One of the biggest minor issues I run into when showing buyers homes is door hardware that doesn’t work right. If the buyer’s agent is having trouble getting the door open it immediately makes the buyer concerned that there may be a great deal of deferred maintenance in the home.
Step 4: Strategically Set Your Asking Price
Set your price based on the prices other similar homes have sold for, experienced real estate professionals opinions, and current market conditions. Make sure the price you settle on is not only competitive but also accurately represents the value of your property. Your home will get the most activity when it's new on the market. Don’t make the mistake of overpricing your home with the thought that you can always reduce the price - you’ll wind up missing out on buyers who won’t look at the home when it comes on the market and may submit lowball offers when you later reduce your price after being on the market for a while.
Step 5: Use a Professional Photographer
Enhance the visual appeal of your property by using an experienced real estate photographer. A good photographer can capture your home’s essence, providing captivating images that highlight its charm and desirability. In today’s online world, a video virtual tour is a must to make your property stand out and get noticed.
Step 6: Execute a Strategic Marketing Plan
Every home is different. Create a marketing plan that effectively showcases your property's strengths. This plan should include promoting your home via social media, print and in person. The goal of your marketing plan is to make your home visible to the right buyer segment with multiple impressions.
Step 7: Compile Legal and Financial Documents
Gather all the necessary paperwork, including repair invoices and warranties, tax bills, utility bills, and homeowner association/neighborhood documents to ensure that you can provide buyers with all the information they need to feel comfortable making an offer on your house. Work closely with an experienced real estate attorney to navigate the complex world of legal documentation, to ensure that you document the sale correctly and completely, to avoid creating liability for yourself later.
Step 8: Ensure Flexibility and Readiness for Negotiation
Create a welcoming atmosphere for potential buyers by being flexible with viewing schedules and offering detailed information about the property and its surroundings. Focus on leaving your emotions behind when you are negotiating a contract on your home. An offer can be just a starting point. There’s no benefit in reacting negatively to an offer, even a low offer. It may just be your buyer’s way of making sure that they don’t leave any money on the table.
Overwhelmed? Does all this sound like much more than you can handle?
Don’t worry. When you hire The Don Petrasek Team to represent you, we take over handling all of these steps for you and eliminate the stress of trying to understand the right way to do them. And because we typically handle 25 - 30 real estate transactions per year, we have the current know-how and market experience to assure that your property sale will be smooth and successful. We consider every relationship to be a partnership…..with our listing readiness program we’ll even take care of minor work on your home to get it ready for the market.
Contact us today to talk about selling your home!
