Twenty percent of Americans plan to move in 2021. You’re one of them, but, before it happens, you want to learn more about the home selling process.
There’s a lot to learn when it comes to selling a home, after all. And, if you’ve never been on this side of the table, it can be confusing or overwhelming—or both—if you just dive in.
So, let’s go through our home selling process checklist. Here’s what to expect—prepare yourself now to make the sale seamless.
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1. Choose the Right Route
Most sellers will go the traditional route, preparing their home to sell to another family. In that case, you’ll need to work with a listing agent who understands your goals and needs. You might want to meet with a few local candidates to see the one who gels with you the best.
You might also discuss the option of selling home to an investor, which is a route often ignored by homeowners. There are plenty of benefits of going this way, though. You might find yourself making a faster or more lucrative sale, so ask your listing agent about this possibility, too.
2. Plan Your Home’s Listing
You will want to do a little bit of research before you put your home up for sale. First, look at comparable properties that are currently for sale. How much are they going for, and what features do they highlight?
This information can help you make your own home’s listing more alluring to potential buyers. Your listing agent can help you with this step, too. Together, you can come up with a price for your property that’s competitive.
You might also want to do a little research into the area in which you’re selling. When do most people list, sell and move? If you’re listing in the middle of winter when most people decide to move in spring, you might have to prepare yourself to wait a few months.
3. Freshen Up Your Abode
The home selling process will be much faster if you take time now to spruce up your house. We’re not talking about huge renovation projects, either.
Start by decluttering your home, moving room by room to get the job done. Potential buyers don’t want to see your personal effects everywhere or, worse yet, stuffed into closets and cabinets. This will make them think that the house doesn’t have enough storage space.
Once you declutter each room, move on to depersonalizing the space. As soon as your house is up for sale, it’s not yours anymore. So, take down personal photos and mementos that will take visitors out of the headspace in which they can envision the space as theirs.
On that note, you might have to repaint or take down the wallpaper in your home, too. Anything too bright or ornate will make it harder for someone to envision themself living in your abode. A neutral tone will be a blank canvas, quite literally, on which potential buyers can imagine their own belongings in your space.
4. Take Great Photos
Most buyers will check out your house online before coming to visit. This is why it’s so important to freshen up your home at the very beginning of this process—that’s when you’ll take the listing photos, which can make or break your sale.
You’ll want your home to look its best in these pictures. So, after you finish your staging, grab a camera and take clear, well-lit photos of each room. Your listing agent might send over a professional photographer to ensure you have crisp images that do justice to your property.
Don’t settle for poor-quality photos, though. They might deter people from coming to see your property when, in reality, it has great potential for them.
5. Don’t Jump at the First Offer—Unless It’s Great
Sometimes, newbies selling a house will jump on the first offer that they receive. They worry that they won’t get anything else, so they just accept what comes first.
Prepare yourself now for the negotiation process. What’s your absolute bottom line when it comes to price? Figure it out now so that you’re ready for a bit of back and forth.
You don’t want to be too stingy with the offers you receive, of course. But you love your home, and someone else is sure to feel the same way. So, don’t be scared to negotiate so everyone gets a deal that works for them.
6. Rework the Strategy If Necessary
If your house is sitting on the market for a while, it might be a sign that something’s missing. Perhaps your staging was a bit too light-handed. Or maybe you have priced your property a bit too high.
Your listing agent can probably provide some advice if the above two scenarios—the most common ones—don’t explain why your property isn’t selling. If home inspections have uncovered a problem, you might want to fix it to make the property more attractive to buyers. Most people want to move into a place that won’t require a lot of work, so get the job done for them.
Master the Home Selling Process
There’s no sole roadmap of the home selling process. Instead, every homeowner’s journey will be a bit different. Perhaps your house will fly off of the market, or maybe you’ll have to do a little bit of work before that happens.
Either way, the above steps will help you get your place ready and onto the market for as fast of a sale as possible. Don’t be scared to rework your strategy, either. All that matters is getting your home sold and, with the right mindset, you’ll get it done.
Need more home improvement tips? Check back with us for more.
