It's not an easy job to sell a house. It's a detailed process. You don't just advertise your house, meet a buyer, negotiate and sell it. There's a lot more involved and you should have a checklist that you should follow when selling your house. The home selling checklist includes some procedures that you must do in correlation to selling a home.
Below are things you should pay attention to before placing your house on the market:
- First off decide whether you want to pay an agent to sell your house or you do it by yourself. Paying a real estate agent means there's less effort involved on your part when selling your house. An agents job is to market, promote and show the house as necessary. They should also act as a mediator between the buyer and seller and over see the entire process to make it as smooth as possible. However, selling your house FSBO (For Sale By Owner) means no realtor commisions which will save you thousands of dollars when the house sells. If you're willing to put in the work required when selling by owner, it can be worth the money saved.
- Be a communicative and informed seller. It is necessary to your promotion strategy. You can use the media to promote your home, such as newspaper classified ad's, pamphlets, flyers and/or websites. Be prepared to answer any questions that a buyer might have about the property. Also, set time aside during the week when you can show or have the house shown. By having prearranged showing times during the week before hand, you don't have to scramble to clear your schedule and do last minute cleaning before the potential buyer(s) arrive.
- Get your house ready to sell by doing some improvments on the house exterior, interior, and update old appliances. The nicer a house looks, the quicker it will sell. If the lawn is overgrown and the paint is chipped and faded, mow the lawn and paint the exterior. Another tip is to paint the interior a neutral color, update the carpeting if it's old and worn down and replace outdated fixtures.
- Decide whether you want to pay a professional to do a pre-listing house inspection or not. Doing a home inspection before placing your house on the market is a good idea. By being aware of any problems ahead of time such as the furnace needs to be replaced or the roof needs to be fixed, you can either fix them before placing the house on the market or offer seller concessions to a potential buyer.
- Donate or sell some of your unnecessary furniture and appliances. Staging a home is very important when presenting it to buyers. If the home is cluttered and unorganized, remove some of the furniture and store it off site or have a yard sale and sell it with other unwanted items. Also, remove personal photos and minimize wall hangings to present a neutral environment to the buyers. The goal is for them to envision their belongings in the house, not yours.
- Get familiar with financing terms, such as mortgage financing (fixed, adjustable, seller financing, assumable loans), pre-qualified and pre-approved. Understanding these terms will benefit you when it comes time to dealing paperwork and contracts.
- Get familiar with negotiating such things as contracts, written offers, financing deals, etc. You should learn to do some counter offer approaching and all that's involved with the seller transaction process
.- Know about what you can improve or not with the house. Things you can improve are the interior, exterior and updating appliances. What you can't improve are things such as location, style, the school system, etc.
- Decide whether you will put a home warranty to your house or not. Offering some type of warranty may make all the difference in whether the house sells or not.
- Start searching for tips on buying a new house while you are still selling your old one. Where are you going to live once your house sells? What things should you be looking for as a buyer? Learn what you can from selling your house and apply it to buying your next home.
- Start planning your move by packing and storing items ahead of time. As mentioned above about storing extra furniture off site, it's never too early to start packing items and preping for the move. Start by packing items that you don't use or out of season items first. Also, have a detailed moving plan in place so that you can start moving right away once your house is sold.
The home selling checklist above shows you that there are some important things to consider when selling a house. You should pay attention to the home selling checklist and do the steps correctly.
See you next time...
Warmest regards,
Daniel Durham
Founder of Region Real Estate Resource
http://www.RegionRealEstateResource.com
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Realistically Determining The Value Of Your Home
With foreclosures on the rise and more houses for sale recently, the real estate market is now favoring buyers as opposed to sellers. Because of this current market trend, it's extremely important to price your home correctly. Realize that the market has changed and that you may not get as much for your property now as you would have a year ago. Also take into consideration that in this environment your house may take longer to sell as well. In this type of market, no one will be willing to over pay for a house. Qualified buyers have more options to choose from in a slow moving market and can negotiate better deals. When a home owner needs to sell quickly in a slow moving market, it's wise to consider selling on terms such as a lease option agreement. In this type of arrangement the home owner(s) usually get the full asking price as well as more money at closing due to the fact that the mortgage gets paid down during the duration of the lease agreement. Another benefit to selling your home by lease option is that there are no realtor fees involved, which puts more cash into the sellers pocket.
Some good advice to realistically determine the value of your home is to contact a few real estate brokers and have a compared property analysis done to see what similar homes in your area are currently selling for and also what they have sold for in the past six to twelve months. The agent should be able to provide you with sales figures to establish a starting point. Be sure they are comparing your home with others that are around the same size and have similar characteristics. Don't rely on the rumor mill of what you heard houses have sold for in your area. Often people will add about 15 percent to the actual selling price to get a better sounding figure. We at Region Real Estate Resource suggest that you rely on information provided by a real estate professional or service that specializes in comparable sales. Another thing to consider if you're going to put your house on the market is to have it appraised by a professional. This will also give you a starting point to base your asking price from as well as be alerted to any unknown defects in the property for disclosure purposes.
Most people aren't realistic when it comes to pricing their home. It's natural to believe that your home is worth more than it actually may be. It's important to realize that some sellers may get a higher asking price for a similar property because it is in better condition. Make your home as presentable as possible and increase your chances of getting your asking price. Invest some money into cosmetic improvements such as painting and new carpeting for example. You may love the current color of your living room, but potential buyers may find not to their liking and not be able to envision it a different color. When choosing the colors, go with neutral tones, nothing flashy. Paint should be off-white, with a beige tint for a soft, cozy feel. Don't use gray as it gives a cold and drab feeling. Never put up wallpaper. Carpet should be something in the beige-brown range, which is neutral and will hide some wear and tear. Use a low to mid range carpet, but go with a higher end pad. The nicer pad doesn't cost much more and it makes the cheaper carpet feel more expensive. It also makes it last longer. After making the necessary cosmetic improvements, present your home to buyers using home staging techniques such as removing photos and personal items. You want to depersonalize your home as much as possible when putting it on the market, price and presentation are the two main factors considered when buyers look at properties.
