Tips for home sellers

In today’s real estate market of rising inventories and waning buyer demand, it’s critical that sellers take the extra step to give their home an edge over the growing competition. Long gone are the days when homes sold in a weekend with very little effort. Now sellers are hard-pressed to sell their home quickly without an agent who pays close attention to the details. Here are some tips to give your home an edge in the face of mounting competition:

• Ensure that any landscaping is well-manicured. Curb appeal is everything.
• Give your home a thorough deep clean. Buyers won’t make it much past the front door if the buyer’s first impression is that your home is not well-maintained.
• Stage your home. Staging can help buyers better appreciate the interior space of your home and make it more inviting. This can mean decluttering and using furniture you have already or hiring a professional to help.
• Hire an agent who will invest in professional photographs for your home. Professional photographs are an absolute must to get top market value for your home. More buyers will notice your home online, and more buyers will want to see it, increasing the odds of a quick sale.
• Competitively price your home. Pricing is the most critically important part of the sale process, but sellers often get it wrong because it’s also the most sensitive part of the sale process. However, without a smart pricing strategy, you run the risk of getting less for your home than what you may have gotten had you priced your home according to market trends. Trust your agent to price your home to get top market value as quickly as possible.
• Agree to open houses. So many maintain that open houses are a waste of time, that they don’t sell homes, and that they only draw people who would never buy your home in the first place. Before the internet and the likes of Zillow and Realtor.com, this may have been true, but people who take the time to research open houses online and actually attend them (rather than just a drive-by) are likely motivated buyers. While they may not ultimately buy your home, they help create a buzz and sense of urgency around your home that could result in other buyers who are seriously interested in your home to finally make an offer.
• Hire an agent that will actively market your property and get it sold as quickly as possible. It’s one thing for an agent to list your home for sale, market it via the Multiple Listing Service, Zillow and the balance of these third-party real estate aggregator sites, but it’s another for an agent, who has the resources and work ethic, to actively sell your home by shopping it around on social media, ensuring that other real estate brokers are aware of your home for their buyer clients, holding open houses, adhering to a smart pricing strategy and regularly checking in with you to keep the sale process on track.

Many of these points may seem obvious or cliché, but sellers still get these things wrong, which goes right to the bottom line. Yet for most sellers, the objective is to get top market value for their home as quickly as possible. Careful consideration of the impact of getting the details right will ensure a quick, successful sale.