Selling Tips
What should you consider when selling your home?
Let a Professionally Licensed Real Estate Associate help you every step of the way.
Selling a home today requires skill and expertise. Most markets changed significantly during the last several years, and they're changing again. You need top representation to navigate today's real estate opportunities and challenges.
Global Empire Corporation's Licensed Real Estate Associates know your market, and are keen on home evaluations, comparable sales and negotiations, as well as marketing and home staging.
Working together, you can place your home in the best light, and at the right price, that will have you packing for your new home.
Pricing Your Home
Ensure your home's price is right. With the housing market moving forward, home sellers today must carefully balance the pricing of their homes. Price too high ahead of the market and your property may languish as buyers look elsewhere. Price too low and you leave money on table, or in the pocket of the fastest qualified buyer.
That's why a candid conversation with your Global Empire Corporation Licensed Real Estate Associate is a perfect place to start. Our Associates thoroughly understand the current market conditions. They know your neighborhood and the factors driving home prices and demand. They'll explain that setting the right price begins with a detailed review of comparable home sales in the area during the past 3–6 months, and an assessment of comparable homes currently for sale.
Have a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) Conducted
Your Global Empire Corporation Real Estate Associate will be glad to perform a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), an informal estimate of value based on comparable sales in the neighborhood at no cost to you.
A CMA includes in-depth comparisons of homes' size, age, location, and features to establish a fair price range for your home. Price adjustments can then be made for variances in home and lot size, upgrades, condition, and location.
Research the Competition
Of course, it's never a bad idea to research the competition yourself. Search online for homes in your area, and attend a few open houses. Are these homes in better or worse shape than yours? Ask a friend to join you for an unbiased opinion. Our Associates may suggest you provide non–price incentives to bring buyers to the table, such as offering to pay buyers' closing costs, providing a furniture or new–appliance allowance, or making additional repairs to the home. Nearly everything is negotiable.
Make your negotiation a Business Decision
Perhaps the best advice your Global Empire Corporation Real Estate Associate will give you is to remove emotion from the price–setting process. Treat this as a business decision based on facts and careful analysis. Even though you may have many fond memories of the house, or perhaps you may not get what you paid for the home, leave these factors out of the equation. Homes in good condition, listed at fair–market prices, will sell. The condition of your home also figures significantly into its listing price — a nicely maintained home simply shows better and will sell for more than a comparable house needing work.
Begin the process of Staging prior to listing your home
As Will Rogers said … "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression." Nowhere does this phrase strike a greater chord, than in real estate. Today's busy buyers, most of whom begin their home searches on the Web, quickly scan listings and sort options. This greatly increases the importance of home staging, high–quality Multiple Listing Service (MLS) photos, and virtual tours.
Ideally, you want your home to look perfect or as close to perfect as possible. Many home-sellers hire professional home stagers, who can turn everyday homes into showcase properties. If you want to do the work yourself, here are 5 ways to place your home in the best light.
Tips to Stage Your Home:
- De-clutter
Life can get messy, especially with kids and storage issues, but you have to pretend that's not how you live. Get rid of everything you don't need or store things that you do need. Remove personal items and photos from the wall, and let perspective buyers imagine their own knickknacks on the shelves. - Go Neutral
Vivid colors might look appealing to you, but you don't want to scare away a potential buyer with wild looking colors on the walls or in furniture. People have varying tastes, so choose a neutral palate that appeals to the widest amount of potential buyers. - Give Rooms a Purpose
If you have an extra room you use for office or exercise space, give that room a specific purpose. Decorate it strictly as a bedroom or equip it solely as an office. Buyers tend to subtract points when they don't know the purpose of a room. - Highlight Storage
Everyone loves having places to keep their things, so straighten up your garage and attic. Ensure closets are clean and as empty as possible. Organize shelves and kitchen cabinets and let people see how much room is available for them. - Light It Up
Open curtains and bring as much natural light into your home as possible. Install fresh light bulbs and keep on lights when people come to see the home. You want to give the impression of a bright and vivid place for them to live.
