Selling your home can take a lot of time and drain you emotionally, especially if it’s your first time. It’s easy to make errors that cost you money, but with a little advice and preparation, we’re confident you can make an excellent return when you sell.
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Below are some ways to ensure you’re going to make out like a bandit when you sell your home.
Don’t Get Emotional
If you’ve lived there for years, it’s easy to get emotional about selling your house, especially if it’s your first. You spent tons of time and effort to find it, saved it for your down payment and enjoyed so many memories there. No wonder many of us struggle to check our emotions when we are listing the property.
It’s not as hard as you think. Once you decide to sell, think like a business and salesperson, not a homeowner. Look at the transaction as a simple financial one, and you’ll stop letting your emotions get the best of you.
Once you are in the right frame of mind, put some work into staging and doing some small upgrades to get the best price for your home. These small changes in appearance will help the price and make an emotional distance because your home will look different.
Hire An Agent
We know. Using a real estate agent will usually run you 5-6% of your sales price. But few people have the skill or experience in selling their home on their own. Count that double if you’ve never done it before. But does it pay to hire an agent?
If you hire a good one who knows your neighbor, the answer is usually yes. They know the area and will set a competitive and fair price for the property, boosting the odds of a fast sale. Your agent also can help you separate from the emotions of the selling process as they will work with buyers without you around.
An experienced agent also has years of experience negotiating sales prices, so you can probably get more money than you could alone. Real estate agents also know all the pitfalls and paperwork in these transactions and make it more likely the sale will go off without a hitch.
In some cases, like montebuyshouses.com in Garden Grove CA, they can even help you sell your house without having to spend a lot of money on repairs. You won’t have to worry about the condition of your house, the selling timeframe, and the legal paperwork.
Set a Reality-Based Price
Setting a realistic price is the critical factor. Buyers and their agents will perform a comparative marketing analysis of your home, so you should be a step ahead.
Remember that overpriced homes don’t sell in traditional markets. Many real estate agents say setting the price too high is the top mistake home sellers make.
Underpricing a home isn’t necessarily fatal because it can create a multiple-offer situation where buyers bid up the price.
Sell During the Summer
There is an ideal time to sell your home. For most markets, that’s in the summer when the kids are out of school. Buyers don’t have to take their kids out in the middle of the year, which is why a big chunk of home sales occur between June and August every year.
The worst time to sell in many markets is winter. People are more likely to stay home (and save their money for presents). There will be fewer buyers, and it could take longer to sell.
That said, there also won’t be as many sellers, so you may have less competition when the snow is falling.
Selling your home is the time to make good on your investment. If you follow these guidelines, we think that you’ll be thrilled with your final price at the closing table.
Interesting related article: “What is a Broker?“