13 Secrets to sell your home
Are you ready to sell your home, the biggest investment in your life?
I have bought three homes and sold two. We recently bought and sold homes and moved between two different cities. I am going to break this series into three different parts:
What to look for when buying a home
How to sell your home
Manage Your Emotions
The process to sell your home can be a tedious, long-drawn-out process and can be emotionally challenging. I want you to be empowered by making rational decisions, controlling your emotions, and not falling prey to them. I want you to sell your house and get the highest price with the least amount of hassle.
Selling your home is an invasion of privacy. Strangers will enter your beloved home, poke, prod, and look at your cabinets and closets. They will criticize it and unless you are in a seller’s market, they will offer you less.
As a homeowner, we spend time and effort to find the perfect house. You save for a down payment, decorate, and have created memories with family. It is tough to let go of feelings and emotions.
When you are selling your home, you need to have the mindset of a seller rather than the homeowner. You need to think like a businessperson and see it as a business transaction.
When selling your home think of the buyer, and that you are selling a lifestyle and need to stage, paint, remodel and make it look different and create an emotional detachment from the home.
REAL ESTATE AGENT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
This is an important decision. I chose Darwin Jurado because he is a full-time agent. I am an emotional guy, so I wanted someone who is calm. Darwin also is an active listener, honest, passionate, supportive, excellent negotiator, experienced, and has an online presence. To me having a professional guide me through the process was a real benefit.
Darwin came and saw the home and gave a couple of suggestions. It is important to follow those recommendations because the agent is seeing it from an objective perspective.
Darwin had our best interest at heart. He set a competitive selling price and we got a quick sale. Darwin also interacted with the agents of the buyer and got their feedback. Darwin was experienced in negotiating the sale and walked me through all the paperwork so that everything went smoothly.
Setting Realistic Expectations on Price
The real estate agent will come up with a price based on a comparative market analysis. Think like a business person and see the home as an asset and make sure the price is realistic. If the price is lower, there could be a bidding war and the price you would get would be the actual market value of the home.
Choose the right time to sell
We listed in March, at the beginning of spring. The weather is getting better, people with kids are looking for schools and it was the ideal time. Winter, along with all the snow is a slow time and not the best time to show your home.
You only have one chance to make a good impression, therefore have a great curb appeal
You only have one chance to make a good impression. The buyer needs to feel this is the place they want to buy and live in. The home needs to have a welcome, safe and warm aura about it. The home needs to have an appeal that makes buyers stop and take a look or come to the open house.
Start by painting the outside of your home. Add some colored flowers and shrubs. Make sure the mailbox, house number, door handle, and overhead light are in good condition and cohesive. Control the weeds and cut any overgrown shrubs. The driveway should be clean and all walkways swept. I also recommend that you have large pots filled with fresh flowers at the entrance.
Declutter your home
Selling your home is the right time to donate or get rid of stuff you do not use. To get the home ready for painting and staging, less is more. Remember nothing is off-limit for buyers. Look at all your visible areas like tables, counters, windowsills, and then cupboards, drawers, and closets. No one wants to walk into a messy home as it shows that there is not enough space.
Get rid of old condiments, knives, and cutlery that do not work, baby clothes, reference books, old medications, old towels and bedsheets, CDs, plastic grocery bags, clothes that you do not wear, plastic containers, wire hangers, old jewelry, old office supplies, old paint and anything you do not use.
We made eight trips to the diabetes center and ten trips to Value Village.
To sell your home depersonalize it
The home has been decluttered. Now the home is not yours anymore. You have to prepare it for the future owner. Remove all personal items and photos from the fridge and the living room.
For me, the most challenging was to take off all my diplomas and degrees from the office. The whole goal is so that the new owner can see themselves living there.
Clean your home
After decluttering and depersonalizing your home it is time to clean it thoroughly. The home should be spotless. Everything should be tidy and in place, even when you are living in it.
Use neutral colors to paint
Darwin gave us a suggestion to paint in neutral gray which did the trick. The light color allows the buyer to see how the walls would look with their colors. We hired a painter who painted the bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchen. The baseboards, walls, and doors all looked amazing.
