Facts You Need to Know About Selling a Home – Real Estate Directory – Real Estate Agent Reviews

There are a lot of facts you need to know about selling a home. We want to talk about 20 facts that are important to consider when selling your house. This includes what you need to know when selling a house ‘by owner’ or with a Realtor. If you’re telling an agent, “We want to sell our house!” they immediately perk up. They should talk about how to get your house ready to sell. And even provide a checklist for selling a house.

When you’re ready to sell your house, you want to be confident in your listing agent and in yourself.

Facts About Selling a Home

The first of the facts you need to know is to be familiar with your local real estate market. Selling a home requires you to know the trends and the conditions in the market. Now you might be wondering why you need to be familiar with these things. Shouldn’t your listing agent know all this? Yes, but knowing what you need to sell your house is important as well. This is because you simply can’t just leave it to someone else. If the cashier at a store tells you your potatoes and canned soup are $50… Well, you know enough addition to know they’re wrong. Knowledge is power.

The second hard truth is that a decluttered, depersonalized and clean home sells. This is one of the major things to consider when selling your house. The house should smell clean. That doesn’t mean douse it in perfume. Open the windows and let some fresh air in. A lot of people say to bake cookies but what if you have a buyer that’s headed to lunch? It could make them hungry and want to rush. Or maybe that makes the house smell sickly sweet… You want to sell your house so make sure it’s clean and simply decorated. This will really help to get you an offer.

Sales Tactics

The third reality is that pricing your home right from the beginning is critically important. This is what to know when selling a house by owner that a lot of people don’t realize. Of course you want to make a profit but that does not mean you should price gouge. Now, this is different than negotiating a higher price. Pricing at fair market value is on the checklist for selling a house. This will allow the right buyer to see the house and not move on thinking it’s not in their range. How to get your house ready to sell includes a fair pricing model. What to know when selling your house without a Realtor means you need to take heed of pricing strategies. You most certainly don’t want to underprice your home either. There’s a whole strategy to this, Folks!

The fourth point is that selling your house can be a little inconvenient at times. Because you’re going to have people come into your house, know you may be inconvenienced. You need to open up the showings window as wide as possible. Selling a house without a Realtor means that scheduling all falls on you. The buyers agent can be helpful as well so long as you’re comfortable letting them in without you. Get yourself a lock box to store the spare key and stay attentive your calls, texts, and emails. There is a lot to know when selling a house by owner. Don’t get too worried about people walking through your house either. As long as they are qualified buyers, their agent should have all their info.

To Repair or Not to Repair?

The fifth thing you need to know about selling a home is that you need to make repairs. By not making repairs it’s going to cost you more money than the repair itself. And that’s because a buyer goes into your home and sees everything. They’ve never been there before so they see details that you may not. That part of ceiling you never repaired… The water leak damage that happened years ago. And then of course you have to disclose anything you know about. The appraisers should make sure both parties know as well. So what happens when you don’t make the repairs? Your buyer will hire a pricey repair person, knowing you’ll have to come down on the sale price. This is one of the facts you need to know about selling. You want to be the one dictating the cost. Sure, you could say ‘no sale’ but you can’t say that to everyone. Just get the repairs done yourself so it’s a done deal.

The sixth thing to consider when selling your house is that overpricing it will help your neighbors sell theirs. Because a lot of neighborhoods have homes with similar floor plans, pricing is usually similar as well. Yes, if you have made significant upgrades, you can sell your house for more. But if you haven’t and still want to price high, one of your neighbors can take advantage of that. And a buyer’s agent may as well. Here’s two homes within a half mile of one another and one is priced 5 or 10% higher than the other. You do the math!

Negotiate Wisely

The seventh thing to know to sell your house is that buyers love to renegotiate after a home inspection. This goes back to what we touched on about big issues out of something small. Because of this you want to get that pre-inspection done. You can’t fault the buyers either… If you don’t ask you don’t get so be ready to negotiate several times over. And, again, have fun with it. If a buyer is asking for something extra thrown in, consider it. They’re getting ready to make a major purchase and when they see the repairs that need to be done… They’re thinking of all the money already being spent. If you spend a few hundred dollars up front with the home pre-inspection you’ll save a lot of time. This will allow the fun negotiating to take place instead of squabbling over big numbers.

The eighth fact is that you need to be prepared to answer questions. This is all about how to get your house ready to sell. Buyers may ask about when things were replaced, bought, or painted. Have your paperwork and receipts available. I’d like to give you a case in point here… I knew someone that bought a house and loved the wood work details. The work had been done seven years earlier and they showed an interest in upgrading some other rooms. But they wanted the same style. Instead of the seller saying, “Well, good luck with that!” they busted out their paperwork from the person they had do the work that the buyers already liked. And it actually made the sale easier because the buyer felt supported by the seller. They still asked questions and the seller was happy to disclose any info they needed.

What invigorates you?

The next thing to think about is the way your home smells. We already talked about this in regards to having it cleaned and not smelling bad. But if you’re telling yourself, “We want to sell our house” you need a strategy to make it work. Did you know that scent branding is an actual thing? Different scents can have an effect on buyers decisions on buying and spending. This application of scent in home and even on your person when you meet a buyer is a great strategy. It’s subtle and not in any way influencing someone to make the wrong decision.

Think about your own reaction when getting in to a new car. Most people have sat in a new car several times in their life and it tends to smell the same. And it starts reminding you of that feeling of buying a new car. So, this fact you need to know is that citrus scents help sell. Simple citrus scents work to make a person feel somewhat invigorated. Citrus is typically loved by most people as well so that’s our go to advice!

The tenth thing to know when selling your house by owner is that cash is not always king. If someone wants you to drop the price of the house by 15% because they’re paying cash… You don’t have to take it. You still have to pay taxes on the amount transferred to you. Also, you still have to do your appraisal and disclosures. Are you really gaining anything by taking cash? There’s a few differences when getting a buyer with an approved loan. But ultimately, is it worth a 10 or 15% loss on your house?