Nick Rogers
Selling a home can be a harrowing task if you’re not familiar with the process. A tremendous amount of work is involved, certain things need to happen in a particular order, and there are lots of moving pieces to manage. Being aware of what you need to do to get your home market-ready will prepare you for a smooth, stress-free home selling experience and will put your property in an advantageous selling position. Here is the step-by-step guide to hiring a realtor and getting your home ready for sale.
Step 1: Hire a Realtor
There are a couple routes to go when selling a home. You can take your chances and try For Sale by Owner or you can hire a pro to lead the way. If you are experienced in real estate, doing it yourself could be an option — for everyone else, working with a realtor gets sellers the most money with a quick turnaround and can take the stress out of the equation. This is why the first step to selling a home is to hire a realtor.
When looking for the right realtor, there are a few things to consider and ask yourself before deciding to work with them. What is their expertise area? Do they have positive reviews from their clients? Are they trusted and established in the real estate world? Keep in mind that you’ll be working with them closely for several months so having someone you have confidence in is key.
Once you have a realtor in mind, you should talk to them about their approach and pricing strategy for your home to see if it matches with your expectations. It’s also helpful to understand how they plan to market your home — are they tech-savvy and do they seem knowledgeable about promoting your home online? Having these types of conversations with your realtor will give you an idea about what to expect when working with them before you decide.
Step 2: Get Your Home in Selling Shape
Prospective buyers are attracted to properties that seem put together — if there is something broken, it could indicate that the home isn’t well taken care of and that there might be some other underlying issues. This is why it’s important to prepare your home for selling and make sure it’s in good shape for observant buyer eyes.
In order to get your home in selling shape, you should fix the things in the house that are broken. This should be done before you list the home. Especially if the problem areas of the home can be fixed easily, you should address it before putting it on the market so that you’re putting your best foot forward. To do this the right way, your realtor can help you figure out which types of things to resolve.
A few of the common problem areas of newly listed homes include the roof, old paint chipping away, poorly done wiring, sewer issues, water leaks, and broken exterior pieces. It also doesn’t hurt to update the CO2 and smoke detectors in the house because this is a requirement for appraisals and can give buyers peace of mind knowing that the seller took care of these types of details.
Step 3: Prepare Your Home for Showings
Once you have a handle on fixing what’s broken, you’re ready to begin preparing your home for showings. Your goal should be to create a welcoming environment that prospective buyers will love. To do this, you’ll need to take care of the basics by tidying up, neutralizing your space, and making it appealing to the average buyer.
The first thing to do is to declutter your personal belongings and minimize decor. If you have art on the walls or on display, make sure it’s tasteful and arranged in a way that maximizes the space in the room. The next thing to focus on is deep cleaning. You’ll want to clean the floors, grout, windows, dust all the fixtures, and scrub the bathrooms until it feels like new. It also helps put the buyers at ease and feel like they are at home when there are fresh flowers. Place a few flowers or living plants in the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedrooms. Once you have the inside of the house organized, you should clean up your front yard by adding some fresh mulch and flowers or greenery to increase curb appeal.
Make sure to keep your home clean and market-ready the entire time it’s up for sale. Buyers could be driving by at any time and will want to see a tidy yard with a welcoming home so leaving your blinds open during the day and your porch light on at night can help with this. Before any prospective buyers enter your house, remember to hide things that they don’t need to see. For example, if you have prescriptions or valuables, make sure they are in a safe place because people you don’t know will be touring your home.
Step 4: Put Your Home in Front of Potential Buyers
By this point, your home will be organized, clean, and ready to go for showings, but in order to find people who are interested in seeing your home, you’ll need to successfully market it. This is an important step that involves some strategizing. Your realtor will be able to help you take care of the listing, but it’s something you should be informed about.
Ask your realtor what their marketing strategy is and how they plan to put your home in front of the most people. If your realtor is especially tech-savvy then you are in luck because they can use those skills to your advantage by building a strong online presence for your property. Your listing should have search-engine-optimized content so that it appears at the top of online search results. With the combination of print materials, email marketing, social media, and flyers, your home will reach a sufficient amount of potential buyers.
If you do all of these steps, get ready to start receiving requests from interested buyers. You might even receive multiple offers which is a great situation to be in as a seller. You’ll need to work with your realtor on the best approach to maximize your profit. San Diego Realtor Nick Rogers will take the lead and market your home strategically to help you get the most from the sale. Contact Nick Today to sell your home!