Selling a home can be a daunting process – so USDRE has made this article to discuss the top 9 tips for home sellers! These real estate tips for sellers will give you a great guide to selling your home. These tips for selling your home will help you learn how to get your house ready to sell in a week to 30 days. As real estate tips for buyers and sellers it can serve as your home selling process checklist.
It’s simply a great set of home selling tips!
Planning
Let’s take a closer look at this and plan this out together. Getting all of these details right up front is going to be massively powerful. There are six things that you want to consider. The first thing is if you are going to sell your home on your own or not. Secondly, you want to determine when you’re going to list your house. The third part of the plan is setting the price and how to do so. Fourthly is selecting what you’re going to keep from the home. Some larger items you may want to leave for the new owners. Number five is if you going to do home staging. If so, are you going to do traditional home staging or do virtual staging?
Top Tips for Home Sellers
The first of the top 9 tips for home sellers is finding a real estate advisor if you choose. A seller’s agent if you will. Obviously a real estate agent is going to be able to help you plan out the timing, pricing, and strategy. It’s honestly easier to sell your home with an agent. They do this all the time and have knowledge of the market. There’s a lot of paperwork and laws to know about when selling a home. To find a trusted real estate advisor, go to USDRE! Googling agents gives you very little feedback about them. And the “top” ones you’ll find are the ones that paid the most to be in the top. USDRE allows you to immediately see an agent’s reviews from across the web and completely unbiased. A real estate tip for sellers in 2020 should included USDRE searches.
Timing is everything. When we consider putting a home on the market, timing makes a huge difference. We need to consider the best time of year to sell. Different states have different ways of looking at this. Some would say the best time might be in the winter months. Well if you’re in a snow-clad state, is that really the best time? It could be and that’s kind of shocking! Some people want a winter wonderland experience. Or they just want to know what to expect in the colder months. Sometimes the best wisdom is actually counterintuitive to conventional wisdom. The best way to know this for sure is to meet with a seller’s agent. They can show you the metrics and plan accordingly. Doing this will ensure that you sell your home and get the best price possible.
Pricing your home
Setting a realistic price. Be open to negotiating a little bit. No one’s going to ask you to give your house away. Some people think that if they list high they’re leaving room for negotiating. Here’s the problem with that logic… A lot of buyers are looking for something in their own price range. If your home is price well over its value, many buyers will expect that you’re unwilling to be realistic. Pricing your home correctly is what serious buyers will look for. Now when it comes into being a serious home buyer, you don’t want to entertain too high of a price. You want to look for the homes that are priced right; fair market value. So plan out and set a realistic price for your home working with your agent.
Now there are a lot of things to think about when it comes to what you should leave behind. You certainly shouldn’t plan to strip the house of all its fixtures and door knobs. We all get attached to certain things… Maybe you bought certain accents and just can’t let them go. No problem! Just replace them with something else. Be sure to do this before any staging or photoshoots take place. I had one client with a large antique cabinet they bought for their guest bath. It just happen to fit in the space perfectly and provided the only storage in the room. It was nearly two grand so when they sold their home they simply negotiated the piece in to the price. A portion of the cabinet cost was added on to the selling price and worked well for everyone!
Staging Options
Talk about your home staging options. Home staging can be expensive but worth it. If you aren’t on a time frame, you can leave your home empty. You can do virtual staging as well but walk throughs won’t see that. It is good for generating interest before potential buyers come to take a look though. Home staging can cost a couple hundred dollars initially and be a little less in the following months. Stagers typically charge by the room. If you hire a stager, be sure to approve their ideas before the staging occurs. I’ve had clients get broken mirrors and dirty furniture so make sure you’re clear on what you want.
Prepare for visitors. It’s extremely important to realize that your home is about to be opened up for all to see. You will have a lot of foot traffic coming through. Kids are going to be running around like crazy. Keep your house clean and ready to show at all times. It is most ideal that you leave the house whenever the buyer is there. Potential buyers may feel uneasy speaking about their concerns in front of you. I’ve found it best to see the buyer and their agent inside. Just introduce yourself and tell them to take their time looking around. Take a walk or something and give them space to really feel comfortable in this home.
Attracting a buyer
How can you attract interest in your home? Your Realtor should be doing a lot for you in this aspect. That shouldn’t stop you from trying to get a buyer and/or checking your Realtor’s work. You’re working together, really. Obviously you’re paying them a commission to sell your house. They should be using part of that commission to market your home. A great agent will call your neighbors to see if there’s anyone that’s interested in moving into the community. There’s a lot of people that will love to live in the same community as their family members. These real estate tips for sellers include social media marketing. What kind of a home sellers guide would this be without it? Put ads, pictures, and videos on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Pinterest… Everywhere! And to protect your privacy, never give out the address, just the city and state.
Let’s talk about developing a relationship with your buyer. You do not want to be at odds with this person. Arguing about things, trivial or not will make your sale more difficult. But ask them a little about their life. Let them know your experience with the home. Try and relate to them as a buyer. These 2020 real estate tips for sellers are crucial because this person can easily look you up online. And you can look them up too! You want them to feel comfortable with you. To be able to ask you who you hired to work on something or other. This will make your transaction go smoother.
What’s Next?
Consider what’s next for you. Obviously, if you’re selling your home, you need to move to a new place. Is it going to be a rental? Are you buying a new home? Moving out of state? If you’re going to buy a new home, you’ll also need to be take a look at the home buying process. Even if you’ve bought before you’ll probably need a refresher. Can your listing agent also be your buyer’s agent? Or maybe you have the benefit of being able to buy first and sell later. That would allow you more flexibility in selling. But not everyone can do that and that’s okay. Make sure that you plan this out and put all your ducks in a row so you’ll be ready.
That concludes our home selling tips for 2020! We hope you’ve enjoyed this home selling process checklist and share it with any potential sellers you know. This home buying guide is an easy way to get the process started, even before you start!
What questions should you ask your listing agent? >>
You can search for Agents by NAME or by ZIP CODE using the form below
Visit www.USDRE.com to get hooked up with a real estate agent that will work with you on a personal level and find what you’re looking for!
To find a real estate agent that can help you, click below to search in your area.