Selling A Home Can Be Trying

Selling a home can be complex, emotional, stressful, and takes some time. Here are some helpful tips and strategies that should assist in selling your home for top dollar in the shortest amount of time possible.

As a Realtor and Real Estate Broker, of course, I advise consulting with and hiring a professional first and foremost. Professional Realtors have been through many real estate transactions, they've done it before, and statistically, homes that are sold by a professional real estate agent sell for a higher price in a shorter amount of time (with less stress on the seller as well!).

Make sure the agent you decide to hire is PROFESSIONAL. They should be able to: identify the home's selling features; identify target buyers; be informed about the neighborhood; discuss pricing and pricing strategies with you; identify deferred maintenance that most likely should be addressed before listing the home; propose staging tips; have a large syndication network for your property listing; have digital strategies and create a property website; understand reverse prospecting and make a commitment to do it; understand and employ traditional media strategies; employ neighborhood marketing; and make a commitment to consistant follow-up with buyer's agents.

One thing I highly advise is to insist your professional real estate agent TRACK their marketing activity to hold themselves accountable and be able to review activities with you. Reviewing marketing activity periodically is productive and can help with examining a “what's working” and “what's not working” review. Make sure your agent has strong follow-up skills with all showings and inquiries.

Staging your home to sell is very important. Light and bright is right! Declutter and de-personalize your home. Empty half the clothes and shoes in your closet. Put knick-knacks away. Put most personal items away. You want the prospective buyers to be able to picture themselves in your home.

Pricing your home to sell is very important. Home values are based on comparable sales in the immediate area plus/minus adjustments for improvements or the need for improvements and lot desirability. One must remember that an “over-improved” home will not be valued by appraisers or consumers to the extent of the full cost of those improvements. If one puts a $100,000 kitchen in a home, that home will not be valued by the market/people or appraisers at $100,000 more than a comparable home with its original kitchen.

Appraisers DO NOT set value. The marketplace sets value; a buyer and seller meet at the current market value. But, appraisers are important as any sale that occurs with a mortgage will require an appraisal. If that appraisal is less than the contract purchase price, the buyer will need to come in with more money (which they frequently don't have or aren't willing to do), the seller will need to lower the sale price, or the buyer and seller must come to some sort of arrangement to make up the difference between the appraised value and the purchase price. There is an appraisal contingency clause in the real estate contract that allows buyers to walk away from the transaction and get their earnest money back if the appraisal falls short of the purchase price.

Therefore pricing one's home appropriately for sale is VERY important. There are two basic strategies. The first is to price your home “well”, in line with comparable properties or slightly less, to garner more interest and hopefully multiple offers. This may result in a quick sale and/or a sales price over the list price. The second strategy is to price your home high/over comparables due to market conditions or the overall condition of your property. If you push on the price, it may take longer to sell. And, be willing to negotiate and readjust over time. Price reductions may be necessary if the market is rejecting the price of the home (no offers are forthcoming).

One must prepare for inspection reports that lead to repair requests. This is the norm. Buyers will do due diligence, and the results of that will be repair requests. One must consider what they feel is reasonable, and be prepared to do a little work. One can mitigate repair requests by addressing deferred maintenance upfront.

Lastly, prepare to move. Moving is not always easy, and being organized and prepared is important.

Please check out my entire Real Estate Seller Video Series here - https://www.tucsonarizrealestate.com/selling-a-home/

Please don't hesitate to contact me 7 days a week including evenings to discuss real estate. Put my 20+ years of real estate experience to work for you!