Archive for the ‘Sellers’ Category

Don’t you wish that your HALF MILLION DOLLAR home was represented by a photo like this? And I’m not just giving the agent a hard time over one photo. There are only 9 Photos and 4 of them should be thrown away.

What does it take to get a house from the decision to sell, all the way to the closing table? That’s what we’re going to go over a bit in this series of posts.

Depending on your situation, the decision to sell can be a very easy one, or a terribly hard one. Life situations are the normal causes. Transfers, kids, pay raises, job losses, retiring, upsizing, downsizing, and a ton of other reasons play a part in reasons to sell your home.

Now, the decision has been made. You’re selling. What do you do now?

Step 1: Get Ready to Sell

If you’re reading this now, chances are you’ve read a ton of those “How to Get your Home Ready to Sell” lists. If you haven’t Google it and you’ll see what I mean. I’m not going to go into detail about it because most of the lists are the same and they all make good points. Here’s the condensed version of what you need to know:

1. If it’s broken, fix it.
2. Clean, and keep clean.
3. Declutter.

Those are the most important things. Do those and you’ll be fine. Now that you have that out of the way, it’s time to make a very important decision.

Step 2: Realtor or For Sale by Owner?

This paragraph may read a little differently than most of you will expect. This isn’t going to be a “Using a Realtor is SO much better and there’s NO WAY to sell without a Realtor” paragraph. Why? Because that’s not always the case. I’ve known people that have never used a Realtor and have sold every house they’ve ever owned. I’ve also known people that have tried to sell a home on their own and have vowed to never do it again. It all depends on your situation. It all boils down to time. Is hiring a Realtor worth the amount of time it will save you?

Ok, now you’re probably wondering, “How can a Realtor save me time?” Here you go:

1. Home showings. This is the most time consuming part of selling a home. People want to look at homes at all times of the day. Is it in the realm of possibility to leave work anytime someone is sitting out front and wants to look at the house? What about “no-shows”? You make an appointment, get everything ready, and leave work only to get there and your buyer decided not to come. It happens.

If there would always be someone home, then this isn’t that big of an issue. A Realtor helps in the fact that you never have to be there. The Realtor coordinates everyone’s schedules for the showing to happen.

2. Getting your home in the MLS. The MLS is the massive online home system that most buyers look at while searching for homes. Without using a Realtor, you can’t get your home in the MLS. The MLS is also where the majority of home buyers come from.

There are several large FSBO sites, though. Just because you can’t get your home in the MLS without a Realtor, doesn’t mean that you can’t properly market your home online.

3. Negotiation, statistics, and paperwork. A good Realtor knows the market. They know what to price your home at for it to sell. They have access to thousands of home sales in the area that they can compare and contrast your home to. They have standardized forms that make selling a home much more streamlined than piecing together forms and documents from different sources. An experienced Realtor knows how to negotiate and help you get the best price possible for your home.

Saying all that, it doesn’t mean that you can’t handle this yourself with a little legwork. You can look at homes in your neighborhood to see what they’re priced at with amenities comparable to yours. If you’ve been through the process before, you know where to find access to all the forms and documentation you need. Again, it all depends on your situation and how much work and time you are willing to sacrifice to do it.

Here’s my thoughts on it. To me, it’s like laying tile or brick, or building a garage or whatever. Some people just know how, or have done it enough to do a superb job without any help from a professional. Others think they can get the job done and refuse to pay someone to do something that they can do. It may not be as pretty as a pro job, but it’s still functional and does what it’s supposed to do (This is actually the category I fall in to). The rest of the population just pays someone to do it to be done with it.

Part II will focus on the offer and negotiation process.