5 Keys to Getting Your Home SOLD

1. 5 Keys to Getting Your HomeSOLD Keys to Getting Your HomeSold The advice for North Bloomfield Propertieshome sellers is prolific. There is no shortage of articles online with tips for preparing, staging, pricing and marketing a home. With the volumes of information available, there are still 5 basic truths, or 5 keys to getting your homesold: 1. Price Your HomeRealistically

2. So often sellers want to try their luck at starting high and adjusting their price along the way. To a certain extent, this strategy sounds logical to a lot of people, they may think they need to price their home higher for negotiating room. The problem with this logic is that real estate is not like retailsales. • You can see by the chart on the right that pricing pricing above what the market suggests will narrow the percentage of buyers who come to see your home. These numbers are well documented over years of real estate market statistics. If you price your home 15% or more above the comparative homes in your market, you will find that you don’t get many showings. More than likely, all you will hear for the first few weeks iscrickets! • points outseveral concerns that tend to get home sellers stuck. The top concern of would-be home sellers: Getting a good price when selling your home. It seems that nearly half of the homeowners in cities across the US would move if they could be assured of not leaving equity behind when they sell. The answer is to price the home accurately. • The most important key to getting your home sold is to price it correctly. The market is what determines that. As much as we would all like to get as much as possible, built in market conditions work against you when you reach too high. Here are three barriers you’ll face when you try to get more for your home than it’s really worth: • The truth is, buyers are savvy. They are most likely working with abuyer’s agent who is doing a comparative market analysis, letting them know when a house is overpriced. The buyer’s agent has a fiduciary responsibility to their buyer, to look out for their best interests. And one of those interests is to “not overpay” for ahome. • The biggest issue is that even if a buyer happens to fall in love with youroverpriced • home and agree to pay your asking price, the chances are great that the home won’t appraise for the amount you want. You’ll have to renegotiate anyway, or risk losing thebuyer. • The first 30 days on the market are crucial. That is the time period when a home getsthe • most showings. If you squander that golden time by overpricing, you won’t get it back. This is especially true in a real estate market with a shortage of inventory. Buyers are aware of the lack of homes on the market and many are viewing them within the first few days, knowing that they might be sold within the firstweek. • 2.Condition When you are trying to sell your home, you need to remember that you are in competition with all the other homes in your area, price range, size and style of home. You will makeout

3. much better if your home is in the best condition it can be, repairs are done and it’s staged andclutter-free. When your agent prepares a comparative market analysis for you as you make plans to list your home for sale, take notice of the condition of the homes that are on the market and that have sold recently. These are the homes that your likely buyers have been to see, or will see soon. Do everything you can to make sure your homecompetes. That being said, over-improving for the neighborhood is not a good idea. Debbie Drummond, luxury real estate in Las Vegas, points out the dangers of over-improving your home. She wisely points out that even if a seller could get an offer that would cover the cost of their over-improvements, an appraiser is not likely to give homeowners credit for all the upgrades. Staging may be helpful in showing your home in the best possible light. Buyers should be able to imagine themselves living in the spaces of your home, without the distraction of your stuff. Read more about the Rules ofStaging. 3. Photos &Video When buyers are looking online, as more than 92% of them do, they want to see photos, lots of photos. Statistics show that the more photos you present in your online marketing (MLS and various real estate websites) the higher your chances of getting a buyer to see the home. Make sure your agent takes lots of photos…professional quality photos. There’s nothing worse than seeing a handful of awful photos taken from an agents smartphone. We usea

4. professional photographer to make sure the home and its rooms are shown in the best possiblelight. Our MLS allows for 30 photos and 2 virtual tours. Having a high-definition walk-through video tour increases the likelihood of showings even more. In the internet age, buyers have come to expect a certain level of information from real estate websites. Remember, if you can’t get people to get off the computer and into a car to see your home, you can’t sellit. 4. Make Your HomeAvailable One of the most frustrating things to a buyer’s agent is to find a beautiful house that your buyer will most likely want to see, but the showing instructions are difficult to work with. “Showings only between 5 and 7 pm, and not on Sundays. And oh yes, 24hours notice.” That’s difficult when your buyer works on Saturdays and can only see homes after work and on Sunday. It’s nearly impossible when you have an out-of-town buyer who is only available for oneday. Asking for a lengthy amount of time to get notice of a showing can be a real problem. If a buyer is in the area and sees your home on the market, it is to your advantage to make every opportunity to accommodate them. Any buyer can be the one to say “yes, this is my dream house!” The more you constrict your showing schedule, the more potential buyers you turnaway. points out the downsides to the 24-hour showing notice requirement. By requiring 24-hour notice, you could wind up making it harder for your home to sell. His article points out several ways that sellers and their agents can arrangeshowings. I know thatselling a home can be an interruption,it dominates your life for a few months. But being flexible is a must. You are in competition, and you have to make your home as easy to see as possible. Otherwise,you just end up selling your neighbor’s home. Think of it this way, the more flexible you are with showings, the sooner your home will sell and the sooner you can get on with yourlife. 5. Spread a Wide MarketingNet In this day and age, buyers come from everywhere. One of the keys to getting your home sold after all the preparation is done, is to get buyers into your home. You can’t sell it if people don’t seeit.

5. Not only must your home be listed everywhere buyers are, you must spread a net as wide as possible with your price, condition and marketing. All of the digital assets, like photography and video, great descriptions and marketing savvy, must all work together to appeal to the broadest audience of likely buyers. Using a real estate agent with experience and marketing savvy is crucial to get the best results when selling yourhome.