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  1. Helpful Hits to Sell Your Home

    Jun02

    Comments (540) June 02, 2009 | posted by: CWPStaff
     

    So you want to sell your home but you are reluctant to try in the current market.  That is understandable given the state of the economy and the news hype that seems to be mostly negative.  “Is now even a good time to think about selling”, you may ask?  The answer is; it all depends on your individual circumstance.  Why do you want to sell your home?  Do you need to sell for financial reasonns? Maybe you just want to sell and move up to a larger or newer home?  There could be any number of reasons but each one will determine your particular selling strategy.

     

    Let’s take a look at the current housing competition first of all.  In Madison County there are currently 192 homes for sale including single family homes, town home/condominiums, and manufactured homes.  That are 24 more homes on the market today than wereavailable in February of this year.  In Jefferson County there are 281 homes, 36 more than in February, and in Fremont County there are 244 homes available, 49 more than in February.  The trend here is an increase in the amount of inventory or competition for the buyers looking for housing.  Since the competition is greater your home will have to stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed.

     

    Here are a few guidelines to make you home more marketable:

    1. Clean up the yard.  Trim hedges, lawn edges, and trees as needed to make the outside yard area look its best.
    2. Check the exterior of the home.  Is there any peeling or faded paint that could use a touch up?  Are there loose or damaged pieces of siding?  How about rain gutters?  Are they clean and attached well.  Check the roof for loose or missing shingles.  The exterior of the home and the yard are the first impression that you are trying to create.  Many buyers, in fact most buyers do a drive-by before they even make a contact for a showing of the inside.  Make the outside look as good as possible.
    3. Now on the inside.  First of all “de-clutter” the home.  Not that your home is necessarily cluttered; what I mean here is to make space.  Taking a dozen pictures off from a wall and replacing it with one.  Reduce the number of pieces of furniture in each room.  Remove as many items from kitchen counter tops as practical.  Office areas can be clean and neat.  You may need to place things in storage or a garage while you are selling the home.  All this de-cluttering will have the effect of opening the home and making it look larger.
    4. Think light.  Open curtains, add a lamp, and paint walls a light color, anything to make it look lighter and brighter.  And speaking of paint; a fresh coat of paint is relatively inexpensive, you can do it yourself, and it will make the home look fresh and clean.
    5. Depending on the age of the home, you may want to consider new siding and windows.  You can get tax credits for energy efficient windows and insulation.  This will help defray the costs some. 
    6. That takes care of many of the appearance items; now let’s take a look at pricing.  In a competitive market like we are in right now where there are fewer buyers. Pricing is everything.  If the home is priced right it will sell.  Trying to squeeze every last penny out of your home is a sure fire way to be sure your home is the last one to sell rather than the first.  Many of the home improvements that you do to a home will not yield you dollar for dollar in the sale price.  What it will do is make the home more marketable.  Here is where the use of a realtor® is invaluable.  A realtor® will meet with you and do a market analysis for you so you can price your home for what it will sell for not just the price you think you would like to have out of your home. Realtors® do not charge for this service even if you decide to try and sell the home on your own. It is just human nature to think your home is worth more than it will really sell for and that the home you are looking at is over priced.  We all do that either consciously or unconsciously.  That unbiased opinion brings us back to reality.
    7. What about advertising?  How do you get the word out that you have a home for sale?  You put a sign in the front yard of course.  Many people think that that is all a realtor® does so you’d ought to be able to do that your self.  Then just take the check when the buyer knocks on the door and you have saved yourself the sales commission.  That may work too if you are in a highly desirable area with high traffic flow and a lot of people can see your sign.  Most likely you will need more than that.  A realtor® will do much more for you than that and at their expense not yours.  Almost all home buyers these days find their homes on the internet.  A realtor® will have your home in front of internet searchers from the first day where your home is most likely to be seen.  Also when a realtor puts your home on the local multiple listing service (MLS) then you in effect not only hire your listing agent but you are hiring hundreds of selling agents who will have access to you home information so they can bring you a buyer.
    8. What about liability?  Are you ready to take the risk of selling your home by yourself and take the risk of a law suit because you forgot to tell the buyers some material fact about the home that they found out about latter and now want you to mitigate the problem?  A realtor® can really help you there as well.
     

    I hope that a few of these ideas will help you with the sale of your home.  Even in today’s market a home will sell if it looks good, is priced right, and your home is put in front of the buyers that are out there.  Contact a realtor® today and ask them for help.  They will be more than happy to give you the help you need to get your home sold at a reasonable price.  They can also help you find the replacement home you are looking for.  Leave the work ato them and enjoy the process.

     

    Paul Bowen

    President, Upper Valley Realtors® Association

     

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