When selling your home, you have two goals: you want to sell it fast and sell it for top dollar. While both are absolutely achievable, selling a house can be stressful, especially if this is your first time. Getting a good real estate agent is a big help, but if you want to know how to get top dollar for your home, it pays to do your own research too.
In an ideal world, you would be able to sell your home fast and at the price you’ve listed it for. How do you make this a reality? Check out these tips to help you out.
Before you make any improvements and repairs on your property, contact a realtor, or devise an advertising and marketing plan, you should start by losing your emotional attachment to your house.
This is probably the toughest step, especially if the house has sentimental value. However, if you want to proceed with the sale, you should no longer see your house as your home, rather you should look at it as your product.
It is tough to leverage any commodity unless you are ready to approach the transaction without emotional attachment. While selling your home might mean leaving somewhere that has many special memories, emotional attachment can become a huge barrier to your success.
By getting rid of your emotion, you are preparing to make objective decisions that support your end goals.
Clear out all your clutter and remove personal items from your home. Get a storage unit, if needed.
This is another hard part, and will definitely require some time and work to remove all the stuff you have accumulated throughout the years. However, you want your potential buyers to picture themselves living in your house. Most buyers like to see someone else’s furniture and clutter that makes the space look cramped, disorganized, and small.
Clear out all the rooms to make them look bigger. Clear out the attic, basement, and organize the pantries, closets, and storage areas. Should you decide to keep a lot of your stuff, invest in a storage unit, they aren’t that expensive.
Decluttering is also a great opportunity to streamline your life.
A home inspection isn’t there just for due diligence – it gives you leverage. If you’re selling your property in a buyer’s market, then having your home inspected and fixed gives you good leverage to negotiate.
Repairing and replacing damaged and defective areas may sound daunting, but any issues you have in your home will be eventually discovered by the buyer. The last thing you want is to have your price pulled lower due to problems you could have easily solved.
Fix the obvious problems, such as the rotten wood, peeling paint, carpet stains, leaky pipes, dripping faucets, broken windows, faulty switches, broken lights, termites in the attic and basement, and damages in the crawl space. If you aren’t handy, then get a home inspection and have the whole thing fixed by professionals.
Do not hide any potential shortcomings and problems with your property. Each house has its own strengths and weaknesses, best assets, and aspects that need improvement. Work on these things with your agent.
No need to trick potential buyers when describing the property on your listing. While you want to attract attention to your listing, your description must be concise and honest. You are only setting up the buyer for a huge disappointment if their expectations are heightened based on what you’ve written on the property listing.
Focus on emphasizing the positive aspects of your property, such as the location, size and number of bedrooms, baths, etc.
Nothing kills interest in a real estate property faster than overpricing. So get rid of your pride and price your property close to fair market value.
Yes, you want top dollar from your home, and that’s the point of this guide. However, you have to be realistic and fair in your listing price. Besides, you don’t want your property to sit on the market for a long time because that will only drag its price down, the exact opposite of what you want.
This is where having a good realtor helps – he/she can guide you through the process and help you come up with the right price based on the market value of your property. This is not to say you don’t have a say in the price, either.
The idea is to set a price that will motivate buyers to come to your door quickly. Price your property too high and you will never get any people for your showings.
Also, if you are determined to put a premium price on the home, then your home should be of premium quality. Meaning it should be in the best condition possible.
Transform your house into a welcoming place where potential buyers don’t want to leave without giving you an offer. While it may seem intrusive to have people you don’t know view your home, you have one chance to make a good impression.
Impress them with curb appeal, freshen up the landscape, and invest in gorgeous staging. Tidy everything up and make the place feel warm and inviting.
Also, take a page from the hospitality industry’s book – make potential buyers’ experience worthwhile. Simulate their senses by turning on soft music, lighting some candles, using some clean, sweet, and appetizing essential oil scent, thoughtful decor, fluffed pillows, and overall gorgeous aesthetic appeal. You can also prepare cookies and drinks. It may sound cliché but the saying “first impressions last” couldn’t be more applicable here.
Also, realize that your property has a certain appeal to a particular demographic. Understand this so you can market your property better to its target buyer (such as families or singles).
You can do everything to improve the appeal and looks of your property, but without a good agent, your chances of finding good offers from multiple potential buyers will be close to zero.
If you want to know how to get top dollar for your home, you need to work with a good real estate agent.
A real estate agent will dedicate their time and effort to guide you through the process, help you market your property, accommodate potential buyers, and negotiate deals in your favor.
When choosing an agent, make sure you check out their credentials, years of experience, and reviews from previous clients. Ask for recommendations from people you know, from family members, friends, or colleagues. Choose a listing agent who is aggressive in making and closing out deals.