You are not selling your home, you are selling your kitchen
It is important to remember that you are not selling your home, but your kitchen. If you do not want to remodel the whole kitchen, paint the cabinet hardware and make sure the appliances are stainless steel. The kitchen should not look dated.
Stage your home
We had lived 18 yrs in the home. The home was screaming 2000. We were selling in the spring of 2022. Staging galvanizes and rejuvenates a home. You will make more money, the home will sell faster, it helps you to become objective and Darwin was paying for it.
The professional stagers look at the home and your personal belongings and decide what will take it to the next level. They will give you some paint suggestions. The stagers know the real estate and what buyers want. Their main goal is to get buyers excited about your home.
Once the home is decluttered, depersonalized, cleaned, and painted, the home is ready to be staged by professional stagers.
Make sure the listing looks professional
The home is ready to be photographed for the listing. The agent of the buyer will be sending daily updates for any new listing. The buyers will be seeing your home online and make sure there is a video tour and 360-degree views and high-quality visuals of your home. Great visuals will set your home apart and more people will want to see it.
Once listed now what
The real estate agent might want to list from Tuesday to Saturday and then take offers on Sunday. The home needs to be perfect at all times. Do not cook at home during the listing period. Make sure everything looks perfect and be flexible.
Have details of the age of the roof, the age of the HVAC system, any renovations or upgrades, and when the windows were changed.
The realtor will attach a lock box to the front door to allow buyers and their agents access to the property.
I strongly recommend not to be in the home when people are visiting. Do not cook or make sure there are no smells.
If you follow the above secrets, I am sure you will get a great price for your home.
Jerry you shared some important things to bear in mind when selling a home. When to sell is great point, especially in our current housing market. We are in a seller’s markets and now is the best time capitalize in this housing climate, well according to some Realtors.
These are great tips. I think the most important one is using a realtor. They can help you with all these other tips!
Whether it is buying or selling a house, I find the process is always stressful. And the same for renting, at least in my city. These tips are very useful to take it easy, if possible!
These are spot on! While I have never sold a home before, I have moved and some of your tips apply. One thing I had to learn the hard way was to remove my emotional attachment to the home. But when you’ve been there for so long it is tough. Another one that I know works from experience is staging. It really does make the buyer that much more interested when the house is staged.
These are great tips and hacks to sell a home! We used some of these and our house sold in one day! Sharing this with other friends who are looking to sell.
Maintaining a business mindset while people poke through your closets is definitely a major challenge. Listing in early spring was a strategic move to catch families before the new school year. Your advice on curb appeal is really helpful.
Amazing! Such a cool strategy of investing to make sure a better profit of investment, love it!
By chance we are currently decluttering a property before we start work on it to prepare it for sale so this post couldn’t have come at a better time. This property was bought for a purpose but it is definitely time to sell it so thankfully we don’t have any emotional ties. We are doing a few updates to rooms including the kitchen but nothing major thankfully. Once this is done the home will be staged and hopefully sold for a fair rate. Wish me luck!!!
These are all great tips to have in deciding where and when you will sell your house
WOW, this is such solid advice. Selling a home really is emotional, and I love how you reminded people to think like a businessperson instead of just a homeowner. The decluttering and depersonalizing part is so important, even though it’s hard. And you are absolutely right about curb appeal and staging, those first impressions matter. So many helpful tips here for anyone getting ready to list.
Thank you for such great advice on selling your home! I definitely agree with leaving the emotion out of it and trying to think more like a seller and a businessperson. These are all really wonderful tips!
I have only sold one house, purchased two, in my life so far. But we are slowly on the hunt for a new house, so I have been looking at homes. I agree with most of this, other than taking personal items out/off the walls. It never bothers me to see their family photos, to me, that’s what makes a house a home and lets me see that it was owned by well-loving people.
Buying or selling a home can be one of the most stressful periods of a person’s life and it is a very emotional experience. As we say in the business, a home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, so having realistic expectations is key.
In NY, we submit offers as soon as they are presented and showings must be allowed unless the seller designates specific off limit times. All homes in all conditions do sell because there will always be buyers willing to buy them. The key element in real estate is location, location, and location. All good points in your posts.