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When its time to market your home you must be ready to sell it to the first buyer to enter the property. Although comparing real estate sales to car sales is not the best of comparisons, there are some similarities. When we decide to sell a car, we detail it so it is spotless and start thinking about our new vehicle. The same preparation should apply to your home. Consider your home a product on the market that must compete for customers. Every effort should be made to stage the property as if you were expecting company.
Once the stage is set, it is important to know all of the pertinent details related to your property. The legal description, lot size, taxes, loan balance, all levels of schools, fire department, water and sewer providers, utility costs, improvements and any other information you'd like to know if you were considering the purchase of your house.
Try to place yourself in the buyer's shoes. It is important to remove yourself from your property and look at it with an objective eye. Buyer's really don't care how much tender loving care you've given the property. All buyers care about is how few dollars they can spend to buy the most amount of property. After twenty plus years of actively marketing real property, I find that buyers often buy one or two things about a property and everything else is free.
There are only three things that determine how fast any residential property will sell and for how much it . They are price, location and condition. There isn't anything you can do about the location of the property, so you only have control of price and condition. Buyers mentally reduce the value of your property by what they perceive as defects in its condition or the price. The better prepared you are to overcome objections, the faster your property will sell. The best way to overcome any objection is to eliminate the potential for the objection.
Buyers shop by comparison. I recently showed an out of town buyer fifteen properties before we found one that they perceived as being in "move in condition". My clients had completely remodeled their previous residence and were determined to find a home they could enjoy from day one. I find that many buyers today would rather buy a move in condition property
After you've prepared the stage and done the due diligence in terms of having answers to all the pertinent questions above, all that's left is preparing to move.
Whether you’re thinking about buying or selling or merely seeking information, rely on me to provide accurate up to date information about the marketplace today.
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