Getting Ready To Sell Your Home? Follow These Important Tips

When you decide to sell your home, you will have many details to take care of along the way. But well before you ever sign on the dotted line and wrap up the closing process, there are many things you should do to make sure you not only sell your property as fast as possible, but get the price you want as well. From working with an excellent real estate agent to taking advantage of the latest technology, these and other tips will go far in making the sale of your home fast, convenient, and profitable.

Hire a Great Real Estate Agent

While you could try to sell your home yourself, you will come out far better in the long run if you place your home’s sale in the hands of an experienced and knowledgeable real estate agent. However, don’t choose the first agent you find listed online or in the newspaper. Instead, ask family and friends for suggestions, do some research on possible candidates, and then interview each agent until you find one you like. By sitting down and talking with an agent, you will be able to find out about their track record of success with properties similar to yours, learn more about their knowledge of the local real estate market, and much more.

Beware of Red Flags

When selling your home, always be aware of any red flags that arise along the way. This is especially important when choosing your real estate agent, since making the wrong choice can result in your property being on the market for an extended period of time and you ultimately getting far less than your original asking price. For example, if you hire an agent and then always have trouble getting in touch with them, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, if they cannot or will not answer your questions in a straightforward manner, have moved around from one agency to another over the years, or simply give off negative vibes when you are around them, do yourself a favor and find another agent.

Staging Your Home

If you want to make sure your home looks like a modern 21st-century property that prospective buyers will be eager to own, place a large emphasis on home staging. By working with an experienced real estate agent, they can put you in touch with professional home stagers who can evaluate various aspects of your home and help turn it into a showplace. For example, a stager may recommend you buy certain items or possibly rent some furniture to spruce up your place a bit. In many instances, they may be able to simply take what you already own and rearrange it to make it look more trendy. Since home stagers are well-known for having an in-depth knowledge of the real estate market and what it takes to sell a home, do not discount their advice. By embracing the challenge of staging, your home is virtually assured of selling quicker and at a higher price.

Don’t Be Afraid to Upgrade Your Home

While it may cost you some money to do so, making various upgrades to your home will pay off handsomely once you find a buyer. Whether you need to put on a new roof, modernize your kitchen or bathroom, or maybe purchase some new appliances and possibly include them with the home when you sell, these and other upgrades will make prospective buyers even more tempted to pay you your asking price. If you decide to pursue upgrading your home, make sure you do so well enough in advance of when you are wanting to move, just in case they take longer than you originally anticipated.

Add Some Flowers and Trees

Like people, your home will not get a second chance to make a first impression on buyers. Therefore, plan on grabbing a shovel and getting some dirt under your fingernails by doing some landscaping throughout your yard. As for what to do, create some new flower beds here and there, making sure you add a variety of brightly-colored flowers and bushes. Along with this, take some time to trim any nearby trees so that limbs don’t look as if they are ready to fall on your house. In addition, keep your lawn mowed regularly while your home is on the market, since this will keep everything looking neat and orderly.

Curb Appeal is Crucial

While landscaping is a crucial part of giving your home the curb appeal it will need to sell quickly and at your asking price, there are other aspects of curb appeal you should also consider. One of the most important is getting rid of any excess clutter around your home. After all, you don’t want buyers to think you have been running a junkyard in your spare time. Therefore, if you have broken-down patio furniture or an old car you’ve been trying to restore for years, get rid of these as fast as you can. Once you do, buyers will be able to drive by your home and automatically envision themselves living there. When this happens, a deal is likely not far away.

Virtual Tours

When you are selecting a real estate agent to handle the sale of your home, always make sure they are up-to-date on the latest technology used to sell properties in today’s modern real estate market. This should include being able to use video technology to create a virtual tour of your home, which can then be posted on the realtor’s social media pages and their agency’s website as well. Though most buyers will still want to tour your home in person, it is not out of the question that a buyer will view the virtual tour and decide to buy your home. As more and more people have become comfortable purchasing homes online over the past decade, this can be a very effective marketing tool when selling your home.

Give Your Home a Good Cleaning

Whether you do this yourself or hire a professional service to do this for you, always make sure you give your home a thorough cleaning job before putting it on the market and showing it to any prospective buyers. From the attic and kitchen to the bedrooms and basement, a top-to-bottom cleaning job will have your home looking spotless. After the cleaning is completed, also make sure you give your home a smell test to ensure a potential buyer does not walk in and smell even the slightest of foul odors, which is especially important if you have pets in your household.

Hide Your Valuables

Unfortunately, some criminals use the pretense of buying a home to take advantage of unsuspecting sellers by walking through a home looking for valuables they can steal. Therefore, if you have valuable jewelry, artwork, or other items worth a significant amount of money, you may want to lock these up in a safe or store them somewhere other than in your home. Though most people who express interest in your home will be trustworthy, it’s best to stay a bit cautious.

Though it may sound like a lot of work, following each of these tips will likely result in a quicker-than-anticipated sale at a higher-than-anticipated price. If this sounds good to you, then roll up your sleeves, put your family and friends to work inside and outside your house, hire the best real estate agent in your area, and start planning on how you will enjoy life once your home is sold.

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