What You Must Know When Selling Your Home

Many homeowners listed their homes back when our spring market started, which was early this year around February when we started seeing alot of buyer activity.  With the summer market quickly approaching those same homeowners are starting to wonder why their home may not have sold yet.  Now some of you may be thinking that is has only been 4 months since buyer activity picked up, but with a home correctly priced we will normally see them go under contract within 60 days.  There are only 3 things you & your Realtor have control over, and if your home is not selling than you should look at those 3 things first and foremost !!

Price

• When a person is searching for a home with the same characteristics as yours (bedrooms, baths), where does your home fall in the list? Look at the homes as if you are a buyer, if you are finding all the homes are priced below yours offer more you may want to consider adjusting your price. 
• Ask your Realtor to pull recent comps, meet with them and discuss market conditions.  This is also important because your Realtor will need to have these to support the price of your home once you have accepted an offer.  

Myth: Not all homes are created equal, sometimes your home may not be selling as quickly as you would like not because of price but because it is for a particular kind of buyer.  An example of this is if the home your selling is a cottage, or a high-end home because there is a smaller buyer pool for that kind of home.  The most important part of selling a home with a small buyer pool is making sure that you have the best exposure, and easy availability to make sure your don't lost out on any buyers.  

Tip: If your home is priced above market value, it will be impossible for your Realtor to get potential buyers to come and view your home.  Many homeowners will agree to taking a much lower offer than the listing price, but there is no way to convey that to buyers who are viewing your house online, they will rule it out simply because of the price.

Availability

• If your home has very strict restrictions on when potential buyers can come and see it, you may want to reconsider how/when you are showing it.  If you are unavailable to show your home during the week because of your work schedule, you should speak with your Realtor about allowing them to accompany showings during the week to take the burden off of you, and allowing more buyers to be able to get in.  
• This next one is something that not all Realtors agree with, but I am a big believer in open houses.  I schedule all of my open houses for the month in advance because I want to give buyers an open invitation to come in and see your home the moment that they see it online.  
• Taking it a step farther you will want to make sure your Realtor is getting back to those that are inquiring about your home in a timely manner. Sometimes it is not always about how quickly buyers can see your home, bu how long it takes for your Realtor to get back to them! 

Myth: Some sellers believe that by requiring 48 hours for their home to be shown gives them a better chance of preparing their home to make sure it shows well.  Unfortunately, not all buyers give their Realtors 48 hours notice that they want to see your home, it is better to ask for a reasonable amount of time to prepare than possibly lose that buyer. 

Tip: When potential buyers are viewing your home whether it is a private viewing, or an open house do not follow them around.  Often times buyers will feel as if they are intruding on the homeowners by being there, you want to give them space to take it all in! 

Condition

• First thing you should do is look at  your pictures, if you took pictures before the spring flowers and grass became green you should ask your Realtor to update your pictures.  Remember you need to sell the house first via the pictures to get the buyers to want to come and see it in person.  
• Spruce up your curb appeal, give the front door a fresh coat of paint or add some solar lights and plants.  Buyers spend their weekends driving around looking for open houses, even if your home is not having one you still want to catch their attention!  
• If you have broken screens/doors/cabinets/tiles take the time the time and replace them if it is not a huge expense those are the things that make buyers look at your home and think of "projects" although they have quick fixes.  

Myth: Many homeowners think fixing up your home is a waste of time and money when you are attempting to sell it. Now this is only somewhat of a myth, doing major renovations may not be the best idea, but doing small projects to fix or update your home is normally recommended to help your homes chance.  

Tip: Take the time to look at your home objectively, remember although you can not make every buyer happy you can help the chances of your home selling quickly by doing some small projects.  The best place to start is by doing all those things that were on your "honey do list" that you hadn't had time to get to! 

There are so many different factors that come into play when getting your home sold, but these are the top 3 that are the most important ! Over the next few weeks I will be blogging more about some tips for sellers, but as always if you have a question I did not cover please feel free to comment or email me directly!