Home Sellers: What you Need to Do to Get Ready to Sell Your Home
If you’re thinking about selling your home, this blog post is for you. Every home Seller wants to sell their home for the best possible price in the quickest amount of time, and though there are no promises to be made, there are steps you can take to make that happen. Houses do not just sell themselves – in this day and age of social media, the photo obsessed culture and home shows on TV, people have high expectations and it can take some work to impress. The good thing? People notice the effort, and that means great things for you.
The Fall Market this year is expected to be quite busy. There are a lot of eager Buyers who didn’t find anything over the summer, who are ready to jump on something good this fall. Home Sellers – take advantage of this activity and call us. We’ll help you sell your home quickly and for a great return.
Here are 10 Tips on how to Sell your Home Quickly and for a Good Price:
1. Hire a Proven Real Estate Agent
That’s the WeLoveEastVan team. We’ve sold homes in every price range, and with a great marketing platform. We have experience when it comes to selling unique homes to unique buyers, and we know the East Van market. Our proven negotiation skills will get the job done when it counts. Contact us so we can walk you through our process.
2. Have amazing photos
People are photo obsessed these days, often not bothering to read any information since the photos often tell the story, so we need to make sure that your photos show the space at it’s finest. Showcasing the flow of the home, the colours, the extra design details and the use of the rooms – these photos need to sell your home. You want the home to have a good mix of natural light and focused light to create the right angles. This is your opportunity to clear the space of any unnecessary furniture and trinkets – this way you’ll always be able to show Buyers what your home could look like when it’s clutter free (as sometimes life gets in the way during showings). These photos need to be high resolution so they look great online.
3. Various Kinds of Marketing Exposure
In order to reach a high number of Buyers, we need to display your home in a number of ways. With front lawn signage for people who want a change in the same neighbourhood (people still do drive-bys through neighbourhoods to see what’s for sale!), great feature sheets for Buyers to take home, exposure on multiple websites and social media accounts allowing people to share your listing, and open houses to allow Buyers to come through and spend some time in the home. Feel free to let your neighbours know (as they might have friends and family who are looking to move), and post a link to the listing on your own social media account.
4. List at a price the current market supports
Before listing your home, we’ll take a look through recent sales and interesting comparables currently on the market in order to see where your home should be priced. Buyers and their Real Estate Agents will be looking through these comparables as well.
5. Work on your Curb Appeal
Like I mentioned earlier, people still do drive-bys of potential properties in order to get a sense of the neighbourhood, the front yard and how well your home has been taken care of. This is the first impression your home gives in person and it needs to be a good one. If it looks cared for, maintained and livable, Buyers will notice. Use greenery, well maintained paint (for the exterior, garages and other details) and lighting in order to give your home a look that people would be proud of. Condo owners – this goes for you too. When your strata is discussing what to do about the lobby and exterior – have a voice. The better the building feels, the better Buyers will feel as they walk through it.
6. Make your Home Problem Free
Do as much as you can to mitigate small reasons Buyers might have against the property. Creaky doors, loose drawers, flowing toilets, holes in the wall and a messy home are small but quick turn offs for Buyers. Do what you can to make your home spotless and move in ready for the new Buyer. The best part? You can enjoy the fruits of your labour until it sells. We have a lot of clients who do these small tasks and wish they had done them sooner!
7. If you’re willing, renovate the small things
If your home has some modern updates (i.e. you re-did the kitchen 2 years prior) but other rooms in the house are still needing a reno, think about some quick updates. What comes to mind is a new bathroom vanity, a few new light fixtures, or even a good coat of paint in rooms that really need it. In this situation, you don’t want to spend too much time of money on something that’s a quick flip, but the extra effort can help push a Buyer into saying yes.
8. Keep your Schedule Flexible
If your property is desirable, you’ll have a lot of people wanting to view it, which means keeping it at a certain level of tidy. There will be a lot of requests for viewings during the day, but even more so in the evening and on the weekends. Buyers need to view the property in order to sell it, so get as many Buyers in as possible. If you can schedule a weekend away the first week your home is listed for sale, do so, it’ll be easier on yourself and the team of realtors. If not, we’ll try to group showings as much as possible, but quick or odd requests will come up, and it’s best to be prepared to show at those times.
9. Create a comfortable environment
You want your home to look lived in and loved. A new Buyer will be making this their home, so they want to know that it’s a place that can be comfortable and warm environment to come home too.Allow your furniture to show how the space flows, and how it can be accommodating to kids or different interests. Staging can go a long way when it comes to creating rooms with purpose. Its an odd phenomenon, but rooms often look smaller no furniture (and on the flipside, they can look smaller with too much furniture). You’ll want to remove a lot of really personal items to create a space that works for anyone – some family photos are nice, but not too many – Buyers needs to picture themselves in the space, rather than your family.
10. Be willing to compromise
When it comes down to offers, the price and dates are usually the main sticking points for people. During negotiations, we’ll have your best interests in mind, but sometimes a little give and take can go a long way in sealing a deal.
Give us a call – we’d love to chat with you about how we can sell your house, and what the current market is saying regarding it’s value. We’re experts, and we aim to make this process as good as possible.
