When it comes to the home selling process, there are some very important steps you need to take, in order to make the best sale possible and to get the best deal you can.
If you’re selling your house for the first time, chances are you don’t know all of the tips & tricks to do it right, so that’s why I’m writing this post – to help you learn all the important steps you need to take when you’re selling your house.
Let’s get into it.
Home Selling Process: Important Steps
Find a real estate agent
Some people decide to sell their home themselves, but I wouldn’t recommend that.
I know I’m probably biased given the fact that I’m a real estate agent myself, but there’s a good reason we exist: we know how to get you the best deal possible, and give you super valuable advice that you probably wouldn’t know yourself. Plus, we help with every part of the process, which saves you so much time and money.
So, instead of trying to DIY something as important as selling your home, hire a real estate agent.
You will be glad you did.
If you’re in Arizona, feel free to contact me.
I will make sure that we structure your home sale according to your needs, and that we negotiate the strongest terms to create a solid transaction that will close on time with few surprises.
Find out what your house is worth
Here’s the thing: what your price is worth to you and what it’s actually worth can be two different things.
When it’s a house you love, you lived in, you decorated, it can be hard to be objective sometimes.
So, you need to research what the house is actually worth: what houses go for in that neighborhood, what are houses going for in the time you’re selling it, what state your house is in, etc.
Your real estate agent can definitely help with that.
Figure out the best time to sell
If you’ve never sold a house before, you might not be familiar with types of market that you need to think about.
There are three types of markets: a seller’s market, a buyer’s market, a neutral market.
A seller’s market is a market perfect for selling a house, when there are more buyers than there are houses, so you can bring your price up, and negotiate the terms. That’s when you ideally want to sell.
Buyer’s market is the opposite, it’s when there are more houses than buyers, so there is a chance you’ll need to bring down your price, and the buyer will be able to negotiate.
A neutral market is when there is the same amount of houses and buyers, but that rarely happens.
Obviously, you want to sell in the seller’s market.
So, talk to your real estate agent if you hire one, and if not research yourself. Figure out the best time to sell your house. You don’t want to sell it now if maybe in a month you’d be able to sell it for more.
Do home improvements
This is a step you want to do before you start showing your house, and it’s definitely something you don’t want to skip.
Go through the house with your real estate agent (or by yourself if you don’t have one), and make a list of everything that’s broken, needs to be fixed, replaced, or cleaned.
Ideally, you’ll fix it all.
Repair or replace anything that is broken and that’s very obvious it’s broken.
If there’s anything you think can be improved, and you have the time to improve it, do it. Do a mini “renovation”. Change the kitchen tiles if they’re broken or outdated. Polish up the furniture. Get rid of a rug you think is old and outdated.
Those things will really help you increase your price (or it will at least help you avoid decreasing it).
If you have extra time, you can also add some improvements that aren’t necessary but will help you jack up the price. You can add things that are popular with today’s buyers, which will help you sell for more: in-floor heating, smart home appliances, new kitchen appliances, etc.
And lastly, deep-clean the whole house.
Clean all the furniture, all the floors, carpets, curtains, dust and vacuum everything, polish everything up. You can’t show a dirty home to potential buyers.
Stage the house
The first part of staging your house is cleaning it, which we already covered in the previous step.
But, you also want to stage it for photos and for showing it to potential buyers.
Doing some little things that make the house look better in photos and in person can really help you make the sale.
Declutter everything. You definitely don’t want to take photos of a cluttered home, nor do you want to show it to buyers.
Take any small appliances off the kitchen counter, take stuff off of cabinets, hide any unnecessary toys, furniture, clothes, appliances, or anything similar, and just make sure everything looks extra clean and not cluttered.
Mow your lawn, plant flowers, and clean the garden.
Stage every room by making it look more presentable: open the blinds, make the pillows look nice, reorganize some furniture to make it look better, etc.
Add fresh flowers, a few candles, anything that will make the house look more inviting, well organized, and decorated (but don’t overdo it with decoration, just add a few small things that make it look better).
Take good photos
Taking good photos is something you most definitely don’t want to mess up.
Good photos can truly make or break your sale, before anything even happens.
When buyers are looking at photos of houses, you want yours to stand out.
You need to think about the fact that houses usually look better in person than in photos. So, you want to try and make sure yours looks great in photos as well.
The first part is staging it, which we covered in the previous step.
The next part is actually taking great photos.
You need to have a good camera, so your photos are high quality.
Another super important thing is the lighting. It’s what makes a good photo actually good. You want to shoot in natural light, and make sure you’re getting as much of it as possible in rooms.
An extra thing you can do to make the photos look better, is add small pops of color into photos with flowers or something similar.
If you’re able to take great photos yourself, you can DIY it, or you can hire someone.
Your real estate agent can definitely help with that.
