Having Trouble Selling Your Home?
Are you asking yourself why is your home sitting on the market?
Have you listed your home recently or not so recently and it’s not getting the feedback you expected? Are the offers definitely not pouring in? Well there may be some reasons that you overlooked in the past that your home isn’t getting the attention it should.
It is better to sell your home than to keep making the same mistakes, right? It may be hard to come to terms with reality that maybe something you are doing is at the root of the problem. But now is the time to review your home before any more time goes by and you lose out on more opportunities.
So let’s cover some things that could be going wrong. It is also possible that you are doing everything right and these items do not pertain to you but if upon reading this something “clicks” then here’s the first step to correcting these common errors.
Let’s make this simple!
3 THINGS TO CONSIDER: CONDITION, LOCATION AND PRICE:
CONDITION:
The first thing that every buyer notices is the condition of the property. As a seller who wants to earn as much money for their property as possible, your main concern should be what the buyer sees, smells and feels.
Smells:
The smells of a home can bring smiles to a potential buyers face or be an immediate turn off. A not so fresh smell can stem from many different causes such as pet odors, uncleanliness, smoking etc. and what is clean to you, may not be clean to someone else. It is always a good idea to have a professional cleaner come into your home and give it a deep clean before you put that sign in your front yard.
Consider it from an outside perspective, they are trying to picture your home as being theirs and so you need to think of your home as a public place. You wouldn’t want to go to a store or restaurant that smells like dust, mold, pet urine, smoke or garbage and neither does the person buying your home.
Pests?
The next thing to ask yourself is do you have a pest problem? Pigeons, bugs or mold?
Get rid of them!
Call the appropriate professionals and have any pest or mold problem dealt with pronto. Things like dead or living bugs or rodent droppings (cricket droppings too) can immediately cause an “ick” factor that many buyers won’t get over, let alone want to deal with it in order to buy your home. Scorpions feed on these crickets and bugs and this is a huge concern living in Arizona- especially on the west side.
Is your home Vacant?
People do not want to see a home that looks uninhabitable. Staging your home is important. It is your chance to play up the fantasy of what life is like in your home. As we said before, if the home looks dirty, unkempt and abandoned that kills the mood and the dream of a life in your home.
Maybe you are trying to save some money by turning the utilities off, but to a potential home buyer and their agent showing it this could be a problem. They are going to want to RUN out of there if you have a home with no AC on in the middle of July in Arizona. Spend a few dollars and buy a few air fresheners. The smell of a home closed up with no air movement is stale.
The goal is to keep them in the home as long as possible. You don’t want the experience in your home to be one that will be over the second they walk in the door.
Curb Appeal and Landscaping
The outside and curb appeal of the home is also important. It’s the first thing every buyer sees. Who wants to consider a home with a disgusting green pool or with weeds and trash in the yard. An investor does, but they will be offering you much less than you will want to hear!
A home is usually the most expensive purchase someone makes and so it stands to reason that a buyer does not want to buy a home and yard that looks like no one has cared about or taken care of it for a long time.
Very few people are going to want to lay down their hard earned cash and make a life in squalor by choice and the people that will are either first time home buyers will very little money or investors looking for a deal, you might be thinking that people like a fixer upper. While that may be true in some cases, you cannot place your bets on someone seeing the diamond in the rough.
If you do not take care of your home and take the time to prepare it for a potential buyer than it is like saying that you do not value the home itself. So how is a buyer supposed to see the value in something that even the current owners do not value? If you choose to not make repairs and changes to a home that may be suffering from these problems, it is simply unreasonable to expect to receive the same amount of money for that home as a home in pristine condition. Regardless of supply and demand the home will in most cases will sit on the market and if/when it sells it will most likely not be for top dollar.
Location:
You have all heard the old real estate adage; location, location, location! This is a truth of real estate but it’s not the only thing that can help you maximize the value of your home. In the past few years there have been many subdivisions that didn’t get finished or the supermarkets that where supposed to be build never did because the population growth stopped when the construction did as the housing market blew up.
Cleanliness and upgrades like a nice pool, gazebo or a well designed and maintained yard can make you home sell faster and for more money then the houses down the street.
Price:
One of the most common mistakes that a seller will make is the determining the price of their property. It’s difficult to separate your memories of your home from the property you are trying to sell.
Every seller wants to make the most from the sale of their home; so does the sellers realtor! Trust your realtor to show you the comps in the area so that you can see what those homes sold for. Set your price based on the market value or be prepared to let your home sit on the market for longer than usual.
Another issue that can lower the price of a home is not leaving the home when a potential buyer comes to see the home. Step out of the house until they are gone, let the buyers agent sell the house for you! It is their job and they are good at it.
IF YOU WANT TO GIVE INFO ON THE PROPERTY WRITE THE POTENTIAL BUYERS A NOTE.
Keep these things in mind and with the proper care and the right price, you should be on the way to having your home sold in no time! Contact us today for more information on how to get your home in tip top shape to sell.
