Top 15 Real Estate Tips For Home Sellers

The transition from homebuyer to seller is fairly predictable. As a first-time homebuyer, your vision was probably to find the perfect property for your family at a fair price. Now that it’s time to sell your home, it makes sense to be more pragmatic and do whatever it takes to attract prospective buyers.

Getting maximum real estate exposure and understanding the local market are both essential, but there are many factors that lead to a successful home sale. In addition to working with a great real estate agent, every home seller can take steps to lure more home buyers and help generate multiple offers.

In this article, we’ll share 15 real estate tips for sellers that want to sell their homes quickly without leaving money on the table.

Top 15 Real Estate Tips For Home Sellers

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that real estate agents operate best when treated like partners. It’s normal for you to have a fair number of goals that you want to achieve when selling your home. Your real estate agent is a resource on this quest, so make sure to use his or her expertise when making decisions about the house or a purchase offer.

Partnering with the right agent is essential, so take your time to research all your alternatives and find a team of experts that can help you get the best price for your home.

With the above in mind, here are 15 tips to help you attract more potential buyers.

1. Get an Accurate Home Appraisal

Getting an accurate home appraisal should be at the top of all lists of tips for first-time home sellers. The only way to ensure that your home is valued accurately is to work with a reliable appraiser. Your real estate agent can be of great assistance here as this expert will certainly have local contacts you can work with.

It’s also important to know what to do with the information you collect. You may feel the urge to set a high listing price and decrease it later on, but this will only raise questions from the buyer’s side. With the help of your agent, you can decide on a price strategy that will attract more potential buyers and help you get the most money.

2. Leverage the Power of Home Staging

Home staging services are a great resource when taking listing photos, organizing open houses, and carrying out individual showings. The goal is to create a setting that allows viewers to appreciate all the elements of the house.

Now, showing an empty house can make it hard for buyers to envision what the space could look like. The same goes when taking professional photos or when hosting an open house. Staging services provide a great alternative because they help ensure that your house looks great without having to leave your own furniture in there.

As with most real estate professional services, your agent can help you find a property staging company at a fair price.

3. Understand Real Estate Agent Commissions

Ensuring that you’re paying the standard real estate commission is highly recommended. You need to understand the average commission rate in your area as well as the advantages that every agent has to offer in order to make the right choice.

Start by reviewing the track record of the agents you want to work with. Next, look at their commission rates and the benefits they offer and make a decision based on the advantages that serve you best.

You’ll likely come across 1% agents in your search, but remember that these specialists typically offer minimal services. Working with a full-service agent tradition usually represents a smarter investment from a value perspective, so don’t be afraid to reach out to growing agents like Justo.

4. Organize Showings that Add Value

Home showings give buyers a chance to explore the property and check that it’s move-in ready. Interested buyers will want to arrange at least two, if not more viewings. The good news is that every one of these showings is an opportunity to showcase your home, so you have to ensure that you add value during each visit.

You may feel inclined to highlight the areas that you think are the most valuable, but this may actually end up disrupting interested prospects. Adding value to showings while also allowing buyers to feel comfortable is a delicate process, so most home sellers prefer to leave the property and let agents take the reins.

5. Host Open House Events

Before going over this tip, it’s important to understand that not all property types allow for open houses. However, if your home is conducive to hosting an open house, this is a great idea to help attract buyers while still in the process of making small repairs behind the scenes.

An open house is also a great opportunity to boost your home’s curb appeal in front of many buyers with a few simple steps. If your personal items are still in your home, it’s important to organize these and ensure that you arrange the open house when there’s the best light. Deep clean and fresh flowers in the living spaces can also make a huge difference.

6. Hire a Professional Photographer

Good photos can help showcase the best elements of your home, like the amount of light it gets and how spacious it is. Poor photos will only highlight areas of improvement and undermine the most attractive parts of your property. But, you need to go beyond borrowing a nice camera and taking pictures while the sun’s still out.

