Selling Your House?

Selling your house can be overwhelming to say the least. There are many reasons why home owners need or want to sell their homes. No matter what the scenario is, there are always a couple facts that stay true. What is my house worth and how much can I sell my house for? Yes, these are extremely important questions to ask yourself and your real estate professional but this is just a start to the home selling process. Furthermore, there are many questions to factor in when it comes to selling your house. If you are currently selling your house or are planning to sell your home in the future, make sure to implement these 8 crucial steps.

1. Take into consideration that every housing market is unique
2. Get your home inspection done early
3. Fix whats broken
4. Go green and go clean
5. Sell first, then buy
6. Never just "test" the market
7. Market your home instead of just listing it
8. Negotiate a selling price and deadline to sell

Selling Your House In a Competitive Market

First of all, curb appeal is a huge benefit when selling your house in a competitive market. Even if you are planning on purchasing a home for investment purposes, curb appeal is still very important. Therefore, I can't stress enough the value of having great curb appeal when it comes to selling your house. It sounds easy but many people that try to sell their home forget the importance of great curb appeal. Think about it, if your home looks inviting then potential buyers and real estate professionals will probably want to take a look. If the home doesn't look inviting then it will be most likely not gain any interest from the potential buyers you are targeting. Here are some quick and easy tips to help gain some curb appeal:

1. Fresh coat of paint
2. Trim trees & hedges
3. Cut the grass (if applicable)
4. Make sure pool area is clean & inviting (if applicable)
5. Make sure doors and windows are clean
6. Check if everything is in working condition (door bells, lights, locks etc.)

Yes, this certainly could add some extra expenses and dip into your budget but the exterior of home is the first thing potential buyers will see. You know what they say about first impressions right?

Benefits of Getting Your Home Inspected In The Early Stages

Almost every home seller has a different opinion on whether or not to get the home inspection done in the early stages of the home selling process. My opinion is why not get it out of the way early? Again, if budget is an issue it is understandable. Think about it this way. Having the home inspected early will help determine if there are any minor or major issues that needs to be fixed. First of all, potential buyers will most likely pay for an inspection if they are serious about buying the home. As a result, the problem for the seller is that the buyer will know more about potential problems of the subject home than the seller will. Now the buyer has leverage when it comes to negotiating the selling price of the home. Wouldn't it be nice to counter with your current home inspection and say "here's proof those items were repaired."

Fix Whats Broken

One of the myths to selling your house is that a friend or family member recently sold their home at such and such price. The subject home that sold has the same amount of bedrooms and bathrooms and roughly the same amount of square footage. Difference was the home was located in a different neighborhood, city, and has been fully upgraded. Naturally, the seller of the home assumes that their home should be sold for relatively the same price. Believe it or not, in many cases that is far from the truth. The subject home could be worth less or even more.   Here's why... The family or friends home sold for $300,000. It has the same amount of bedrooms and bathrooms and roughly the same amount of square footage. The subject home is almost exactly the same. Difference was the home was located in a different neighborhood, city, and has been fully upgraded. Since all neighborhoods are unique, selling prices will differ in each housing market. This is why it is so beneficial to hire a real estate professional that has experience in the local market to determine what the home should be sold at. The real estate professional will perform a Comparative Marketing Analysis (CMA) to find out what the relative properties in your neighborhood sold for in the past. We will get more into this when we discuss the negotiating a selling price area located below.

Go Green and Go Clean

In terms of going green, energy efficient homes are becoming more of a must have rather than a trend. Having energy efficient appliances, air condition units, and even windows can not only help you with selling your home fast but also improve the value. This doesn't mean to go out and spend tons of money just for someone else to enjoy. It's just an added bonus if the seller of the home is having trouble selling their home. Like we discussed earlier, curb appeal is a huge benefit for the exterior of the home. Well, the same goes for the interior as well. The last thing a seller wants is for a potential buyer to view a filthy home. Remember, you want the potential buyers to picture themselves living in your home. Here are some tips to help with curb appeal of the interior of the home:

1. Patch and repair any damaged drywalls
2. Paint interior of home
3. Remove any pictures of family
4. Clean and declutter all rooms
5. Clean & organize the closets

We all know what it's like when we finish up our weekly cleaning our own homes. Needless to say, there is nothing like walking into a clean and spotless home.

