Sellers
Sellers Guide
Staging your Home
Pricing your Home
What’s my Home Worth?
Sellers Guide
Upper Keys Sellers Guide:
The Importance of Using an Experienced Agent When You Sell Your Home
Selling a home isn’t a simple as cleaning up the interior and exterior and placing a “For Sale” sign in the yard. There many things that go into the sale of a home which is largely unseen by the general public. Market analysis, marketing the property, networking in certain circles and negotiating with potential buyers takes a great deal of time–and expertise. When homeowners go it alone and sell buy-owner or “FSBO”, for-sale-by-owner, they could be making a number of mistakes and not even be aware of it.
Marketing
As mentioned, a “For Sale” sign isn’t sufficient to market a home for sale. There is a whole universe of potential buyers across the street, over county lines, in other states and even other countries. Experienced agents start the marketing process by looking at a home through a potential buyer’s eyes. What they see leads them to form recommendations to the seller. A property’s scalability is based on this analysis. It’s important to know not only the history of a home but its competition on the next street over or in surrounding neighborhoods.
Advertising
Advertising is a large part of marketing. It’s important and critical to know where to feature the property and what circles to introduce a particular home. This greatly increases a property’s strategic exposure, making it visible to the very audience which is most likely to act. With an experienced agent selling a property, the home will be made available to other brokerages and agents. And that’s a huge advantage considering over 50 percent of homes are sold in cooperative transactions, according to Realtor. com. These are transactions involving an agent other than the seller’s bringing in the buyer.
Security and Qualifying
Selling a home means making it accessible to complete strangers. Complete strangers which may or may not be qualified to buy a home. Many sellers feel uncomfortable opening their home to strangers on a whim. But having a seller’s agent means not having to restructure schedules in order to sell a house. A good seller’s agent knows how to vet buyers and assess their level of enthusiasm, not to mention their ability to secure financing.
Negotiations
Selling a home is an emotional event. Memories abound. And homeowner bias often clouds judgment about their property’s actual market value. A good seller’s agent takes care of the negotiations to get the best selling price properly for the homeowner possible. Problems can arise and having an experienced professional can make all the difference.
Staging your Home
Upper Keys Home Staging 
Just twenty years ago, it was enough to scrub down a home, giving it a good spring cleaning, and hiding the kitty litter box. With a deep cleaning came enough of an impression to woo buyers and sell your home without having to put much into the preparation.
Times have changed and any real estate professional will tell you that other than location and price, impression matters the most. Because we live in a world where information is readily available, image means everything. Buyers want to see a home in its best condition before even considering stepping foot inside the property.
It’s not uncommon to have a pre-listing inspection done to identify necessary fixes and improvements. However, this usually only goes to functionality, and not to aesthetics, and that’s missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
Cost versus Return
Most homeowners reject the idea of staging because they only see the cost involved; but, when the return is factored-in, that significantly changes the dynamic. The numbers are quite convincing, as a professionally staged home sees an average of a $1,780 price increase or a 586 percent ROI.
Of all professionally staged homes, a full 95 percent sell in just 11 days or less. What’s more, these professionally staged properties sell for an average of 17 percent more than non-staged homes.
Why Hire a Professional Stager
Sure, you can do many things on your own. You can change the oil in your car, replace a light fixture, and other simple DIY projects. However, when it comes to getting your home ready to market, your competence has little to do with the equation, but your emotional attachment does. Here’s why hiring a home stager makes a lot of sense:
● You’re too close to your property. Honestly, you’re just too close to your home to see many of its flaws. A stager will look at it through a buyer’s eyes and give you an honest assessment.
● Highlight the house’s best features. A stager knows how to make the best features stand out to give your home more selling points.
● Compensating for shortcomings. In addition to putting the spotlight on the home’s best selling and living features, a stager will know how to minimize any negatives.
● Deciding what stays and what goes. You might really like that old chair, but it could be a turn-off to potential buyers. A stager will objectively assess what stays and what goes.
● Bringing in the right extras. Artwork, pillows, carpets, and other decors necessary to pull the concept together and make your home look its best.
Pricing your Home
Upper Keys Home pricing
Importance of Pricing Your Upper Keys Home Correctly to Sell
Everyone’s heard the age-old real estate cliche, that the single most important factor is, “location, location, location.” Indeed, that’s the truth, but there’s a lot more to the real depth of that statement. When you are ready to market your home to sell, you’ll obviously want to do so quickly and for the most money.
Getting a good return on your investment is what home ownership is all about. However, there are ways to make that a reality and to avoid the nightmare of having to settle for less. It’s an unenviable position to be in, one that sadly, is often self-induced.
Importance of Pricing Your Home Correctly to Sell
Selling your home, as you might imagine, takes a whole lot more than just staking a For Sale sign in the yard and taking out ads. It’s an entire holistic process, and, while that might sound funny, it’s serious. Your property is someone else’s future home, meaning the next owner is ready to start a new life by turning a house into a home.
Even if you stage it perfectly, take great photos, write a compelling listing description, and, offer buyer incentives, you’re still likely to generate any interest if it’s not priced correctly. Here are some helpful tips on what to do and not to do when pricing a home to sell:
● Learn its true market value. All too often, homeowners base their prices on the listing or asking prices of other, similar homes. That’s a big, big mistake because those homes have not sold and are not under contract. Though these may have similar square footage, the same number of beds and baths, as well as amenities, they aren’t truly comparable. Base your listing price on comparable homes that have sold in the past 3 to 6 months.
● Be careful about pricing with “room to negotiate.” While it’s very tempting to price your home just above market value because of all the improvements and upgrades you’ve made, it’s nonetheless a mistake. Especially when you’re doing so to give potential buyers room to negotiate down because it will be well known you’re only interested in trying to dominate.
● Don’t be too aggressive in discount pricing. There’s a time when it’s okay to price a property below market value to pique buyer interest. However, when you do this, you inadvertently send a signal that you’re desperate, or, there’s something wrong with the home.
Speak with your selling agent and listen to the advice you’re being given. Although it’s difficult, you’ll have to leave emotion out of it or pay the price.
What’s my Home Worth?