The worst mistake a home seller can make is over pricing to leave room for downward negotiations. Keep the asking price realistic and expect that it may have to be lowered somewhat when negotiating with a buyer. Generally homes attract the most buyers during the first few weeks on the market. If potential buyers are turned off by an above market value asking price, they will look elsewhere. If a home remains on the market for a long period of time, people start to believe something is wrong with it.
A wider audience increases the chance of getting the asking price. In today’s real estate market, a strong web presence is necessary because most buyers use it as a starting point for house hunting. The more access potential buyers have to seeing your home, the better your chances of a quicker sale. List your property with us on the largest network of real estate websites in the world with over 3 MILLION PAGE VIEWS each month. Buyers can get information about your property 24 hours and day, 7 days a week - 365 days a year - even while you are sleeping!
If you're going to use a real estate broker to market your home, they should expose your home to the greatest number of buyers possible by conducting open houses, broker tours, placing it on multiple listing services and working with relocation companies. However, if you decide to sell your home FSBO (For Sale By Owner) take into consideration that we buy houses and make offers within 24-48 hours.
Until next time...
Warmest regards,
Daniel Durham Founder of Region Real Estate Resource
http://www.regionrealestateresoure.com/
Some good advice to realistically determine the value of your home is to contact a few real estate brokers and have a compared property analysis done to see what similar homes in your area are currently selling for and also what they have sold for in the past six to twelve months. The agent should be able to provide you with sales figures to establish a starting point. Be sure they are comparing your home with others that are around the same size and have similar characteristics. Don't rely on the rumor mill of what you heard houses have sold for in your area. Often people will add about 15 percent to the actual selling price to get a better sounding figure. We at Region Real Estate Resource suggest that you rely on information provided by a real estate professional or service that specializes in comparable sales. Another thing to consider if you're going to put your house on the market is to have it appraised by a professional. This will also give you a starting point to base your asking price from as well as be alerted to any unknown defects in the property for disclosure purposes.
Most people aren't realistic when it comes to pricing their home. It's natural to believe that your home is worth more than it actually may be. It's important to realize that some sellers may get a higher asking price for a similar property because it is in better condition. Make your home as presentable as possible and increase your chances of getting your asking price. Invest some money into cosmetic improvements such as painting and new carpeting for example. You may love the current color of your living room, but potential buyers may find not to their liking and not be able to envision it a different color. When choosing the colors, go with neutral tones, nothing flashy. Paint should be off-white, with a beige tint for a soft, cozy feel. Don't use gray as it gives a cold and drab feeling. Never put up wallpaper. Carpet should be something in the beige-brown range, which is neutral and will hide some wear and tear. Use a low to mid range carpet, but go with a higher end pad. The nicer pad doesn't cost much more and it makes the cheaper carpet feel more expensive. It also makes it last longer. After making the necessary cosmetic improvements, present your home to buyers using home staging techniques such as removing photos and personal items. You want to depersonalize your home as much as possible when putting it on the market, price and presentation are the two main factors considered when buyers look at properties.
The worst mistake a home seller can make is over pricing to leave room for downward negotiations. Keep the asking price realistic and expect that it may have to be lowered somewhat when negotiating with a buyer. Generally homes attract the most buyers during the first few weeks on the market. If potential buyers are turned off by an above market value asking price, they will look elsewhere. If a home remains on the market for a long period of time, people start to believe something is wrong with it.
A wider audience increases the chance of getting the asking price. In today’s real estate market, a strong web presence is necessary because most buyers use it as a starting point for house hunting. The more access potential buyers have to seeing your home, the better your chances of a quicker sale. List your property with us on the largest network of real estate websites in the world with over 3 MILLION PAGE VIEWS each month. Buyers can get information about your property 24 hours and day, 7 days a week - 365 days a year - even while you are sleeping!
If you're going to use a real estate broker to market your home, they should expose your home to the greatest number of buyers possible by conducting open houses, broker tours, placing it on multiple listing services and working with relocation companies. However, if you decide to sell your home FSBO (For Sale By Owner) take into consideration that we buy houses and make offers within 24-48 hours.
Until next time...
Warmest regards,
Daniel Durham Founder of Region Real Estate Resource
http://www.regionrealestateresoure.com/
Sunday, March 9, 2008
A Real Estate Resource for Creative Ways to Prepare, Advertise & Sell Your House In Todays Real Estate Market
Today is an exciting day for house sellers everywhere!! The Region Real Estate Resource Network has decided to become part of the blogosphere to share our knowledgable ideas on preparing your house to sell, important things you need to be aware of, how to negotiate and creative ways to advertise your house to sell in todays real estate market.
In this blog, we will regularly publish:
In this blog, we will regularly publish:
- Ways to prepare your house before placing it on the market
- How to negotiate a real estate contract
- What to look for when choosing a real estate agent
- Tips and advice on selling For Sale By Owner
- Understanding real estate contracts and clauses
- How to determine the value of your home
And much... much more! Ultimately, this blog is meant to be a real estate resource to you so we're open to suggestions on what you'd like to hear about.
If you're interested in what we have to say, I encourage you to sign up to recieve blog updates by email in the sign up box on the right side of the page of any blog article.
By doing so, we'll deliver the information right to you so that you won't miss a single article.
See you next time...
Sincerely,
Daniel Durham Founder of Region Real Estate Resource
http://www.RegionRealEstateResource.com
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