The key to getting great photos for your listing is to hire a professional real estate photographer. In addition to having the right equipment, these photographers also understand the different elements that buyers look for.

An experienced real estate professional photography service provider can help you improve the initial perception that buyers have of your home, which can help smoothen the rest of the sales process.

7. Make Your Moving Preparations

It’s common for sellers to focus all their attention on the selling process without considering how their families will transition into their new environment. Some buyers actually wait until their home sale has been completed before they start looking at their next property. This can become a major hassle and lead to snap decisions that focus mainly on the short term.

It’s always a good idea to plan your transition before you have to prepare your home for its new owners. Instead of purchasing another property or signing a lease out of desperation, planning ahead will allow you to move into a suitable alternative, whether it’s temporary or long-term.

8. Study the Market to List Your Home at the Right Time

Yes, the real estate market has high seasons as well as low seasons. Now, these specific time frames vary from one area to the next. Some of the factors that influence how often people buy new homes include the weather, local traditions, economic outlook, and many other variables.

The only way to figure out when to list your home is to study your local audience. Your local market will dictate the best time to put your home on the market. So, make sure to analyze these local trends and list your house when it has the highest chance of being sold.

9. Respond to Purchase Offers Right Away

Responding to purchase offers immediately should be on every first-time home seller guide and here’s a good reason for this. Besides the fact that a purchase offer literally means that someone is buying your home, replying to offers right away will keep prospective buyers engaged and help accelerate the process if the offer is fair.

10. Have Your Moving Company Ready to Go

Lining up a new home beforehand is crucial, but moving day logistics are just as important. For this reason, you should reach out to your movers of choice and explain your situation to book a flexible appointment. Movers are familiar with this type of situation, so you should be able to find a moving company that’s willing to accommodate any fluctuations in time and date.

11. Tidy Up Visible Areas and Storage Spaces

Home viewers will judge how clean the house is and inspect your storage areas. While this may be a bit annoying to some, the truth is that these predictable steps can help you make a better impression and find a legitimately interested buyer.

Therefore, you should take the time to clean your home and organize storage spaces before visitors arrive. You shouldn’t spend hours performing a deep clean, especially if you keep your house relatively tidy. Just make sure that there are no loose toys or other types of clutter in the hallways and that your storage areas are organized enough to appreciate their size.

12. Take Advantage of the Light in Your House

The natural lighting in your house will likely become a key point for buyers. Always use the natural light you have available to your advantage and plan viewings during the hours that you get the most sun. Likewise, if you’ve installed quality light fittings that help make up for a lack of natural brightness make sure to showcase these as well.

13. Ensure There Are No Pets on Showing Days

It’s true that most people like animals. But, this doesn’t mean that your buyers will like it if there’s a pet during their viewings.

Having your pets at home during a viewing or open house can raise additional questions that discourage buyers from considering your property. You should always arrange for a sitter or friend to take your animals during house viewings if you still live on the property at that time.

14. Focus on Smaller Repairs Rather Than Entire Remodels

Remodeling your home will probably not add as much value as you’d like it to. So, your best bet is to focus on small repairs like leaks, rusty hinges, and broken tiles. Adding a fresh coat of paint can boost your home value by thousands of dollars too, so focus on small improvements that will have a similar effect on your property.

15. Create a Clean Slate

The last piece of advice in our list of seller tips for real estate is to create a clean slate for prospective buyers.

This may seem trivial, but it’s extremely difficult to strike this balance. Remember, you can’t simply take everything out because your property will feel bland, empty, and cold. Instead, you need to keep a few pieces of furniture that don’t exert a huge amount of influence in terms of style, yet give buyers a little something to jolt their collective imagination.

Conclusion

Selling a home is completely different from purchasing a property. But, one thing that they both have in common is that they require an immense amount of preparation. In order to sell your home successfully, you’ll need to work with a knowledgeable agent and follow the real estate advice for sellers we shared in our article above.

To find out more about listing your home through Justo, get in touch with our team and we’ll be glad to help.