Spring Time is Home Selling Season

The wonderful weather of Spring and Summer make these months the best months for selling your home; so if you’ve been debating putting it on the market this may be the time to make your move.

Add to the fact that this is the best season to sell a home that homes are finally beginning to sell at much faster rates and it’s definitely time to consider your options.

The past economic situation has been far from beneficial from a seller’s perspective. Home sales were slumping, with houses sitting on the market for 9 months to a year or more in some areas.

Record numbers of home foreclosures and short sales made it hard for a seller to get top dollar for their home so most simply sat back and waited unless they were forced to sell for a reason. If you’re one of those that decided to wait it out before you make your move it may have paid off for you to be patient.

Homes are beginning to sell quickly with multiple offers in many areas. The change in the economic system is definitely a positive effect in the housing market that finally is putting sellers in a better position to sell their home for the best prices. Check with an agent to see if your particular area is finally seeing positive moves that benefit the seller.

Before you just jump into putting the for sale sign up in front of your house you’ll want to make a plan. First, understand that this is a fairly good time to buy also because while interest rates are no longer at record lows they are at very good rates and very enticing to buyers.

Chances are you will not only be a seller but a buyer too; selling your home to purchase another. So it’s time to make a plan for selling your home and buying your next house so the entire process goes as smooth as possible.

• First figure out why you want to sell. You want to make sure that your reason to sell is very real and something that creates you to be motivated and committed to the entire process. Think it out before you make your decision.
• Decide what you want to do once you put your house on the market. Do you want to sell your home and then look for a house for yourself or do you want to start looking now for your new home?
• Find an agent you can work with. Your agent can serve as both your Buyer’s Agent and your Seller’s Agent; meaning they can work with you both to find a home and to sell your home. To find the agent that fits your needs interview a couple of agents to see what they have to say and if they click with you. You have to truly enjoy your agent in order to make the process a positive one. If you and your agent aren’t clicking it could be a very long and hard road.
• Prepare your home for selling by first going through your home and de-cluttering and cleaning out in a first round of getting ready. You’ll continue to do this over and over, cleaning out and de-cluttering in stages is best and easiest. Begin this process even before a sign goes out in front of your home.
• Talk to your Selling Agent and get tips and hints about what needs to be done first. Let the agent guide you with your sale.
• Make the repairs you’ve been putting off; the simple things like screwing in that loose door knob, painting those nicks in the woodwork, and fixing that dripping faucet. Start small with your repairs and the move on to the bigger things that you and your agent feel must be done to sell the home.
• Determine what your home is worth and what your absolute lowest price is that you can accept depending upon what you owe, etc. This step is done with your realtor who will pull up pricing of properties in the area that are very similar to help determine how much you should ask.
• If you’re going to be buying a home also then you’ll want to get prepared as a buyer. Your agent can guide you on mortgages, brokers, and how to obtain things like Good Faith Estimates. Utilize your agent to the fullest because they are the professionals who can observe the entire process of buying and selling your home without bias.