Selling Tips

Home Selling Tips

search the mls listingsBefore you call your realtor and put your home on the market there are a fwe important questions that you need to sit down and ask yourself and then answer truthfully.

First you need to ask do I really want to sell this home regardless of the housing market conditions and how much money I may or may not get offered.

Second you need to ask yourself truthfully is your home in optimum condition to show and sell, would you buy this home yourself or dows it need updating and or paint and floor covering etc before it is put on the market. Sometimes a small investment in sprucing up your home before it goes on the market can yield a bumper price in a short selling period.

And last but definitely not least you need to know your bottom line. Knowing your listing price is vital, you will need to sit down with an experienced real estate professional who knows your area and discuss the true market value of your home. If your realtor asks you what you want to list your home for look for another realtor, you need a real estate professional with knowledge of the market value of homes in your area who has gone to the trouble of checking out the recent sales within a mile of your home and also knows what homes similar to yours are listed for sale for. You need to know what your competition is selling for if you want to list your house to sell.

However knowing what you are going to list your home for is only half of the battle, you need to have a firm grasp on what you are willing to sell it for. You need to know your bottom line, how low are you willing to go to sell your home if the offers are not coming in.

In a hot real estate market a seller merely has to think of a high number, list their home and wait for the buyers to line up with offers and bid against each other for the home. However we are now fully immersed in a buyers market and as a seller it is of vital importance to have a firm bottom line before marketing a home. Neglecting to have a bottom line is a remedy for stress, anxiety and panic.

Remember that any house will sell if the price is right, imagine the worst home possible priced for a dollar, there will be a line of people fighting each other in the street to buy it. Selling a home comes down to price and visibility. If the dollar priced home is a secret and no one knows that it is for sale then it will remain unsold.

so depending on how badly you need to sell your home establish a listing price and a bottom line and let the world know that your house is for sale by:

  • Putting a sign in front of your home
  • Listing it on the local MLs
  • Advertising it on any free platform available to you like craigslist of backpage.

A word of warning on “real estate professionals”, a realtor is a real estate agent who pays a yearly fee to the national association of realtors, the fact that they have a pin that says that they are a realtor does not mean that they are a good, bad or indifferent real estate professional.

What you need in a real estate agent is:

  • Someone who works full time selling homes in your area. The last thing you need is to have to wait till your realtor finishes their shift at their other job to deal with an important issue relating to the sale of your home.
  • Someone who has a phone that they answer or at least get right back to you when you leave them a voice mail.
  • Someone who updates you weekly if not daily.
  • Someone who understands the difference between working to sell a home and working for a commission. The great agents, the ones who make huge incomes never ever think commission, they know that their primary and only concern is marketing and selling homes. The commissions will take care of them-self if they take care of the selling.
  • Lastly there are professional lister’s out there who feel that their job is done when they have gotten a home owner to sing an exclusive sales listing contract. They put the home on the MLS and wait for other realtors to show and sell the home while they move on to their next listing presentation.
  • You need a real estate professional who will not only list your home but also actively participate in the selling of your home.
  • You need a realtor who is ready willing and able to show your home at a moments notice to any realtor/real estate agent/broker/member of the public who wants to see your home