Tips for First-Time Home Sellers
Selling your home can be very confusing, especially if it is your first time going through the home selling process. To help avoid confusion and making major mistakes, here are seven tips for first-time home sellers to help ensure your home selling experience goes right.
Know Where you are Going
Before listing your home make sure you are prepared for where you will be moving. It can be very expensive to move multiple times. Talk with your agent and get pre-approved for your mortgage beforehand. If you find a home that you love, it is common to have a contingency in your agreement for the sale of your home.
Move-In Ready
Most buyers want to buy their home and start living in it immediately. If they are willing to do updates, they will deduct the time and money spent on these needed updates off of their offering price. In order to avoid this – and to get the most for your home – do these updates on your own for a fraction of the price. Give the home a facelift on the inside and outside. Adding a fresh coat of paint, cleaning up the landscape and fixing broken or leaking appliances can go a long way.
Find An Agent to Help You
Real estate agents play an important role in the sale of your home. Good agents understand how to sell homes quickly, are good negotiators and understand what you need to do to sell your home for the right price. They will be able to help guide you through the process, so make sure you pick the right one. Look online, ask around and interview agents who have sold homes in your area.
Pricing Your Home
From the beginning, you want to make sure your home is priced right in order to sell it fast. If your home is listed for too much it will stay on the market for too long, making your home look less desirable and ultimately resulting in your having to lower the price.
Showcasing Your Home
Marketing your home is one of the most important things your agent will be able to do. Not only should he/she be putting your home on the Internet, but also he/she should have a marketing plan that will bring in even more people to see your home. This could include hosting open houses or creating advertisements. In order to showcase your home correctly you will need to take great pictures of your home, which demonstrate all the positive elements your home has to offer.
Making the Home Available
Make sure you are flexible on the times that people can see your home. By being flexible, more people will be seeing your home. If you restrict the times available to view, potential buyers may move on to find another home that they can buy.
Knowing What You Want
Deciding on the offer you are willing to accept, the improvements you are willing the make and how quickly you are willing to close beforehand will help you when it comes to closing. You will be able to turn down offers that don’t meet these criteria more confidently.
The home selling process can be a drawn out event if you let it. Being prepared to sell your home allows you to sell it faster and for the right price. As first-time home sellers make sure you think through these steps so you are able to sell your home with less stress.