Selling your home is an active process. It requires thoughtful planning and steps to make sure you get the best possible offer.
Here are five ways to get top dollar when selling your home.
Timing is everything
If you want your home sale to be as successful as possible, it is important to take into account the real estate market activity in your local area when selling your home.
Starting the sale when the market is favorable to you can help increase your sale price.
Most residential real estate is seasonal, so ask a pro when during the year houses move faster in your area.
First impressions
There is no doubt that you will have a clean home when your house is put on the market, but you do not want a cluttered home as well.
If you are planning to downsize for retirement from a four-bedroom home to a two-bedroom condominium, you will need to dispose of all the furniture, garage tools, and lawn equipment.
You might consider hiring an estate agent to help you select what you want and sell the things you don’t.
At the bare minimum, all sellers should prepare their homes for the market by:
- Performing a deep clean
- Performing any necessary repairs (i.e., repairing the driveway, leaning the mailbox, and repairing the walls)
- Removing clutter and personal items
- Bringing the color scheme of the home back to the basics by depersonalizing it.
Even though the buyers will want to have their own home inspection, getting a pre-inspection so that prospective buyers have a general idea about the property’s condition before making an offer is a win-win situation.
Provide insider information
Make sure you include tidbits in the listing that buyers will appreciate and that they can only get from you as a seller.
For example, you can mention a popular neighborhood coffee shop, the best restaurants nearby, or a popular fitness center that is just around the corner.
You, as a homeowner, have a unique perspective on these details that no one else does.
Consider staging
On TV, those houses that sell for fabulous sums of money are always professionally staged. Someone takes your stuff out of the house and arranges it in a lovely understated and artfully arranged manner, along with a few healthy indoor plants.
However, you should take into account the cost of staging a room. Usually, that is anywhere from $300 to $1,000 per month for each staged room.
Create a video tour
It is common for people to get excellent photos and great descriptions of their homes on the internet, but a video tour of the property can be filmed for a modest price.
It can be done simply by an amateur if necessary and is an attractive way to bring buyers into the house from afar.
