When the time comes to sell your home, there’s going to be a lot of challenges, excitement, and even a few disappointments. It’s important to remain optimistic during those times when selling your home gets difficult. Even more important are the reasons why your home is not selling as fast or for as much as it should. Effectively selling your home is going to take some effort and creative thinking, but there are some things you can do to make your home sell faster and get the asking price you’re after. Here are some of the best tips for you to follow that will help you sell your home effectively and efficiently.
Find a Great Real Estate Agent
A well-qualified and experienced real estate agent is invaluable when it comes to selling your home. However, finding the best agent to help you sell your home is a challenge in itself. With hundreds of agents competing for the job, finding the best one for your needs will require a lot of research and time.
The first step to finding a good real estate agent is to research. Check online and through referrals from friends and family. The next step is to compile a list of the top three agents with the most listings. Interview each agent and evaluate their knowledge, experience, and success rate in selling homes. It’s also a good idea to ask for referrals from clients the agent has listed homes for, and get their opinion of the agent’s skill and expertise. The relationship between agent and seller can be very similar to a friendship, and like any good friendship, there has to be trust, honesty, and communication. If your heart is telling you that the agent you hired or are considering hiring is not the right fit, then it may be time to look elsewhere. Some red flags to look for in a bad real estate agent include:
*Lack of communication
*Doesn’t listen to your needs or wants
*Little or no experience
*No knowledge of the local market
*Doesn’t provide ideas on upgrades
*Doesn’t have a good contractor or a home improvement team
If you’ve done your work correctly, you have found a good real estate agent to help you sell your home. Now it’s time to begin the real work and get your home ready to sell fast and for the most money possible.
Home Staging
Getting your home ready to sell is what home staging is all about. Home staging includes furniture arrangements, decor, deep cleaning, landscaping, and other home improvements designed to showcase your home for an effective sale. Many of your home staging projects can be done DIY. Decorating, cleaning, and some improvement projects can be accomplished with a little planning and advice from websites, books, and video tutorials. Consult with your agent on ideas for painting and the latest outdoor and indoor decorating trends.
By adding a few home improvements such as fresh paint, new flooring, new hardware to kitchen cabinets and drawers, and deep cleaning of all appliances, you can add value and eye appeal in the eyes of potential buyers.
Home Upgrades
Making improvements to your home will play a critical role in how fast you sell your home and in the selling price. The kitchen is one key area that many homebuyers focus on. Upgrading your kitchen countertops, floors, sinks, and cabinets can increase the value of your home and attract more buyers.
Bathrooms are another area that is important to many homebuyers. Adding a bathroom will greatly increase your chances of a quick sale, especially if your home only has one or two bathrooms. More bathrooms usually means a greater sale potential. If you don’t need to add an additional bathroom, then consider upgrading outdated bathrooms with new tile, sinks, faucets, and cabinets.
Landscape and Curb Appeal
Curb appeal is your home’s first impression to potential buyers. If your home has little or no curb appeal, it lowers the odds of a fast sale and of getting equal or above market value for your home. To make your home stand out and have an excellent curb appeal, consider a new coat of paint that is modern and up to date. Also, making sure the yard is clean and well-manicured will add additional eye appeal. Small improvements such as adding a flower garden, trees, and shrubs can help as well.
Video, Photography, and Virtual Home Tours
There’s nothing like photos and videos of your home to entice homebuyers to come and take a look. A good real estate agent should handle all marketing campaigns used to sell your home, and any pictures and videos of your home should be professionally done to showcase the best aspects of your home’s interior and exterior.
Virtual tours are an excellent way to allow potential homebuyers to visit and view every aspect of your home via the internet. This innovative selling tool allows homebuyers to view each room of your house, as well as the home’s front and back yards, through prerecorded video. Virtual tours can also include audio that enhances the sales technique by highlighting the finest points of your home.
Open Houses
Holding weekly open houses is a great way to sell your home and is still an effective selling tool used by many real estate agents. Many home sellers and their agents combine open houses with outdoor cookouts to promote the event and to attract more attention. During an open house, you can serve guest food and drinks to showcase the kitchen and dining areas.
Make All Necessary Repairs
One thing that has to be done if you want to sell your house effectively is to make sure that everything is in proper working condition. All appliances, including the HVAC system and water heater, must be properly maintained and in perfect working condition. Inspect all appliances, including the heating and cooling system, and repair anything that’s not in working condition. There’s nothing more difficult than trying to sell a house with a leaky roof. Make sure your roof is in good repair and looks it best. If your roof has been recently upgraded, use this as a selling point to interested buyers.
Pest Control
Unsightly pests can ruin the sale of your home before it begins. Spiders, mice, roaches and other vermin don’t care when you’re holding an open house or when a potential buyer may be stopping by to view your home. If potential buyers see creepy crawly things moving about your home, it can definitely end the deal. Have an exterminator eliminate any potential pest problems before you put your home on the market. If you have wildlife in your home that should not be there, you will need to get a professional removal service. When researching professional wildlife removal companies, start with a Google search such as bat removal near me. Then make sure the company adopts humane removal practices.
Selling your home can be a stressful time, but by using a little common sense combined with some hard work, you can sell your home quickly and effectively. With lots of planning and the help of professionals, you’ll be on your way to a successful home sale.
