This is part two of my series called My First Year. Part one discusses the things that I learned and offers advice for buyers. Part two offers advice for sellers. In my first month I had the opportunity to list a home in a great neighborhood in Houston. It taught me a whole lot about being on the sellers side of the real estate business. So part two is my advice for sellers. I hope you enjoy and I hope you get something out of it.
Part Two - Advice For Sellers:
Don’t overprice your home. 
Homes sell for market value regardless of what you paid, put into it, owe or need. The sooner you, as a seller, can come to terms with this idea, the better off you will be and the faster you will sell your home
- Be as flexible
as possible when showing your home. Always be available and never turn down a showing. Rarely do buyers come back after being told that the showing was denied. If your not willing to make your home available to buyers between the hours of 9am-7pm everyday then don’t put your home on the market until you are ready. If you are willing to bend a little it will help you and your agent to find the best buyer for your home.
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Don't be discouraged when you don't sell to the very first person who walks in the door.. Worry if you get no showings, or no offers after the 8th showing. If the first person who sees your home makes an offer at full listing price then it is possible your home was listed too low. You probably could have gotten more money for your home.
- Remove the emotional baggage
you have vested in your home. This may sound harsh, but it is the truth. Just because your children grew up in this house, your daughter just loves that purple bedroom or you spend $100,000 on that beautiful pool out back. Don’t let these things be the driving force behind pricing your home. Buyers quite frankly could care less about your emotional baggage. They are going to buy a house based on the other homes in the area. If your home has more upgrades than everyone else in the neighborhood that is not necessarily a good thing, A over custom home narrows your pool of buyers substantially.
- Less is more so remove personal pictures. Bring the
purple walls back to a neutral color, clean, clean, and clean.
Keep your home clean.In the past year, I have seen quite a few homes and I will tell you that for most buyers your homes location or price could be perfect but if it is filthy they begin to wonder what else can be wrong with this home. No one likes to see their own filth, much less yours.
- Buyers expect more
in a home today than they use to. With all of the new shows on TV that teach people about staging, home buying and home selling, buyers are developing a more critical eye. So step up your game a notch or two and listen to your realtor’s advice. They have seen more homes than you have ever or will ever see in your lifetime. They understand what works and what doesn’t. So swallow your pride and listen. If you don’t take all of their advice at least take some.
- If your home is not getting showings, then more than likely your home is priced too high. Your realtor is not a magician. If your realtor has listed your home on the MLS, taken exceptional photos of your home, written a great description of your home, completed a brokers open house, public open houses, sent out flyers to area neighbors, marketed your home on the internet, and created a video of your home but you still have not received a showing then you MUST lower your price. If you get 6-8 showings but you still have not received an offer then you MUST lower your price. If you’re not willing to lower your price then get out of the market. You’re wasting your time and your agent’s time; Period end of story.
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Don’t overprice your home
- Home prices are based on one thing and one thing only; the current market. It matters not what the seller paid for the property, nor how much money he put into the property. It only matters what the homes like yours in the area sold for over the last six months. This is what you should base your home on. If there are a lot of foreclosures in your neighborhood then this could ultimately hurt your sale price. On the other hand if there is new growth and new construction in your neighborhood then it may help your sale price. You MUST consider the CMA your agent does for you. This is a comparative market analysis and it will tell you the current market price of your home based on the sold homes in the neighborhood.
- A staged home is better than an empty home.
- An empty home is better than a filthy home
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Don’t overprice your home
- A clean home is a must.
- A filthy home is unacceptable.
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Don’t overprice your home
If lowering your price means that you would be getting less for your home than what you paid for it, and then speak to your agent about the possibility of a short sale. In this case you will not make money on the sale but you also will not lose money and you will not have a foreclosure on your credit for the next 10 years. You would usually have to prove to the bank that you are in financial hardship. It does take longer for the sale to go through but it will buy you more time to regroup and decide what’s next.
- Everyone would like to make money on their home; however this is not always the case. The best you can do is to find a realtor who understands your needs, listens to you and offers advice based on your circumstances.
- Trying to sell your home on your own
is usually not a smart idea. If you need legal assistance, you go to a lawyer, if you need medical attention you go to a doctor, if you need your car fixed you go to a mechanic. So, it would seem logical that when it comes time to sell your home, probably the single most expensive sales your will ever make in a lifetime, you would go to a real estate professional. Someone who knows the market and can handle the sale from start to finish. Remember, you get what you pay for. There are discount brokers out there that will put your home on the MLS, but you are responsible for marketing, showing, negotiating the deal, writing up the contracts, orchestrating every aspect of the transaction. Most people who try to do this fail miserably because it is impossible to hold a full time job and sell your home at the same time. Selling your home without an agent is like being the member of a symphony without a conductor. At some point it is very likely to fall apart into chaos. Rarely will you make it to the final closing chord in harmony.
- Check out My First Year - Advice for Buyers
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