It’s a very happy Friday for us. My family is coming to visit. Lucky us! Amber K, you’ve got a lucky break to remember now, because you’re the winner!
Now for the last (very word heavy) installment of our home selling posts.
Selling a home is a big task. Whether listing with an agent or for sale by owner, here’s a quick list of our tips and experiences to help ease the process.
- List your home on the MLS and Realtor.com
- Take high quality, bright photos
- Load your flyer up with color photos and pertinent information {more on these three points here}
- Be flexible with your time
- Call buyer’s agents to ask for feedback about the house
- Set the right price
- Host open houses
- Make contact information prominent and accessible
- Take kids and pets out of the house during showings {more on that here}
- Show off selling features
Now let’s expand on these points.
Tip 1. Be flexible with your time. If you are planning to sell by owner, this is especially important. Buyers have a schedule, so you need to be willing and able to work around their timeline. Be ready for calls asking to see the house in an hour. If your schedule isn’t flexible , due to work, living situations, etc., consider a lock box for buyer’s agents to use.
If you are using a lock box, here’s what I’d do when someone calls to schedule a showing: write down the agent’s name, company, cell and office phone numbers, and time of showing. Before giving out the lock box info, call the office number (or Google the agent and brokerage firm) to make sure that person actually works for the company. Keep track of every showing (write it down on a master list) and you’ll have an idea of who was there at what time if anything goofy does happen.
Our Experience: Most showings were scheduled a day in advance, but we had a few showings set up an hour before. I expected to have at least one knock on the door asking to see the house right then. Glad that didn’t happen.
Tip 2. A day or two after showing, call the buyer’s agent for feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask what the agent and buyer thought of your home. All feedback can help sell your home. New eyes might see something you missed.
Our Experience: Most everyone had nice things to say about our house. A few people commented on the garage door or asked questions about our price, but everyone liked the level of finish. It was wonderful for Ben to hear this as he is his worst critic.
Tip 3. Set the right price, but remember everything in real estate is negotiable. If you’re wondering how to price your house, ask a local agent for a free CMA (comparative market analysis). This will show what similar houses in the neighborhood are on the market and what they sold for.
Our Experience: We asked an agent to do a CMA and set our price a little higher than the CMA price range simply because a few of our homes features don’t fit the comps. Ben actually received a call from a local agent questioning our list price. He had recently sold a few houses in our neighborhood, but each was priced nearly 100k under our list price. Ben informed him of our updates including the remodeled kitchen, geothermal heating and cooling, tankless water heater, central vacuüm, and such. Then he understood our pricing, but it was an interesting conversation. Be ready to answer questions about your pricing.
Edit: We are not encouraging you to lie to or deceive an agent to get a CMA. Explain your situation and wish to sell your house by owner to an agent.
Tip 4. Host open houses on weekends. Sure you’ll get traffic from curious neighbors, but you need to get people through the door. Bonus points if you buy flowers and/or cookies.
Our Experience: We planned to host open houses, but never did. We spent the first weekend on the market finishing up a few projects. If we hadn’t received an offer on Friday, we would have hosted an open house the second weekend.
Tip 5. Make your contact information prominent. If a buyer or agent doesn’t know how to get in contact, how will they see your house?
Our Experience: I bolded Ben’s phone number and had it on the MLS, the for sale sign, and both sides of our flyer. Always double up.
Tip 6. Get kids and pets out of the house. Make the experience as professional as possible.
Our Experience: If your kids are anything like ours, they’ll chat to anyone, but buyers are not there to see your kids. They’re there to see your house. So the boys and I stayed away until Ben called to say he was leaving after each showing.
Tip 7. Show off selling features. Large closets, built-ins, flooring, lighting, anything nice.
Our Experience: Ben showed off the accent lighting in the kitchen and master bedroom. We pulled up bathroom rugs to show off the marble floors.
We also had a question about home improvements and resale value, so here’s our policy:
Bottom line, when making updates to your home, I would highly suggest choosing materials you would like to live with; not necessarily the cheapest materials you can find. Chances are, if you like higher quality materials, buyers will too, and that can increase your bottom dollar.
Please remember, we are not house flippers and did not make any of the improvements to our home with the sole purpose of selling. We simply chose items we liked and wanted to live with and it has helped increase the value of our home. Every situation is different and you have to do what works for you.
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