Planning Your Sale
Over a thousand homes are sold each month in the Seattle area, and yours can be one of them. While each transaction is different, almost every seller wants the same thing - the highest price with the least amount of hassle and aggravation.
Home selling is more complex than it used to be. As a seller you need to be aware of a range of issues and deal with quite a few complex legal documents. Successfully selling your home, especially in our current slow market, requires experience and training in areas such as real estate, marketing, financing, negotiation and closing – this is the very expertise REALTORS® that like Diane and I offer.
Know Why You Want to Sell Your Home
First, you should have a clear idea why you want to sell your home.
Selling a home is an important matter, and there are significant costs associated with both selling and moving, so there should be a good reason to sell, such as moving to a new community, needing more space, retiring to a smaller home or moving closer to family. Your reason for selling can impact both the price and the negotiating process, so it's important to discuss your needs and wants in private, in advance, with us as well as talking about price and timeline. You should also have a clear plan for where you are going to go next, and what it will cost.
Is Your Home Ready to Be Sold?
The home-selling process typically starts several months before a property is made available for sale. For best results when selling your home, you need to look at your home through the eyes of a prospective buyer and determine what needs to be cleaned, painted, repaired and tossed out.
Ask yourself: “If I were buying this house, what would I want to see?” The goal is to show a home which looks good, maximizes space and attracts as many buyers - and as much demand - as possible.
The condition of the property can have a strong effect on time-to-sell as well as on offered price.
As your agents and "house doctors", we can advise you on which things would be well worth doing, and which might not return their costs, and in some cases we can help you find contractors if needed.
When Should You Sell?
Generally, the selling market is most active from about February through June, and then fairly active from Labor Day to mid-November. Summertime and the winter holidays are usually the slowest times of the year for house sales.
The marketplace tends to be more active in the spring because parents want their children to be settled in their new home and neighborhood by summer, and enrolled before the beginning of the school year - so we see more buyers out during that season. Spring is also when most of those buyers are also sellers - so we see more homes on the market then too, and some of them may be competing with yours. If there is to be competition among buyers, and perhaps some support for higher prices, it will most likely occur in the spring.
How Do You Improve Your Home's Value?
Ideally, you want to be sure that your property is competitive with other homes available in the community. As REALTORS®, we see many homes and can provide home-improvement suggestions that are consistent with your local marketplace and cost-effective in terms of what you will be able to recoup through the sale.
The general rule in real estate is that buyers seek the least expensive home in the best neighborhood they can afford. In terms of improvements, this means you want a home that fits in with the neighborhood but that is not overimproved. For example, if most homes in your neighborhood have three bedrooms, two baths and 2,500 square feet of finished space, a property with five bedrooms, more baths and far more space would likely be priced much higher and would likely be more difficult to sell.
Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments that cannot be recovered from the sale. Furthermore, improvements should reflect community preferences.
Cosmetic improvements, such as carpeting, paint, wallpaper and landscaping, help a home "show" better and often are good investments. Mechanical repairs, which ensure that all systems and appliances are in good working condition, are required to get a top price.
Prepare yourself to sell your home by making sure you have a good REALTOR® , and by carefully evaluating why you want to sell and when you need to sell. Then prepare for the sale by improving your home and property to make sure it will be competitive at the price you want to ask for it.