If you are like most people, the thought of selling your home can be overwhelming and even intimidating to think about. Understanding how to navigate around the many pitfalls and “unknowns” can be greatly simplified by adhering to the following 6 steps to selling your home:
1. Learn your home’s market value
- When it comes time to think about selling, you need a firm idea of your home’s “market” value. Market value is what a buyer is willing to pay on the open market.
- Contact a GRE agent so that they can come out and give you a practical idea of your home’s value.
2. Assess your home’s physical condition
- When you look to sell, you need to think like a seller by seeing your home as a “product” and its potential for sale on the open market.
- In most cases, you will have some work to do whether it is moving things to storage to make the home more enticing to buyers or painting and staging.
3. Start watching the comps
- The first step to having a successful home sale is to gather all of the necessary information.
- Once your GRE agent has advised you on your homes current market value and what you need to do to make it ready to sell, we will set you up on an automated search with neighborhood listings and home trends to ensure that you are fully engaged in the local real estate market.
- Watch the comps on these houses so you understand how your agent is calculating the highest and best price for your home.
4. Set a deadline and get to work
- After speaking with your GRE agent, you may have any number of things to do before you can list your home for sale.
- Determine how much work you are willing to do and how much you are willing to spend to have the work done.
- Your GRE agent will advise you on the things that need to be done to bring the greatest return on your investment as well as to help manage and coordinate the work and staging.
5. Price your home and list!
- You and your agent should pick a date to get the property officially “listed” and then work back from there to plan the work. Make sure the home is “open house ready” for the photo shoot and virtual tour. This is the first impression of your home to all prospective buyers.
- Contact your lender to get an accurate pay off amount of any loans you have on your property. Your GRE agent will work with a title company give you figures for closing costs and transfer fees. Lastly, calculate the expenses needed to get your home ready to sell.
- The final sales price will be a collaboration of the highest and best market value, expenses and the necessary funds needed to close.
- The list price of your home can make or break the deal!
6. Marketing
- Now it is up to your GRE agent to get your home sold! Here are a few of the things a GRE agent does to market your property:
- Staging
- Professional Pictures
- Virtual Tours
- Interactive Floor Plan
- Unique Property Website
- U-Tube Commercials
- List Hub (listing on over 600 internet sites)
- Instant Text Property Notification and Information
- Open Houses
- Print Marketing
- Mailers
- Social Media