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Don’t Sell Your Home in 2018

2018 is here! For anyone who is considering selling their home in 2018, we are going to dive into a great list of tips that will help your home sell fast and for the highest price possible.

One of the first things you should do is discuss in detail your options with whoever is involved in the selling of the home. Look at the homes for sale in your neighbourhood to give you a rough idea of the anticipated sales price. A lot of locals are shocked at the value of their home in Everton Park and surrounding suburbs thanks to the high level of demand and low stock levels.

Don't Sell Your Home in 2018 (UNTIL You Read This!)

Don’t Sell Your Home in 2018 (UNTIL You Read This!)

10 Steps to Selling Your Home in 2018

Make Sure You’re Ready to Sell

Many people begin to consider selling long in advance of actually putting a for sale sign in their yard. If you’re considering selling, it doesn’t hurt to start familiarizing yourself with the process by doing research. That being said, don’t put your home on the market until you are 100% ready and committed to selling. Take your time to get prepared!

The listing price for your home is going to determine if it sells. The correct amount is one that the market decides, not one that the seller decides themselves. Your Hicks Real Estate agent will review the comparable sales and together you will determine an appropriate selling price for your property!

Knowing you are 100% ready to sell is one of the most important parts of selling your home. If you’re considering selling it doesn’t hurt to start growing familiar with the process. Many people begin to consider selling long in advance of actually putting a for sale sign in their yard.

Many people don’t have a choice. Selling their home is a necessity commonly because they’ve already purchased another home, are being relocated to work in a new area and sometimes dramatic life-changing events.

Sometimes selling your home isn’t so black and white. Sometimes you sell as a part of a growing family or an investment opportunity. Maybe you want to liquidate your assets and move your investments around. Either way, you don’t want to sell your home without making sure you are ready and have discussed the options.

Interview Local Real Estate Agents to Help Prepare

Preparation is key to getting your home sold in 2018.

Maintaining a spotless and presentation-ready home for any last minute showings is crucial because it could be the deciding factor in a purchase. A buyer that walks into a home that is messy will walk right back out without having a second thought. Buyers are driven by their ability to picture themselves living in the home that they are being shown. If your house isn’t prepared or appealing, they won’t feel the comfort that is required for them to purchase. Real Estate agents with experience can do a tremendous job of assisting you preparing your home for a sale. They will make many recommendations and offer advice on how you can keep your home clean and charming.

It starts with curb appeal. Before potential buyers even step inside the house, they will have a front view of the property as they are pulling into the driveway. In this moment, the buyer begins to judge whether or not they are interested in looking inside. As soon as they get out of their car, you want their first thought to be, “Wow this home is beautiful.” In order to get them excited to see the home, you need to maintain an appealing yard. Be sure to have healthy mown grass in the summer, and tidy well kept bushes in the winter.

Next, make sure that the inside is swept, vacuumed, dusted, mopped, etc. When your home is sparkling and spotless, the potential buyers are more likely to leave with positive thoughts. If you can maintain a clean home throughout the selling process, you will have a much higher chance of selling.

Once you’ve discussed the idea of selling your home in greater detail and everyone involved is in agreement, you’ll likely want to begin interviewing local Real Estate Agents. We pride ourselves on having some of the best real estate agents in Everton Park and surrounds! This will help you understand some things you can do before you list your home that may help increase your return on the sale. There are a lot of great Listing Agents out there and some that are not so good as well, so you will want to find one that you can work well with.

One of the best things you can do as a Seller is put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. What made you want to buy the home? Would you buy your own home?

Your Real Estate agent will be able to see your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. Most sellers have grown emotionally attached to their home and they may have a differing opinion as to how valuable their home is compared to potential buyers… Sometimes it’s worth more, sometimes it’s worth, less. The only way to truly determine is to let the market decide!

Improve the Home

Selling your home in 2018 is going to give you a great opportunity to make a great return on your investment.

