Top Tips for Selling Home in 2017!
April 10, 2017 4:00 pmAre you ready for selling your home this year? Selling home can be a stressful experience, but there are some ways in which you can make things run a lot smoother. Here are some tops tips to help you go about the process in the right way.
Tip #1 – Improve Your Curb Appeal
Nothing is more important than the first impression. So consider what a potential home buyer may think as he or she drives up to your property for the very first time.
Walk out into your street and look at your home to see its shortcomings. Is it attractive, clean, and well-kept, or does it need maintenance that you’ve been putting off?
When your home is on the market, it’s critical that your landscaping is well-groomed and your lawn is mowed 24/7. Plus, cleaning your driveway, exterior porches, and exterior walls is also the good way for selling home.
If you put money into cleaning up the outside of your home, it’s guarantee that buyers will be more likely to take a tour of the inside. Curb appeal is what draws buyers in, helps maintain their interest, and sets your home apart from the competition.
Remember that unless you’re willing to discount a home’s price well below market value, prospective homebuyers generally won’t want to buy a house that needs a lot of work.
Tip #2: Make Upgrades
So how much should you spend on upgrading before selling home? Well, remember that the return on investment, or ROI, on home improvements is generally less than 100%.
Let’s say your home is worth approximately $200,000, and you spend $30,000 to remodel the kitchen. Many people mistakenly believe that the home is now worth $230,000. That’s dead wrong. While a remodel certainly adds some value, it’s like buying a new car that depreciates in value the moment you drive it off the dealer’s lot.
So, just making some small but truly necessary upgrades, like replacing the kitchen sink faucet or updating an old water heater. If you have a sorely outdated kitchen or bathroom, you’ll generally come out ahead by discounting the asking price, so a buyer can choose their own finishes.
The vast majority of buyers make a purchase offer that’s contingent upon receiving a satisfactory report from a certified home inspector. Why? Well, most home lenders require it, and also may require additional inspections–such as a termite report–depending on the state where you live.
If you don’t address needed repairs, you risk a potential buyer walking away when problems turn up on a home inspector’s report. Depending on the wording of your contract, the buyer could walk away, or require you to complete the necessary repairs within a certain period of time, in order to go through with the purchase.
Tip #3: Depersonalize Your Home
After you improve your curb appeal and make necessary upgrades and repairs, it is show time, baby!
The best way to get your home ready to show prospective buyers is to depersonalize it by removing family photos, quirky art and collectibles, and vibrant paint colors. Make your home like a clean, welcoming, blank canvas that any buyer can visually paint their own dreams upon.
Don’t take it personally, but no one likes your pet accessories, over-stuffed closets, movie collections, and clutter, except you. Simplify and neutralize your home as if it were a model home because that’s exactly what it is while it’s on the market.
Tip #4: Price Your Property Competitively
Choosing the right listing price is one of the most important tips for selling home quickly. If your home is priced too low, you’ll obviously leave money on the table, and if it’s too high, you’ll get few offers and watch it get stale on the market.
After a home sits on the market for an extended period of time, many people will assume that it hasn’t sold because something is wrong with it. Agents and buyers may mistakenly assume that an old listing can’t pass inspections, or that it has a poor interior layout.
So, don’t let your home become a stale listing because it’s overpriced.
Tip #5: Hire a Professional Photographer
Most homebuyers start looking for a property online or in local home magazines. That means you need to have great images that accentuate your home’s best features and selling points.
After you’ve improved curb appeal, made necessary upgrades, and depersonalized the interior spaces, consider hiring a professional photographer to take high-quality images, in the best light.
Tip #6: Choose the Right Time to Sell
Historically, spring is the most popular home-buying season. The weather is good, and families with kids can make a smooth transition during the upcoming summer break. So while serious home buyers will shop year-round, consider having your property spruced up and ready to sell by March or April.
Tip #7: Dealing with estate agents
Choosing the right estate agent is also an important part of the process, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the highest estimate is always the best option. Over-estimating a property is a standard estate agent method for attracting sellers, even if it doesn’t necessarily align with their expectations. Instead, try to find an agent that is well established in your area, makes a good personal connection with you, and if possible, one that has successfully sold properties in your local area before. Also, don’t feel tied to the agent that you’re buying from when it comes to selling – go with what’s best for you.
To minimize expenditure, it is a good idea to allow a sole agent to operate for a month to see if they can achieve results before you seek out further help. Not only does this mean you spare yourself the fees of multiple agents, but it also gives a clear incentive to the agency that you’ve selected to get things moving quickly.
So there you have it – the top tips for selling home! Selling your home isn’t always easy, but there are some simple steps you can follow to maximize your chances of a successful sale.
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