There are many reasons for which you might decide to sell your home. It could be that you’re moving somewhere else, need a bigger house to accommodate a growing family or just need the money. One thing that’s a constant, however, is that you’ll want to get as much as possible from the sale.
Selling a home is completely different from buying one though, and it’s understandable if you find the prospect daunting. Here are a few tips to help you navigate the process and get the best deal possible for your home:
1. Get an Accurate Valuation
This is the first step and doing it thoroughly will help you act from an informed position throughout the process of getting the house sold. Get an experienced real estate agent or appraiser to go over the house and reach a determination of its value. That figure will then be the basis of your pricing strategy, as you try to get a premium on it or make changes to raise it. The key thing is to be realistic in your pricing – study the market and other factors to determine what the maximum you can likely get is, but don’t go overboard and scare potential buyers away.
2. Stage the Home Properly
Home staging is essentially making the home look its best when a potential buyer comes to inspect it. There are various strategies for this, and you might also want to consult an experienced agent for this, but one easy thing to do is to remove about half of the furniture. It’ll make the rooms look more spacious and studies have shown that it leaves a strong positive impression in the minds of buyers, making it easier for you to negotiate from a position of strength.
3. Be Flexible with Home Showings
You’ll likely be somewhat uncomfortable at the thought of strangers going through your home, but enduring the imposition is likely to have a real effect on the sale of the home. Look at it from the perspective of the buyer: Are you more likely to fall in love and decide to buy a home you’ve been through or one you’ve only seen pictures of? You don’t need to be around either – It’s usually best to just allow the buyer and their agent go through the home without interference. The agent will be better able to convince the buyer than you. You can even take a short trip for the period and use a virtual address service to respond quickly if an offer is made.
4. Use High Quality Photographs
When you’re posting the listing online, the last thing you want to do is put up hastily taken smartphone photos which look blurry and don’t flatter your home. Invest the effort and money to get an experienced photographer (preferably one with real estate photography expertise) to take the pictures instead. You’ll notice an increase in responses and people will attach higher prestige to your home than if you went with low quality images. Just be sure the pictures don’t seem deceptive, though you should definitely take your time to spruce things up before the shoot.
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