Get the best deal when selling your home. Our blog post “6 Things to do If You’re Trying to Sell Your Home for More Money” will show you how.
After a long COVID-19 pandemic, buyers are moving and buying homes. It helps that mortgage rates are low and more jobs are created every month across America.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Learn how to think like a retail shop owner to make your home stand out with the right first impression.
- Make all repairs before listing for sale.
- Hire a Realtor to help you with pricing, curb appeal, marketing, and negotiating with buyers.
- Time your listing properly for greater impact.
- Set the right listing price for a faster sale.
- Learn how to negotiate the best offer.
How to Make More Money When Selling Your Home?
You need to stop feeling like a homeowner selling the nest. You must change your mindset into a professional seller. Here are some ways to change.
1. Think Like a Shop Owner
It may seem weird. Yet, a successful shop owner knows how to make the most important products stand out. Did you know that retail window displays depend on professional window designers? The next time you walk by a shop window that catches your attention. Stop and think, “Why am I attracted to this window display?”
Maybe certain colors caught your eye? Or, the way the background setting highlighted the item for sale? This is what professional window displayers do. They create an illusion to attract people walking by. This is what you need to do for your home.
Shopify published a great article in January 2022 explaining: “How to Create Window Displays that Turn Heads and Drive Sales”. It shows how:
Let’s apply the same strategies for the sale of your home.
Thinking like a shop owner means making your home stand out. Whatever cost and additional time it takes will be worth it when you sell. Consider it as a small investment that will quickly grow resulting in a large profit.
Use “Curb Appeal” to your advantage. What is curb appeal? It’s the art of making a home so appealing to buyers driving by that they want to stop to take a look. Similar to an appealing shop window.
Tip: Low-cost cosmetic enhancements for greater curb appeal are better investments than costly remodeling.
Check out our informative post explaining curb appeal and other ways: “How to Create Positive Home Buyers First Impressions”.
Bonus: Learn how to prepare your home interior to appeal to buyers in our post: “Home Staging Tips That Arouse Buyers”.
2. Make all Important Repairs Before Listing
You are not required to hire a home inspector. Yet, it’s a good idea to hire one. Why?
Because you need a professional to find hidden defects and everything requiring repairs. Nip these problems in the bud by fixing them before buyers find them and either cancel the sale or delay the closing until you fix them.
You will save time and money by getting quotes from contractors at your convenience instead of rushing to make repairs.
Learn more by reading our informative post: “Home Inspection Process Explained”.
Buyers and their lenders will require an appraisal and a home inspection before the closing. If hidden defects pop up buyers may get scared and lose confidence in the purchase making you lose the sale.
Delays will cost you money. Especially if you have an offer on your next home after your sale closes.
3. Work with a Local Realtor to Sell Your Home for More Money
Investopedia suggests: “If you want to sell your home fast, hire a Realtor”.
Just like the shop owner hiring a window display professional, you as a home seller must work with a local Realtor.
Homeowners tend to stay in their nests for a long time. Raise a family and wait for the kids to grow up or wait for a better job offer in another area. Most homeowners buy or sell a home only a few times in their lifetime.
So, if you are a typical homeowner you will benefit from working with a local Realtor who knows your neighborhood. The many benefits a local Realtor gives you include:
- Professional marketing strategies including social media and catchy listing descriptions;
- How to navigate state and local real estate laws and zoning restrictions; and
- Local customs in the housing market.
Plus, a local Realtor knows how to perform a Comprehensive Market Analysis (CMA) to compare the main features of your home with recent local home sales. This helps you to know the local housing market and the best price to list your home.
Big Block Realty with over 1,000 Realtors can find the best fit depending on where you live in San Diego County and other parts of California.
We go the extra mile more than a typical CMA. Our unique RealScout program uses real-time local MLS data along with recent local buyers’ data showing what property features buyers want.
Contact us to learn how we can help you with curb appeal and selling at the right price for a faster sale.
Want to know the difference between a Realtor and a real estate agent? View our post: “Is a Realtor Better Than a Real Estate Agent?”
4. Timing Your Sale Properly
Did you know that the time of year affects sale prices?
