1. Determining the value of your green bay home
The first step in determining whether or not to sell your home is determining the home’s value. If your home will not sell on the open market at a price that is necessary to fit your plans, quite possibly you might be better off waiting to sell, or choosing another option like renting your home. Either way the best route to take is to utilize the help of a professional, a knowledgeable real estate agent that will prepare a competitive market analysis on your home. Whether you intend to use an agent to try to sell your home or not, a market analysis will give you a good indication as to the reality of approximately what price your home should be able to sell for.
2. Repairing home issues prior to selling
Another good reason to bring in a well-seasoned and knowledgeable green bay real estate agent is to get an opinion from the professional as to what repairs might be necessary for your home and how to prepare it for sale. Often a home owner will think they have much more to do on a home in repairs, when in reality many of the “fix-ups” might not be necessary and simply will not get you a higher price and may have not been necessary. A quality agent will be able to walk through your home and offer suggestions and recommendations.
3. staging your home
When getting your home ready for sale, two very big points to remember are de-cluttering the home, and removing most of the personal effects. Walk room to room and determine what is necessary for the room to have a cozy feel yet show the actual size of the room creating a sense of a nice and roomy feel. Also, eliminate as much of the personal effects as possible without taking away from the actual style and look of the home. Nice décor is OK. Numerous family pictures, large collections of unusual collectibles and other personal effects should be taken down to give potential buyers the opportunity to see themselves in the home.
4. Using a professional to sell your Green Bay Home
Many people feel that real estate brokers charge way too high of a commission that is not warranted in the sale of their home. When thinking of the costs associated with signage, marketing on-line, in the newspaper and various other marketing avenues. The time spent at open houses, taking pictures and creating picture portfolios for your home, offering a co-broke to other potential agents that may have clients they are working with, and the preparation of numerous pages when dealing with an offer as well as the knowledge of understanding the offer, the commission rate is not necessarily that expensive. These are hard costs that will need to be paid for by either a brokerage firm when working with a seller or by the home owner themselves. If not using a real estate agent, an attorney to oversee the transaction can be very expensive and often does not do as much follow through on making sure the individual elements of the offer are taken care of. A professional real estate brokerage firm can actually make your Green Bay home sale easy and in the long run can possibly even save you money by making sure the correct price is placed on the home and the correct advertising is in place to give the home every opportunity to get the highest price possible.
5. Shop for an agent
All real estate agents and brokerage firms are not the same. Commission rates can be different, marketing styles and techniques vary greatly, experience in the market varies agent to agent, and numerous other elements can make choosing an agent a very important part of the selling process. When talking with real estate agents and their brokerage firms, make sure to ask a lot of questions as to how they plan to market your home. Determine what is important to you as well in making sure they DO THEIR JOB! What is their policy about staying in touch. What is their actual marketing strategy, do they have references, what is their commission rate, etc? Do your homework in finding a good agent and it will prove to be very valuable in the long run!
6. Watch for Hidden Fees
When comparing commission rates from brokerage firms and/or their real estate agents, be sure to compare all the costs associated with the sale of your home. Make sure there are no hidden fees. Look for administrative fees or other various fees for marketing, signage, etc. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when looking at various packages.
7. Price your home as aggressive as possible
Setting the correct price on your home is a critical part to having a successful campaign that will sell your home. When sellers target a price that is too high often it actually creates a negative effect on the sale of the home and after the home has been on the market for a period of time it becomes stale. In this scenario, many times the price ends up much lower when finally getting an accepted offer than if the home would have been correctly priced right out of the gate.
8. Keep your home clean and tidy
A clean and kept home shows so much better than one that is in disarray. First impressions go a long way when showing your home. Often buyers cannot see through the dirty dishes to the kitchen that may be in very nice shape, however cluttered with a mess. Or the bedroom loaded with dirty clothes takes away from a really nice master bedroom. Or a dirty basement full of cobwebs hides a great foundation and sound basement that is actually in excellent shape. When shopping with my Buyers, I tend to think that a home kept in nice organized shape, will also tend to have been taken care of properly with the mechanicals and structure of a home. Important things to think about!
9. Usually the first is best
Not in all cases, however most of the time your first offer is typically going to be your best offer. When considering the marketing effort right after listing, the excitement from the buyers of a new home on the market and the energy created by your real estate agent over the first month or so of the listing, typically this leads to the best offer that will most likely come in on your home. So when considering that first offer, think of that and try not to be over greedy. It could hurt in the long run.
10. Require a pre-approval letter
In today’s market with so many financial situations and banks difficult requirements for financing, make sure that a pre-approval letter is received with an offer on your home.