What it Takes to Sell Your Home

What it Takes to Sell Your Home

Any home can be listed as it is, or for any amount of money.  Getting a buyer to choose your home takes some preparation and analysis on where you fit in price-wise in the current market place.  Thanks to HGTV, more and more buyers in the marketplace are expecting move-in ready homes.  Even if there is little to choose from in a seller's market, they will pass to see what may on the horizon if there are too many projects they would be taking on to purchase.  

What projects are off putting to buyers?  As silly as it may sound, they can be as simple are repainting and putting in new carpet.  Certainly not a lot of money, as any seller will tell you.  But the same reason sellers don't want to do it, is why buyers don't want to either.  Those tasks are physically draining and time consuming.  A seller will look at their furnished home and think of the pain in the butt it will be to move everything to put in carpet.  And they may excuse painting their entire home to give it a fresh, neutral face by thinking that sellers will want to paint it their own personal color choices.

Buyers are picky.  And when they walk into a home that gives them a sense of dread, or they can't picture their furnishings there because of the specific colors used on the walls, they will walk out.  And if they make an offer, they will walk consideration, beyond the actual costs of the projects, for the simple fact that they are considering these tasks the same pain as the seller did.

There have been a few listing appointments this past spring and summer where sellers were rejecting my advice on listing preparation and on pricing in the market.  Having been a full-time Bristow Real Estate Agent since 2005, my experience in helping buyers and sellers is vast.  A seller's desire to sell a home as is, worn carpet and specific paint colors, for top of the market price is as likely as my going out today, buying a scratch off lottery ticket, and winning $20,000.  Sure, it could happen, but the odds are stacked against you.  

Week after week, for months, the sellers who hired agents that told them what they wanted to hear, lower their price or linger on the market.  For this Bristow Real Estate Agent I look on like I'm watching a movie and I know something the person next to me doesn't know.  What I know in a lot of cases is that these sellers have left tens of thousands on the table in an effort to simply put a sign in the yard and take advantage of our seller's market.  When your house in on the market for longer than two to three weeks in our current market, there is a problem.

Thankfully, the sellers that do hire me and take my advice, don't need to worry.  Sure, the most recent sellers on 9996 Broadsword Drive in Bristow were a little nervous hitting the market right before labor day at $499,000.  They were seeing four and five bedroom homes in our neighborhood of Braemar just lingering on the market.  Yet, because they repainted their entire home a neutral color that would appeal to the majority of buyers and replaced their worn carpet, they had two interested buyers after their first two showings.  One buyer made them an offer they didn't want to lose after only two days on the market.  They had one day of showings on a Thursday and were done.

So how do you sell your Bristow, VA home?  It's different than listing it.  Anyone can list a home.  It takes disconnecting emotionally from the recommended pre-listing tasks and pricing that your agent suggests.  Of course, it also takes an agent that will be honest and forthcoming when telling you what needs to be done and how you will be compete for buyers.  When you are ready to sell and listen to constructive advice, give me a call.   Your days of making beds, doing the dishes and vacuuming for showings will be far fewer if you do.  The alternative may just be spending months keeping your house neat as a pin, as you enter a downward spiral of price reduction after price reduction.  

Contrary to what sellers want to believe, the longer you stay on the market, the less likely you are to get your price.  Preparing for a fast sale is the way you get the maximum money the market will bear for your home.