Tips For Selling Your Home In 2011

TIPS FOR SELLING YOUR HOME IN 2011

If your plans for 2011 include selling your home, there is some work you must do.  The bad new for sellers is that there is alot of inventory out there and it is a buyer's market.  If you want to get an offer and sell fast, there are some tried and true things that you can do to be successful in this market.

THE FIRST THING TO DO IS TO BE REALISTIC ABOUT PRICE!!  We are all very emotional about our homes value.  We know all of the blood sweat and tears we have put into the property, and sometimes, we have unrealistic expectations about what the house is worth in the marketplace.  Research a good agent that will work with you to give you a high, median and average value of comparable homes that have sold in the last few months.  Interview a few agents so that you can get an idea of the homes value from a few good sources.  This will help to get a clear idea of the homes value.  Go to open houses in your neighborhood to see what your competition will be.  If you start out right, price the home properly and get it in the best shape possible, you have are giving yourself the advantage to get it sold fast so that it does not linger on the market and become stale.  The first two weeks are your best time to get alot of interest.  Price it right, don't put yourself in a position to do numerous price reductions because buyers will assume that something is wrong with your house if they see price reductions.  Don't test the waters with a high price, in this market, it is deadly!!

LISTING IN JANUARY IS A GOOD THING!! Many home buyers start looking right after the holidays.  Alot of people start browsing at this time so they can secure a new property before school starts again in the fall.  The Internet is the favored way to browse for most buyers so good on-line presence is important. 

GET THE HOUSE READY THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN SELLING:...The house should look like a clean slate just waiting for the buyer to make it their own.  De-clutter, make sure the paint is in neutral colors, take down personal family pictures.  If you have extra furniture or "stuff" get it out of the house.  You want the rooms to look roomy, clean, and buyers will open your cabinet doors and closets, so make sure they are organized and neat. Clean up the garden, make the front of the house inviting curb appeal is so important.  Make sure the house smells good..pet odors, cooking odors...turn a buyer off.  A good real estate professional will help you stage your home in the best possible way.  Make each room look like a photo out of a catalog and you will have buyers itching to make an offer.  Rent a storage facility for extra stuff in the garage, closets, get ready to move have a garage sale, donate, purge...it feels great.  I also recommend having a termite report and home inspection done before you put it on the market so that buyers will have any information they need about any defects in the home.  This makes it much easier when you do get offers and go into escrow as there are no surprises at the end.

MAKE THE HOUSE EASY TO SHOW: I know, I know, this is the worst part about selling a home..having strangers in your home, looking at your stuff, it feels very invasive.  But the more you can make your home available for showing, the more successful you will be in selling it faster.  Try never to say no to a showing because the buyer may choose something else before they see yours. 

PROVIDE NEIGHBORHOOD INFORMATION: Work with your real estate professional to provide average utility costs, age of roof, copies of repairs, reports, age of appliances, water heater, a floor plan is great too or the square footage of each room...helps buyers to see if their furniture will fit. 

YOU CAN BE SUCCESSFUL IN SELLING IN THIS MARKET...EVEN IF YOU DON'T SELL FOR WHAT YOU THINK YOU WANTED, YOU WILL PROBABLY GET A GREAT DEAL ON THE HOME YOU PURCHASE, SO IT IS ALL RELATIVE.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PROPERTY IN MONTEREY COUNTY...I WOULD LOVE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THIS LOVELY AREA.