To Get Your Home SOLD FAST and for Top Dollar
Selling your home is one of the most important steps in your life. This 9 step system will give you the tools you need to maximize your profits, maintain control, and reduce the stress that comes with the home-selling process.
The reasons behind your decision to sell affect everything from setting a price to deciding how much time and money to invest in getting your home ready for sale. What's more important to you: the money you walk away with, the length of time your property is on the market, or both? Different goals will dictate different strategies.
However, don't reveal your motivation to anyone else or they may use it against you at the negotiating table. When asked, simply say your housing needs have changed.
Settling on the asking price should not be done lightly. Once you have set your price, you have told buyers the absolute maximum they have to pay for your home, but pricing to high is as dangerous as pricing to low. This is a great reason to have a Realtor complete a market analysis on your home. Remember that the average buyer is looking at 8-10 homes at the same time they are looking at yours. This means that they have a basis of comparison, and if your home doesn't compare favorably with others in the price range you've set, you will not be taken seriously. As a result, your home will sit on the market for a long time, and with this knowledge new buyers in the market will think there must be something wrong with your home.
(In fact, your agent should do this for you). Find out what homes in the neighborhood similar to yours have sold in the last 6-12 months, and research what current homes are listed for. That's certainly how prospective buyers will access the worth of your home.
Each year, corporate america spends billions on product and packaging design. Appearance is critical, and it would be foolish to ignore this when selling your home. You may not be able to change your floor plan or location, but you can do a lot to improve it's appearance. The look and feel of your home generates a greater emotional response than any other factor. Before showings, clean like you've never cleaned before. Pick-up, straighten, un-clutter, scrub, scour and dust. Fix everything, no matter how insignificant it may appear. Present your home to get a "wow" response from buyers.
You may be surprised to know that some marketing tools that most agents use to sell homes (ex. Traditional Open Houses) are actually not very effective. In fact only 1% of homes are sold at an open house. Furthermore, the prospects calling for information about your home probably value their time as much as you do. The last thing they want is to be subjected to is either a game of telephone tag with an agent or an unwanted sales pitch.
Make sure the ads your agent places for your home are attached to a 24 hour pre-recorded hotline with a specific ID# for your home, which gives buyers access to detailed information about your property day or night 7 days a week without having to talk to anyone. It's been proven that 3 times as many buyers call for information under this system.
In the negotiation process, your objective is to control the pace and set the duration. What is your buyers motivation? Does he/she need to move quickly? Does he/she have enough money to pay your asking price? Knowing this information gives you the upper hand in the negotiation process because you know how far you can push to get what you want.
For your part as a seller, make sure you disclose everything. Smart sellers proactively go above and beyond the laws to disclose all known defects to their buyers in writing. If the buyer knows about a problem, he/she can't come back with a lawsuit later on.
Make sure all terms, costs and responsibilities are spelled out in the contract of sale and resist the temptation to diverge from the contract. For example, if the buyer request to move in prior to closing, just say know. Now is not the time to take any chances of the deal falling through.
Studies have shown it is more difficult to sell a home that is vacant because it looks forlorn, forgotten, simply not appealing. It could even cost you thousands. If you move, you are also telling buyers that you have a new home and are probably highly motivated to sell fast. This, of course, will give them an advantage at the negotiating table.
Surely you didn't think we would leave this one out. Call us today at (423) 307-8566 we happen to know a few!