When it comes to selling your home, you want to get the most profit back possible. Repairing or upgrading different details of your home is very beneficial for your return on investment. If your home is worn down, it would be wise to pay for improvements because the home would be placed at a much higher value with these renovations. To start, check the landscaping around your home. Does your house have a positive curb appeal and look beautiful from out front? If not, it might be time to plant some fresh grass seeds or have a professional landscaper come by to make improvements.

You may also want to remodel the bathroom or the kitchen. These two rooms are very important because many people search for a beautiful kitchen and a gorgeous master bathroom when determining which home to buy. Find out what designs would look best in your setting and make the improvements! For the bathroom, this could be new flooring tiles, polishing the bathtub/shower, and remodeling the sink. For the kitchen, you could start by upgrading the countertops to a finish that is more modern, such as granite or marble.

There are other rooms you should also look at and see if they need any improvements as well. Whether it is a room inside or even adding a patio or deck, you will want to choose renovations that will be well worth the investment. Getting a good listing agent can help you find any red flags and help prepare your home for when it is time to hit the market. All of these additions and improvements will make your house stand out and be more likely to sell when competing against other homes. In addition to this, these renovations will tremendously increase the value of your home, giving you a more profitable return on investment.

Determine the RIGHT Listing Price

Determining the best listing price for your home can be a stressful part of the selling process. Since we tend to grow emotional attachments, everyone believes that the home they have lived in is worth more than it really is. However, any good real estate agent will tell you that it is not the seller who determines the price of the home, it is the market. To get a better idea of what your home would be valued at, research what price homes in your surrounding neighborhood have been sold for.

If you list your property in the spring and summer months, you will experience more buyers searching for a home. Since the demand to purchase would be high, you would have the option to test the market for a few prices. If your first listing price doesn’t draw in buyers, you can decrease the amount and repeat this process until you have a sale! If you’re selling during the winter month, usually you would have less leverage to test the market since there are fewer buyers during these months. At this time, you should list your property at a value that similar homes are selling for so that your home isn’t overlooked by buyers for being overpriced.

Real estate agents assist in determining the best pricing point. Their expertise will guide you through the process and they will find other homes that you can compare yours to. After analyzing a few comparisons, the value of your home should be more clear. As long as you don’t let your emotional attachment get in the way of deciding a price, you will be all set and ready to sell your home!

Professional Real Estate Marketingtips to sell in brisbane

Getting your home out on the market for everyone to see will attract a much larger crowd. Since professional real estate agents have access to a greater network than non-agents, they can get your home sold faster than if you were to sell it yourself (for sale by owner).  Listing your home on the MLS will increase your chances of getting potential buyers to see that your home is active. Your real estate agent will also do marketing on their own to make more buyers aware of your listing. For example, they may use billboards, their own website, open houses, flyers, direct mail marketing, and their network with other real estate agent to promote your home. When you have a listing agent, they are extremely determined to help you sell.

Using pictures is another effective way to draw interest in your home. We love to show off your property with images and videos. After capturing all of the rooms, we put the media online and potential buyers can take their own virtual tour of your house. This way, your home is being exposed to numerous people not only who are checking out homes on MLS, but also people who are on the edge of buying in general. This can motivate them to buy and set up a showing for your house if they like what they see.

Have the RIGHT Selling Strategy

There are plenty of different strategies that work for selling homes. For example,  depersonalizing your home, decluttering it to make it look bigger, and letting in more light by opening up blinds and shades are all effective selling strategies. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes, what is it that they want to get out of taking their time to see your home? They want to walk into a clean home and need to be able to envision themselves living in it one day. Depersonalizing your home is a nuisance but it will help your chances of selling. You can do this by taking out family pictures and replacing them with neutral pieces of artwork. This makes it easier for the buyers to imagine putting up their own family pictures if they purchase the home.

Another selling strategy is removing any pets for showings. Whether you have a dog, cat, bird, hamster or something more exotic, take them out of the home for the day since not every potential buyer will be an animal lover. Be sure to clean up any water bowls, toys, litter boxes, hamster wheels and fur because buyers don’t want to walk out covered in hair. By removing the animals, you also create a safer environment for cleaning supplies and air fresheners to make your home even more appealing.

