Planning to sell your home but don't know how to get started? If yes, then you're in the right place!
In this post, you can learn how you can sell your home like a pro.
6 Steps To Selling Your Home
Prepare Your Home To Sell
Acknowledge that all markets are different. What may be a Seller's Market in Indianapolis may be a Buyer's Market in Fort Wayne. Each market is different. Look at homes that have sold in your area. Get a feel of market times. Check various resources such as Realtor.com or Mibor.com for sold information. We recommend getting a home inspection completed prior to listing your home for sale. This will prepare you for any issues that may arise or scare buyers off prior to listing your home. Clean up and clean out! This is one of the most important things to do. Get rid of all that clutter! If you haven't used it or touched it in 6 months then it needs to go! We recommend hiring a home staging expert to get your home organized and ready for market.
Devise A Marketing Plan
Realtor or No Realtor - Sit down and decide which is best for your situation. Some sellers like the "doing the grunt work" approach to selling a home. Some sellers may be experienced in home sales and can do it all on their own. Statistics show that Realtors net home sellers up to 10% more than going at it on their own. Items to consider when considering selling your home are: Title work, Appraisals, Contracts, Disclosures, and Marketing! Selling a home can be a daunting task these days. The days of putting a sign in the yard and advertising in the newspaper are long gone.
Determining A List Price
If you plan to sell your home FSBO (For Sale by Owner) without using a Realtor this could be another task. Many home sellers base their homes value on the tax assessed value. This can be good or bad. We see many times that the assessed values are much lower than what the market value is. We also see that assessed values can be much higher than what is market value. One recommendation is to get a current home appraisal on your home. If you choose to hire a Realtor they will have all the data available to them to provide to you as the seller on what fair market value may be or often times referred to as (FMV). Your Realtor should be able to show you data form existing homes sales from the last 6 months that will outline the best pricing strategy you should take. Do not overprice your home - this will cause market times to increase and will ultimately cause you to sell your home for less. When homes sit on the market for too long most buyers have the perception that the home has "issues" and this may cause your values to decrease.
Market Your Home for Maximum Exposure and Syndication
We recommend interviewing 3 agents from different companies. Look for an agent that takes an aggressive approach to listing your home. Hiring a full-time sales associate that has local experience is key. In today's marketplace agents and brokers should show you how to leverage internet exposure and syndication. With over 95% of all home buyers finding their dream home online, internet syndication and marketing is a must. Agents should be familiar with social media outlets and internet lead conversions.
Negotiate An Offer To Purchase
Ok, so you have chosen your Realtor and now you have an offer to purchase. What do you do? If you are working with a Real Estate Professional that professional should be able to guide you through the whole process. They will present the offer to you, prepare counter offers, schedule inspections and appraisals, coordinate and order title searches and coordinate the closing process. They should act a as sounding board for all your questions, needs, or concerns.
Planning Your Move
This is where the fun begins. You may feel relieved or you may feel that your world is caving in on you! Hopefully when preparing your home for sale you got rid of all that stuff you really didn't need, in return this should allow for a smoother moving process. Your Realtor should be able to provide a few recommendations of local movers that can assist. Moving can be a daunting task but planned well it can be a smooth process. During negotiations you may have closed a few days prior to moving. Keep in mind that the new buyers will be excited and eager to move into their new home. We always recommend to our clients to be sure to not leave anything behind and give it a good cleaning for the new homeowners. It always is better to "pay it forward".