Tips for Sellers
There’s no magic to listing your home on the internet. Anyone can do it. The skill comes in presentation. Correct pricing, careful staging, premier photography, the right websites, engaging descriptions, and excellence in even the tiniest detail – these are the hallmarks of a timely sale for a solid price.
STEP-BY-STEP SELLING GUIDE
#1 Choose Experience.
Selling a home in today's real estate market involves a complex approach: Online listings, social media, and an integrated marketing plan will make your listing stand high above the competition. A seasoned broker has been around the block and can calmly navigate the unknowns and rough weather or real estate transactions. Plus she has local knowledge and experience with pricing, marketing, and negotiation. This is what sells homes. From listing your home for sale to exchanging the keys at closing, a good broker will be your strongest asset.
#2 Set The Correct Price.
Pricing your home accurately is arguably your most important step. Putting your home on the market at the wrong price — either too low or too high — will impact the success of your sale. Pricing factors include the condition, the location, and the price of nearby similar properties that have sold.
Stone Properties provides an expertly prepared Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) at no cost or obligation. This involves a great deal of research and examination of the data. However, as important, is experience with pricing. Because sometimes, a gut feeling for a neighborhood or the current market, can make all the difference.
#3 Prepare Your Home for Sale
The importance of this step cannot be overstated. Marketing research shows that people make decisions with their heart and justify those decisions with their head. No one ever fell in love using their head. In preparing your home, we do our very best to make prospective buyers fall in love. Having fallen in love, they will justify their home choice with their heads.
A good broker knows what matters, and doesn’t matter, to buyers. Ultra-clean, uncluttered homes in good condition are a major draw in today’s marketplace. Even better are homes that have current, fresh colors and décor. If this doesn’t describe your home, don’t worry, sometimes a few well-placed touches can give the right overall impression.
#3 Market Your Home
Technology is king today. More than 92 percent of potential buyers search for homes online, often on their phone. Your property’s online presence is pivotal to success. That means hitting the right websites and looking far better than the competition on a small screen.
#4 List Online
It all starts with looking fabulous. Buyers scroll through hundreds of photos, often on their phones. The name of the game is to stop them at your home listing. That takes not just a fabulous photo, but the right photo that jumps out from the hundreds of other – usually a straight-on front-of-home photo. Stone Properties has the added marketing and advertising expertise to help you stand out in the crowd. Once you’ve stopped your scrolling buyer, you have to keep them looking with high-end, show-stopping photos until they fall in love. In addition, your online listing will include everything potential buyers need to know about your home. This detailed information about the property, geographic area, schools, points of interest, market insights, and more, must be both engaging and accurate.
For added exposure, Stone Properties syndicates your listing through the MLS to local brokerage websites and national brand sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Redfin, and more.
#5 Review Offers and Negotiate
So you’ve stopped your buyer online, made them fall in love during their visit, and now they’ve made an offer through their broker. Maybe the number differs from your expectations, but you may reject, counter, or accept any offer that is presented. Your broker will go through the pros and cons of the offer, providing information to help you decide on the best response. This is a time when the calm and levelheadedness of your broker can see you through what can become an emotional time. The idea is to help you make your best decision with no regrets.
When all parties agree, your broker will review all documents and explain them in detail before you sign. Once an offer is accepted, your agent will guide you through the closing process from signing the contract to the official transfer of ownership to the buyer at closing.
#6 Navigate Inspections
It is the very rare home that is so perfect that an inspection yields no flaw whatsoever. Therefore, a buyer usually requests repairs. A repair request, much like the offer to purchase, can be answered with a rejection, a counter-offer, or acceptance. Many deals fall apart over inspection squabbles when emotions run high. However, with skilled and calm negotiating, this phase can be navigated to the satisfaction of all parties and, most important, leave a clear pathway to closing.
#7 Settlement and Closing
Your last step is closing, which describes the official transfer of ownership from seller to buyer. Your closing date is the day you will sign paperwork, hand keys to the new owners, and receive proceeds from your sale. Congratulations!