How to Sell Your Home
Selling your home can be challenging, especially if you’re a first-time seller. That’s where we come in. Our team will help you get your property and all that’s involved during a sale ready at just the right time.
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Selling your home can be surprisingly time-consuming and emotionally challenging, especially if you’ve never done it. In addition, it may feel like an invasion of privacy because strangers will come into your home, open your closets and cabinets, and poke around. With no experience and a complex, emotional transaction on your hands, it’s easy for first-time home sellers to make plenty of mistakes. However, with some know-how, you can avoid many of these pitfalls.
Here are some of the steps you can take:
Set a timeline for selling your home
Selling a house can take two to four months from start to finish, depending on local market conditions and the level of inventory available.
Consider getting a pre-sale home inspection to identify any problems at least two or three months before you plan to list your house. If necessary, leave enough time for structural or mechanical repairs that might be required. Leave enough time to schedule necessary repairs.
About a month before listing your house, start working on staging and deep cleaning in preparation for taking photos. Consider hiring a professional staging company or do it yourself with the right interior design ideas.
Here’s a checklist of things to do before listing your home:
- Declutter, perhaps moving excess items to a storage unit.
- Get an optional home inspection to identify any issues.
- Schedule repairs if needed.
- Deep clean.
- Stage the house.
- Have professional photos taken
Research the best time to sell in your area.
Local markets vary and can be determined by if there are more buyers than homes available or not; this will give sellers negotiating power when trying to get top dollar from potential buyers. If you have flexibility in your timing, you might consider waiting for a seller’s market.
Find out your home’s worth and set a realistic price.
A seller’s greatest mistake is often overpricing her home. Keep your price in line with sold homes identified in a comparative market analysis report. Consider whether your market is hot, cold, or neutral, and price the house accordingly.
Complete home improvements
Preparing to sell your home typically takes some work, whether that’s your sweat equity or professional improvements. After all, you want buyers to fall in love with your home, as you did when you first bought it. So spend some time getting your home move-in ready in a way that will appeal to the broadest range of potential buyers.
Show Your Home
You’ll get more showings if you let agents use a lockbox or keypad to show your home rather than force them to make appointments. If you are opting for appointments, try to be flexible. Some buyers want to see the home on weeknights (after work) and all weekend. Be as accommodating as possible.
Work with an Experienced Real Estate Agent
Team up with a real estate agent to sell your home and ensure the process goes smoothly. An experienced real estate agency like ours will help you prepare and stage your home so that it meets all of those “sold” criteria, showcasing its strengths and fixing any weaknesses. We can expose your house to the broadest audience and negotiate on your behalf to garner the best offers possible.
Gather necessary paperwork
There’s lots of paperwork needed to document a home sale properly. Organize it all in one place to help things go more quickly. Some of the primary documents you’ll need to gather are:
- Your home’s original purchase contract
- Property survey, certificate of occupancy, and certificates of compliance with local codes
- Mortgage documents
- Tax records
- An appraisal from your home purchase
- Homeowners Insurance
- Home inspection report, if you had one
The bottom line is…
Selling a home can be emotional and stressful for first-time sellers since you probably have an emotional connection to your home — and because it’s likely your biggest investment. On the other hand, perhaps you’re thinking about selling your home because you need more space, you’re ready to downsize, or you’re relocating for school or employment reasons. Whatever your reason, it’s essential to be prepared for the sale process.