Our National Association of Realtors (NAR) constantly performs research and studies on national and regional home sales. NAR even publishes reports showing the best times to list a home. As Realtors, we learn what NAR studies show to help our sellers.
Even coming out of a long pandemic lockdown, people still need to move for their growing families or relocate to other cities for employment. Older residents retire and sell their homes to downsize and buy cheaper homes. All of these result in more homes for sale.
So, when you need to sell no matter what time of year, it’s the best time of year for you.
NAR even does studies to report on the best days of the week to list a home for sale. So, don’t hold back for the right month.
We can help you to sell for the highest price any time of year.
5. Setting the Right Price to Sell Your Home for More Money
Time Magazine recommends setting the right price.
“You want to make the most money, but also attract buyers and sell your home quickly.”
While a CMA helps you see what similarly nearby homes recently sold for, not every home feature is used. For example, if your home includes a self-efficient home office that a remote worker would love to buy, it won’t show up in a typical CMA.
What’s a better option?
Our special RealScout program adds features that buyers say are important to them into the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) databases. This allows buyers to find the home with the specific features they want. In a blink of an eye, your home with that special home office shows up when a remote worker uses our RealScout program. The other hundreds of listings are left behind.
Another important thing to remember is that homes listed at too high a price don’t sell. On the other hand, homes listed too low sell fast but give you less profit.
How do we determine the right price? By using our RealScout program to compare all the MLS listings for specific features that buyers want. After all, the buyer is always right because they know what they want.
Our RealScout gives buyers what they want. It’s as simple as that. Only a few San Diego real estate brokerages are licensed to use RealScout, and we are one of them.
Contact us to learn more about the benefits of our RealScout program for sellers. In the meantime, view our blog post: RealScout Helps Home Sellers.
Have Questions?
6. Negotiating the Best Offer
Your best opportunity to get the highest price is when multiple buyers bid on your home. That’s when your Realtor can contact the buyers to inform them of the other offers and ask for the “best” offer.
Tip: Know that the highest offer may not be the best deal. Beware of buyer contingencies with their offers that favor them over you. For example, a contingency letting the buyer back out of the sale based on:
- Appraisal;
- Financing;
- Home inspection; and
- Sale of the buyer’s current home before closing.
While most of these contingencies are typical (or required with a VA loan), during a bidding war you hold all the cards. This allows you to limit contingencies.
Learn more about bidding wars in our post: “How To Win A California Home Bidding War”.
6 Things To Do If You’re Trying To Sell Your Home For More Money – Conclusion
Follow these 6 steps to sell your home for the most money:
- Learn how to think like a professional retailer showcasing appealing window displays;
- Fix your home and create curb appeal before listing it for sale;
- Work with a local Realtor who knows your neighborhood and what similar homes sell for;
- Time your listing properly for the best day and time for greater exposure;
- Begin your listing by setting the right price for a faster sale; and
- Negotiate with buyers to get their best offer.
Want to Work with the Best Realtors in San Diego County?
Big Block Realty keeps winning awards and recognition as the Best Real Estate Brokerage in San Diego for the past 4 years in a row (2018 – 2021).
Also, as the 49th Best Independent Real Estate Brokerage in the Country for 2021. This is according to the Wall Street Journal and Real Trends.
With your help, we can win again in 2022.
Check out screenshots and source links to our awards at:
- “Big Block Realty Named in Top 100 RE Brokers in The United States”; and
- “Best 100% Commission Real Estate Broker San Diego 2022”
Contact us for all your real estate needs including listing your home for sale or buying your next home in San Diego County.
Steven Rich, MBA – Guest Blogger
Search Local Real Estate Below Or Use Our: Home Search Tool:
—
HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Let us know, we love to help:
Call: (800) 550 – 3209
or Click: www.BigBlockRealty.com/contact
—
Connect with Big Block…
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@bigblockrealty?sub_confirmation=1
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL HERE: https://bigblockrealty.com/social/
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BigBlockRealty_
Big Block Realty – CA BRE #01885775
Steven Rich, MBA has been involved in the real estate industry for over 30 years. As an investor, real estate agent, associate editor of a real estate magazine, a real estate marketing expert, a Wikipedia real estate article author, and as a writer.
