5 Top Tips to Get Your Home Sold

Preparing to Sell

Despite inventory being low, if you want to get the best sale price, you still need to prepare the home. There are things you need to do to make your home look and feel welcoming and garner multiple offers.

5 Top Tips to Get Your Home Sold

1. Work with a REALTOR®.

Can you sell your home yourself? Absolutely. Will you get the best deal possible? Not likely. REALTORS® are expert real estate professionals, dedicated to studying your local area market. Realtors are well-versed in real estate transactions and are skilled negotiators, who will work hard to make sure you get the best deal possible. Find your Realtor in our REALTOR Directory.

2. Price it fairly.

To get the best possible offer, you want to price your home fairly for its location, condition, features, and comparable, recent closed and pending sales. Your Realtor® will build a CMA, or Comparative Market Analysis, which looks at all of these things to arrive at a fair price. Remember, the sale price of your home could be higher than what you decide to list at if you get multiple offers, so its better to be realistic to attract the right pool of buyers. Read more about Comparative Market Analysis, aka CMA, by clicking here.

3. Optimize curb appeal.

Walk to the end of your property and try to view it objectively as an outsider. Is it welcoming? Does it look cared for? First impressions are made in the first 30 seconds – what does your home say to an outsider looking in? There are simple ways to optimize your curb appeal, which you can read about here.

Continue your visitor’s journey by walking up the drive and approaching the front door. Is it well lit? Is the pathway clear of obstructions? Is it obvious where the front door is? Thinking about your property from the perspective of a new guest can help you notice things that you may not give a second thought to on a regular basis, but things that might jump out to a prospective buyer immediately and give the wrong impression.

Even in the fall/winter, consider the exterior of your home an extension of the living space, and prepare it with care as you will the inside.

4. Think like a salesperson, not like a homeowner.

Homes are places where we make memories, build up our families and take down our walls. It can be easy to feel emotional as during the home-selling process, whether you’ve lived there for decades or only a couple of years. Your home has a lot to offer potential buyers, but not necessarily for the same reasons or the same feelings that you have about it. Let your Realtor help depersonalize your space to appeal to the largest pool of buyers.

Start thinking about this as a house you’re selling, not a home you’re moving out of. It makes a big difference to the success of the sale.

5. Create a fresh feeling to maximize interest.

Clean and polish your home to give that fresh-air feeling when prospective buyers visit. Have carpets and flooring professionally cleaned to bring out the best look and feel possible. A fresh coat of paint is always a great idea, especially in the most highly trafficked rooms, and the smell of fresh paint is a subtle sign of cleanliness and newness. Fresh paint also enables light to bounce around and makes any room feel bigger. Fix any broken fixtures and add lightbulbs to empty sockets.

Before any showings, your Realtor will guide you to stage the house and repair any of the features that will make a difference for potential buyers. Trust their fresh eyes and professional opinions.

The Time is Right

Now is the time to sell your home, while inventory is low and buyer interest is high. Trust a Realtor® to help you price your home right and prepare your home to appeal to the largest possible pool of buyers. Above all, shift your mindset to think about your home differently, as a salesperson and not a homeowner. Selling your house is a big decision and you want to approach the sale as rationally as possible – which is another reason why you should enlist the help of a Realtor. You don’t want your judgment to be clouded when making a costly decision.

Bonus Tip: Take Advantage of the Multiple Listing Service

OneKey MLS, for OneKey Multiple Listing Service, is a cooperative tool that industry professionals use to list homes for sellers and find homes for buyers. Many real estate websites draw their listing data from the Multiple Listing Service – it’s the SOURCE of the listing data. By having your listing on OneKey MLS, you ensure you are maximizing your pool of buyers and potential offers.

Related Article: Think Twice About Waiting for Home Prices to Come Down