Never just "test" the Market

When it comes to selling your house, the owner of the home wants to get a maximum return on investment. The main goal is to receive the highest and best offer on the home. No one can disagree with that right? Since the real estate market is very competitive, it's not a wise choice to just test the market. Listing the home at the highest price doesn't mean that the home will sell for that set price. In fact, this strategy can and will backfire on you and this is what happens:

• the seller will not receive any offers but the neighboring homes will
• seller of the home loses credibility & wont be taken seriously
• the home gets "stale" (unappealing)
• wastes invaluable time during the peak time to sell
• buyers won't even see the home listed for sale

My advice would be this. The seller of the home makes the ultimate decision. I suggest coming to an agreement with your real estate professional on the what the price of the home should be sold. Personally, I would recommend this to the seller of the home. Mr. & Mrs Home seller, lets list the home at the price you are requesting. If we have no offers or showing requests then we can lower the price. Does that seem fair? Honestly, both parties will realize if the selling price of the home is too much, too low, or priced right in no time at all.

• Selling price is to high equals no bids or offers.
• Price too low, more than enough offers but at an unreasonable amount.
• Priced just right equals strong offers that make it difficult for the seller of the home not to accept.

Market Your Home Instead of Just Listing it

This is my favorite part of the home selling process. When it comes to selling your house, marketing is one of the most important steps that will get sellers results! Reason being is because I have over 10 years of internet marketing experience. My main purpose was to create marketing campaigns for websites of professional companies and rank them on the top ten of the internet search engines. If you think the real estate market is competitive, try to get your website ranked in the top ten of the search engines with a highly competitive keyword. Every position or ranking in every search engine is actually digital real estate. The higher the search engine ranking the more traffic a website receives. Why shouldn't your home get the same amount of traffic as well? Yes, having the subject home listed on the MLS is extremely important. Why not leverage the both the MLS and add a little thing they call the internet to gain even more exposure? Personally, I like to think big. Having the subject home exposed locally is great but why stop there? What about listing the subject property nationally? Awesome right? But wait there's more. Finally, when selling your house, let's market the home globally so most of the potential buyers of the world can see it as well.

Negotiate a Selling Price and Deadline to Sell

Now we are reaching the final stages of our home selling journey. It's time to negotiate a selling price. Agreeing upon the selling price is just a start. The next step would be to set up a deadline or realistic expectations of selling your house. Setting up a deadline to sell is almost setting up a personal goal. Why set up a deadline?

• the seller could be relocating out of the area and needs the home to be sold before they can take on another mortgage.
• the property could be at risk of forclosure
• unforseen death of the primary provider
• unfortunate turn of events such as a divorce
• motivation for both real estate professional and seller

Hopefully by now, you have negotiated a strong selling price with your real estate professional. Now it is time to set a realistic expectation of how long it will take the home to be sold at the set price point. In my opinion, having a realistic deadline to sell the home is just as important as the selling price. Here is my reasoning behind setting up a realistic expectation to sell the home. As a real estate professional, deadlines and goals are extremely important.

Without goals and deadlines, there is no motivation to succeed.

In my experience as a real estate professional, and with my marketing expertise, I know that the numbers never lie. What does this have to do with setting up a deadline to sell your home? Simple. I have software programs that I use to dictate how long it will take a home to be sold in any given neighborhood and what price it should be sold at. I could spend hours describing the benefits of these programs but the main purpose here is to provide solid information to the seller to estimate how long it will take the home to sell. Thankfully, my background in internet marketing has made me a numbers guy. If the numbers tell me that the home will sell at such and such price within 3 months, I'll prove it with numbers. Not just verbally.

Selling Your Home Final Thoughts

These are just some of the ways to help when it comes to selling your house. Of coarse, this is just a small piece of the pie and there are many more steps in the home selling process. If you are thinking about selling your house in the future or you would like some helpful advice please feel free to reach out to me by filling out the contact form below. Response time may vary due to the holidays but please allow 24-48 hours to respond back to you. If you think this information was valuable to you please feel free to share it with your friends and family.