Getting
Ready to Sell Your Home
So
you’ve been thinking about a new
Santa Monica home lately? It happens every day.
A growing family, empty nest,
cashing out or just needing new
surroundings are all popular reasons
for selling your current home. And
these days, many people sell their
current homes to down-size into
something a little more manageable
financially. Whatever your reason, RealEstate-SantaMonica.com is here
to help.
Before
you call us there’s a few things you
need to take care of. Or go ahead
and call and we’ll give you a hand,
but either way we have some homework
before we home-sell. We want you to
get the best possible price for your
home and to get it sold as quickly
as possible…so let’s get started.
How
Much is it Worth?
That’s
the first question we need to
answer. There are great sites like
Zillow that allow consumers to get
an idea of what their home is
worth. Sometimes those sites are
really accurate and make my job a
breeze, but more often than not, a
little more work is required when
appraising a home’s value than just
simply logging on.
What we
need to do first is find out what
homes have sold for in the area
recently. We call these comps.
These days since prices have cooled
a bit, it’s probably best to use
comps that are within six months.
Anything older than that could be
less than accurate.
Other
factors to take into consideration
are improvements. If your home has
a new cook’s kitchen, and the
recently-sold homes did not, that’s
something to be mindful of and adds
value to yours.
Additionally, bedroom and bathroom
count is important, as is the square
footage of your house in comparison
to the others. Many realtors do a
comparison by getting the cost per
square foot figured out and using
that to place a value on your
current home. This is a great way
to go if your home is a bit bigger
than the others and you want to get
a bit more money for it…you can
always say that it costs the same or
less per square foot than the others
did.
Ok so
you get the idea. You have to do a
little work to price your home if
you want to price it right. And
pricing it right in today’s market
is critical. If your home is put on
the market at too high a price, it
can really deter buyers. Take it
from a realtor, this is
problematic. Even though it’s a
buyer’s market, many buyers are
still not comfortable writing low
offers, and shockingly enough, many
real estate agents aren’t comfortable doing that
either. So rather than write a low
offer, many buyers and their agents
walk on by.
Further, when a home is priced too
high initially, it sits too long and
appears stale to buyers. And
equally bad are multiple
reductions. In the business we call
this ‘riding the market down.’ This
isn’t good either because the market
is almost always just a hair lower
than what the seller has reduced the
home to. Not fun.
What
you want to do is really hit the
nail on the head with the price.
And to do this, you really have to
trust your agent. That’s where we
come in. RealEstate-SantaMonica.com
will give you a complimentary
valuation along with tips to get
your home in top selling shape!
So
speaking of shape, let’s give you a
few tips to get you started.
-Take
care of those repairs you’ve
ignored:
-Is the
kitchen sink leaking? Fix it.
-Are
there some ugly holes in the wall
where that Star Wars poster used to
hang? Grab that spackle, sister.
-Anything that looks the slightest
bit ugly to you, believe me…will
look even more ugly to a potential
buyer.
-And
without beating this point to death
a few other helpful reminders…clean
the oil stains off the drive, trim
bushes, mow lawn. Easy!
-A few
other pointers that I usually
reserve for in-home consultations:
-Neutral interior paint. I can’t
stress this enough. Don’t freak out
potential buyers with strange color
choices. Look, I’m a huge Prince
fan too, but it doesn’t mean I eat
dinner in a purple dining room.
Paint is cheap and it pays huge
rewards in both sale price and sale
speed.
-Clean
floor coverings. If your carpet or
wood floors are shot, think about
fixing. Shampoo the carpets,
refinish the floors. But here’s tip
if you’re short on cash. Throw
rugs. Some inexpensive throw rugs
are great way to hide the sins of
our children. Here’s another great
tip…you can get super cheap carpet
remnants at a carpet store…and a
seamstress can surge the sides for
you. Voila…not only an inexpensive
throw rug, but one that is exactly
the right size because you
measured it.
Ok, so
hopefully this was helpful and took
a little bit of mystery out of the
home selling process. As we wrap
this up, I have one final tip:
smile and have faith…homes that are
ready to sell and priced correctly,
sell quickly even in today’s
challenged market. And your friends
at RealEstate-SantaMonica.com are
here to make that happen for you!