The Ultimate Home Seller's Guide
By Trisha Cook
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First Things First…
First and foremost, I’m really looking forward to helping you sell your home! I’m sure you’re even more excited than I am to get it on the market, see buyers coming through, and of course, get an offer!
Selling a house is a fun and exciting process, but it can also be stressful and aggravating at times. Which is why I’m giving you this…I do everything possible to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Many of the things that are stressful or aggravating can be avoided (or handled better) as long as you know what to expect and do ahead of time.
So please, give this a quick read, and refer back to it throughout the process of selling your home. While this guide won’t get into every little detail about the process (I’ll be taking care of a lot of things behind the scenes which you’ll never need to worry about)...it does get into some things you should know about, which will save you time, effort, money, and heartache.
Again, I’m looking forward to working with you, and thanks for choosing to work with me!
Mission POSSIBLE…
As a real estate agent, sometimes I’m representing a buyer, and at other times a seller. Obviously, my “mission” is different for both of those types of clients. But, since I’m representing you as a seller, my mission is pretty simple:
To help you sell your house for the highest amount the market will bear in as short a time as possible!
I can’t and won’t promise “quick.” How long your home takes to sell depends on a lot of factors (many of which we’ll address in this guide). However, I can assure you that I will help you sell it as quickly as possible. And while I can’t predict exactly how much the market will bear, I can assure you I will help you get as much as the market will bear. But much of this depends upon you as well! Getting the best results only happens when clients make the best choices and decisions along the way, which this guide should help you do.
The “CMA”…
Before we do anything else, we need to determine an accurate market value for your home. I’ll do a thorough Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) which will help us determine a likely range that your home should sell for.
In the analysis, we will look at similar homes to yours which have:
- Recently sold
- Are currently under contract
- Are currently active on the market
This will also help us determine an appropriate price to list your house for against the current competition and considering the current market activity.
I’ll give you my objective perspective and advice as to how much you should list your house for. While I hope you take my advice, ultimately you decide on the list price for your house.
However, the buyers in the market ultimately determine the market value of your home. It is only worth what a willing, ready, and able buyer is willing to pay. That should be in line with the value we see in the CMA, as long as there are no major changes within the market and you make the right decisions on pricing right from the start.
Many homeowners tend to overprice their house when they first hit the market because:
- They believe they should have “wiggle room” to be able to negotiate to the price they want to get.
- They simply hope that someone will pay more than the market data indicates. They price it based upon what they “need to get” in order to sell their house.
- They add every dollar of improvements they have made to the house over the years onto the data-driven value.
When an owner over-prices, for any of these reasons, they usually lose the market’s interest by being out of line with the market. This causes their home to sit there, accrue days on market, and cause buyers to wonder, “What’s wrong with the house?”
So, before we even go over the market analysis, my best advice is to listen to the data and price your home accordingly. That’ll end up saving you a lot of time, money, and aggravation.
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