A NO Nonsense Guide to Get Top Dollar!
- Hire Top Tier Talent: A professional Realtor, meet Brad Officer Jacksonville REALTOR, will be honest with you about the market, the price of your home, and the condition. They will also market your home better than 99% of the other Realtors out there. Think I'm wrong: Check out the horrible pictures of great homes that are for sale on Realtor.com. How do home sellers not fire their agent immediately?
- Curb Appeal: Pressure wash everything, new mulch, water the lawn religiously, trim hedges and bushes, plant flowers, paint mailbox, fertilize everything. Keep on it until day of closing.
- Interior: Declutter everything, remove your family photo wall, toss old outdated furniture, paint all base boards, touch up paint walls, paint loud colors with muted colors. CLEAN everything! Have your "no filter" friend come over and pick it apart.....clean it again. Last but not least: Hire a stager! For $300 your house gets an A-grade treatment.
- Professional Photography: I provide this to my listings. What a difference it makes when a photographer has the appropriate real estate photography equipment and knows how to use it. Even more of a difference when the home owner has completed the items #2 and #3 above.
- Hire an Inspector: Pay $300-$400 for a certified home inspection. Get all items repaired that were noted. We'll provide every buyer's agent with a copy of the inspection report and a copy of the repairs completed.
- Hire an Appraiser: Pay $300+/- for a certified appraisal. We provide every buyer's agent with the appraisal report.
- Info Binder: Take all your warranty items, mechanical manuals, etc, and have professionally bound. It will be your house's manual.
- List Price BELOW value: That's right! List the house for sale below the appraised value and below the competing properties for sale. Why?
- It's a HUGE buyer's market!
- Those "list prices" your neighbors are attempting to get, they will never get in this market.
- Your house will be the best in curb appeal, interior appeal, marketed the best, and will now be priced the best....this will create DEMAND!
- DEMAND creates Multiple offers: A high class problem to have, but multiple offers will drive up the price.
- Dogs and Cats No More: They gotta go. Friends or family should take them. Kennel if you have to. You may not smell them, but your home shoppers do.
- The Little Things will Kill You: Keep toilet lids down, soap bottles filled up, trash cans emptied, avoid take out boxes in the fridge, keep full rolls of toilet paper on the rings, no dirty dishes, remove all signs that owner is a smoker, keep dirty clothes hidden, small kitchen appliances are not counter top art, sliding glass doors should be smooth and debris free, keep windows smudge free.
- Show Show Show: Never ever deny a showing. Keep the house in top condition at all times knowing a showing is happening today whether it's scheduled or not.
- Tighten down the contract: High binders upfront and minimal/no weasel contingencies. After all, we have an inspection report and an appraisal already....what other contingencies do we need? I'd even prefer to sell "As Is" now that we have all the inspections completed and corrected.
- Clean and Close! Pack up, move out, have the property professionally cleaned for the new buyers. Sign the docs and get your check.
Take this approach and I can guarantee: You will get the absolute top dollar for your home in the least amount of time!
What ever you do, don't fall into the trap of pricing high just to see if someone will come along and pay an inflated price. You'll waste your time and most likely reduce the actual sale price vs. taking my approach above. Why is this? The longer your home sits, the less buyers will look at it....it's a proven fact in our industry.
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Happy Home Selling!
Posted by Brad Officer on
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