Let your home shine! Getting as much natural light in through the windows is a smart move to show just how ‘alive’ your home looks. A buyer that walks into a dark home in the middle of the day can leave unsatisfied, without a desire to purchase that property. Natural light makes a home look much nicer and more pleasant. When you have time, walk around the house and determine what is causing light to be blocked from entering the windows. If bushes are causing the unwanted darkness,  cut them down.

Negotiate Professionally, NOT Emotionally

Negotiating can get tricky at times because you have to be careful when it comes to receiving offers from buyers. It is important to not let your emotions take control when you are looking for an offer or if you are making a counteroffer. Remember to always stay professional when you are negotiating, as this would give you the upper hand. Your Hicks Real Estate agent will help make sure that you aren’t letting your emotions get the better of you. At the end of the day, you, the buyers and the agents involved are all working toward the same goal:  To sell your house!

When you receive an offer, do not respond right away. Instead, take your time looking it over and review your options. If you are in a multiple offer situation, you will be less stressed out since you have fallback options. When there is only one offeror, that’s when things tend to get hectic. As the seller, you may begin to get unmotivated and worry that you aren’t going to get the best deal. Take a deep breath and take your time looking for the offer to think over your options. Before sending an offer, be sure to debate the pros and cons of making that deal to make sure that it is a smart move.

Let the Buyers Feel As Though They Won

If a potential buyer isn’t constantly showing excitement for the purchase, they may back out at any time. By ensuring that your buyers feel that they are getting a deal of a lifetime, they will remain interested throughout the whole process. As the seller, show that you are excited for them to take this new step!

When it comes to negotiating, it is always important that you make the buyers feel as if they won. When they think that they have received the best deal, they will accept it and the both of you will be heading for a settlement. Similar to negotiating professionally and not emotionally, it is also important that you negotiate strategically. Let the buyers gain as much ground as you think they will need in order to feel like they are getting the better end of the deal. When they are satisfied with the deal in front of them, they will accept it and you both will finally close!

Prepare for your Move-out

Now that you are settling,  all of the stressful steps of selling your home are over and you can let the transactions run their course. Keep in mind that after all of the signing and initiating, you still need to move your belongings out of the house before you are completely finished. Anything that you do not convey with the title will have to go. This may include the refrigerator, the washer and dryer, and anything you specifically jotted down and disclosed to the buyer that would be coming to you after you sold.

Sellers who have already relocated usually have their home completely move-in ready for the buyers throughout the process. This is when a house is entirely empty and vacant when potential buyers are walking through it. If you are a seller that still lives in the home and have not yet relocated, be sure to get pre-approved to purchase a new home ASAP.  You don’t want to be left out in the cold because you don’t qualify for the home you were planning on purchasing. Make sure that you are financially ready to move out so buyers can move in.

Any garbage that is left in the house while moving out must be removed and thrown. Don’t be those sellers who make your buyers clean up your messes for you. Gather your belongings to pack them so that you are ready to move to your new home. If you have many items that you don’t want to keep, two helpful options can be a garage-sale or selling on Gumtree or eBay. By doing this, you are cleaning out the house and making, even more, money at the same time.

Whether you still live in the home or you have already relocated, always remember to leave the utilities on until after the home is settled!

Close and Congrats!

You’ve made it! You have followed all of the steps listed above and you’re finally ready for the last one! The offers are on the table and you have accepted the most appealing one! Congratulations, you now get to move on to closing!  If the buyer’s lawyer and agent approve all paperwork and the bank approves the transactions, there’s nothing much more to worry about. It is a long process for most, and even more, a stressful one. But you did it! Congratulations on officially selling a home!

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Hicks Real Estate is a Brisbane based, full-service real estate agency supporting buyers and sell as well as renters and property investors. With almost 20 years experience in the local market, we are the real estate experts you can rely upon.