By DANI ROBINSON, Realtor
Guest Columnist
If you’re thinking of selling your house, you probably have a lot of questions that need answers. In fact, asking the right questions is key to selling your home successfully and for the best price.
Here are some of the most important questions to ask:
- How much is our house likely to sell for on today’s market? What should the listing price be? What are the selling costs?
- How long will it take to sell? What happens if our house takes longer than expected to sell?
- How do we prepare our house for the sale? Will we need to make any major improvements? Will we need to hire a contractor?
- What’s ‘home staging’? Will we need to hire a professional stager? Can we do some of that staging work ourselves?
- What happens when we get an offer? What if the offer price is lower than we can accept? How does the negotiation process work?
- What happens after an offer is accepted? What happens on closing day?
- How do we find a new home while selling our current one?
- Besides a good real estate agent, what other professionals do we need? How do we find them?
- What can we do to make the selling process easier and less stressful?
Once you have answers to these questions, you’ll find you’ll be able to go into the selling process with a lot more confidence.
So, if you’re thinking of selling this year, get the answers you need. Then, get the process started!
Time to prepare your home
When a buyer views your home for sale, they want to visualize themselves living there. They want to imagine cooking in the kitchen, relaxing in the living room, and enjoying get-togethers with family and friends.
However, when they see a baseball trophy on the mantle with your name on it, that visualization crumbles. That’s why it’s smart to depersonalize your home as much as possible when selling.
You don’t have to go too far. Simply do what you can to remove items that scream “We live here!” Consider stowing items such as:
- Trophies, diplomas, certificates and anything else with a name prominently displayed on it.
- Personal and family pictures.
- Mementos, knickknacks and other items of a personal nature.
- Notes, pictures, etc. on a fridge door or bulletin board.
Depersonalizing is a proven staging strategy that can help sell your home faster and for a better price. Depending on the number of personal items you have, you may be able to display them between viewings.