RISMEDIA, September 4, 2010—Selling your home doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. The following tips, provided by the American Homeowners Foundation and the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance will help you prepare your home to be put on the market and end in a successful sale.
Tip 1: In strong markets, where demand outstrips supply, home sellers can hold out for top dollar. In weak markets the reverse is true – there are many homes on the market and unless you price your home very competitively, you’ll be unlikely to attract any buyers. Whatever the current market conditions, you will be most likely to get the highest possible price if you are willing to take the time to understand each of the components of a successful home sales campaign so you can assure that you, or a real estate service provider who may be assisting you, are doing everything possible to maximize the effectiveness of the home marketing effort.
Tip 2: A good time to sell is during a period of low mortgage interest rates, because with lower interest rates, more buyers will be qualified to buy your home. Low rates benefit buyers and sellers alike, and if you plan to purchase another home after selling yours, you will be both a seller and a buyer. A sellers market, where there are more buyers than homes available for sale is also helpful. However, if you plan to purchase another home in the same area after selling yours, this competitive advantage will work against you when you become a buyer. The same principle applies in a buyers market—if you plan to purchase another home in the same area after selling yours, it makes little difference in the end whether it’s a buyers or sellers market.
Tip 3: Make your home look as nice as it can before putting it on the market. Have a presale yard sale and get rid of as much clutter as possible. Keep only a minimal amount of furniture in each room–it will make the room look bigger and be sure to store any extra furniture. Clean up and repaint with neutral colors if necessary. Open blinds and replace light bulbs with brighter substitutes. If important parts of your home are outdated, consider cost effective updates. If your kitchen or bath is old or in bad shape, a prudent remodel can often return over 100% of the investment and help you sell the home faster. Be sure you don’t over improve—there’s not much point in adding a fourth bathroom to a home that is already worth more than most of the others in the neighborhood.
Tip 4: More money hangs in the balance in the selling of your home than in most financial transactions in your life. It therefore makes sense to learn as much as you can about selling your home. No matter whether you’re a self seller, or have an agent, you need to learn enough to be in command of the process. There are many excellent books on the subject in libraries and bookstores. The real estate sections of local newspapers are great sources of information about your local marketplace. The difference between understanding the process as well as your local market, versus not understanding it, can be many thousands of dollars in the eventual selling price.
Tip 5: Decide whether to use a full service real estate broker/agent or sell the home yourself. Average full service real estate commission rates have dropped to a little more than 5%, but that’s still a lot of money. If you have the skills, time and resources, you may be able net more money by selling your home without a full service broker/agent. In many states, some discount brokers will put your home in the local multiple listing service (MLS) for a few hundred dollars, and they may also have a menu of individually priced additional services. A full service broker/agent may be a smarter choice when you are in a buyers market if you don’t have the experience or the time to learn about the process and your local market. The same applies if you don’t have the time to do all the things necessary to market your home effectively, if you are on a deadline to sell, or if you don’t have an instinctive eye toward advertising, marketing and negotiating.
Courtesy of the American Homeowners Foundation and the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance, www.AmericanHomeowners.org.
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