Last Updated on September 6, 2022
Much like the learning curve that comes with buying your first home, selling your first home can prove to be just as great of a learning experience.
When you purchased your first home you likely focused on finding the best one, making the right offer, scrutinizing the inspection report and negotiating effectively.
So now that it’s your turn to sell, it’s important that you understand everything that goes into making sure you get the most for your home.
Successfully sell your first home when you follow these 3 simple tips.
3 things first-time home sellers need to know
Understand the value of your home
Your home is likely your largest asset, and not knowing the correct value for your home relative to the market is costly.
Thanks– or rather, no thanks– to the vast amount of information on the internet, many homeowners incorrectly assume the value of their home.
The only way to get an accurate value for your home is to talk with a realtor.
Unlike the internet, a skilled realtor understands the market conditions and price variations in your specific area. They combine their vast market knowledge with data to give you the most up-to-date value assessment on your home.
Bottom line: Don’t make the mistake of assuming the internet can accurately price your home. The internet’s good, but not that good. Spend 15 minutes talking with a realtor…plus, it’s completely free!
Price your home correctly
Assuming you follow step one, the next step would be to take the advice of your chosen realtor when it comes to pricing your home.
If we’ve seen it once, we’ve seen it a million times— when a seller goes against their realtor’s recommendations for pricing, their home is essentially priced out of the market and ends up sitting stagnant.
Stale homes have a way of not selling, as potential buyers will wonder what’s wrong with them— and this is especially true in a seller’s market, where homes are being scooped up in under 48 hours.
Bottom line: When you’re selling your home, remember: it’s not about what you ‘want’ your house to sell for, it’s about what the market will give you.
Don’t underestimate the value of staging your home
Remember all the way back to before the internet was such a prevalent factor in searching for homes? Those days you simply told your realtor about your search criteria a mere 10 minutes before you loaded up the car to go search for your next home.
Now of course, it’s a whole different story. Potential home buyers spend hours searching for homes online before they ever step foot in a home.
Wanna know what they’re mostly looking at, given your home meets their minimum search specifics?
Don’t skimp on professional photos
If your photos aren’t appealing you can bank on not having too many showings.
Don’t kid yourself thinking that staging is going to cost you thousands of dollars— it’s not. And in many cases you can do this for a couple hundred bucks or for free buy rearranging furniture and simply decluttering.
Not a home decor expert? No worries, your realtor is. Invite your realtor to give you advice on staging your home and we promise, you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.
Bottom line: A picture’s worth a thousand words.
