Selling your Knoxville TN home in a buyers market. As a top producer at Keller Williams Realty in Knoxville TN who specializes in listing and marketing homes in Knoxville TN and surrounding areas I spend a good deal of time in listing appointments.
The dynamics of listing appointments have changed quite considerably in the past couple of years because Knoxville TN is no longer in a "Seller's Market". When selling in a "Buyer's market" where inventory is high and buyers are at a minimum there are several things that you have to really pay attention to:
- Pricing
- The home's condition and staging
- How the home is marketed
Conditioning Your Home to Sell
In this blog we are going to focus on home condition. For the first 3 years of my real estate career I worked almost exclusively as a buyer's agent and have been through hundreds of homes. When I walk into a home I know exactly what a buyer is going to think and say about it. A couple of years ago buyer's had some vision. They could walk into home that was in a good location, had a good layout, but perhaps needed some painting and other cosmetic changes that they were willing to do. Well, things have definately changed in this recent "buyer's market". Vision is completely out the window as buyers no longer need to imagine what the home could be - they just simply go down the street and find one that has everything they are looking for.
As a seller this is hard to grasp. Sellers are used to their home and that hot pink bedroom or dated mustard colored toilet goes unnoticed in their daily lives. However, to the buyers visiting your home those things stick out like a sore thumb. Doors and windows that stick or don't close right often make buyers think that the home has structural issues.
A spot on the ceiling will make buyers think there is a water problem no matter what you tell them. A loudly colored bedroom draws nothing but negative attention.
In today's market it is extremely important to make sure your home will appeal to the largest buyer pool possible and that means making sure your home is DECLUTTERED, NEUTRAL, SPOTLESS and MAINTAINED. In most cases these fixes are low cost but absolutely critical.
It is also critical that the home has all of these things done PRIOR to putting it on the market - not 6 weeks into the listing. A good agent would never list a home without it being ready - but of course we see this happen all of the time. The first 3 weeks of your home being on the market is when the greatest amount of activity happens and your greatest chance of getting an offer closest to your list price. Make sure your home shines the first time!
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