So you've decided to sell your home. Perhaps you're taking a job in a new community and you need to sell. Maybe you've outgrown your existing home and you need to move into something larger. Perhaps your family has grown up and moved out and it is time to downsize into a smaller home. Whatever the reason, you've decided to sell your home. What follows are some useful hints and ideas to make the selling process easier.

Things to Consider When Selling Your Home

There are four main areas to consider when you decide to sell your home: 1) choosing your Realtor, 2) pricing the home, 3) preparing your home for the market, and 4) showing your home to potential buyers. We'll look at each area in more detail.

1. Choosing Your Realtor

Selecting a Realtor is as important as any decision you will make in the selling process. You may be spending a considerable amount of time with your Realtor, so the person you select to help you should be someone you respect, and someone who is knowledgeable. Check your Realtor's credentials. How long has he or she been in the business? What kind of marketing will your Realtor do? Will he or she give you references? Will your Realtor utilize a website and virtual tour so that your home has a presence on the Internet? Also, you should find out from your Realtor what he or she expects from you. Will you be responsible for open houses? How often will the home be held open? Will there be restricted hours of showing? Will the home be on a lockbox?

Why use me as your agent?

If you are like most people, you want to sell your home:

• Quickly
• At a high profit
• At little cost
• Without stress

My approach to selling homes is flexible and organized. I combine the latest technologies with traditional know-how to create a sales approach that is comprehensive, highly responsive, and effective. I will help you assess your home's value accurately, prepare your home to sell quickly, and attract a qualified buyer.

Sale success essentials

Today’s competitive market looks and acts significantly different than the market of even a year ago. To be truly successful, I:

• Manage a comprehensive marketing program
• Use advanced technology that allows buyers full access to information on your home, around the clock
• Automatically collect and aggressively pursue leads
• Manage the contact follow-up that assures timely and effective response with home buyers

Risky business

Maybe you’ve thought about selling your home without an agent in order to avoid paying an agent’s commission. That commission, depending on where you live and what agency you choose, can be 6%.

Handling your own sale means you will have to place ads, answer calls, and show your home to strangers at all hours—no matter how unexpected or inconvenient. Also, buyers who know you are saving on an agent's commission may offer less for your home, destroying a portion of any financial benefit you were hoping to gain.

Serious buyers depend on real estate agents. 98.3% of the homes for sale are listed by realtors. And 70% of homes sold are sold through agent-to-agent communication. Using the right professional agent will make your home sale a better experience, and a more profitable one.

2. Pricing Your Home

The Realtor you select to help you sell your home will be the best source for determining the price your home should be listed for. He or she will have access to the Multiple Listing Service database and should be able to provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis of what the home should sell for, based upon sales of comparable properties in the neighborhood in which your home is located. Remember also that a Realtor's knowledge of whether it is a buyer's market or a seller's market will have an impact on what your home should be listed for. While your Realtor wants to get you as much as possible for your home, realistically, it is going to sell for what a buyer thinks it is worth, and that value will be determined by what other homes have sold for in the area, in the current market. If you are unrealistically high in your asking price, your home will not sell, and in fact may become "stale" on the market. Most of the sales activity generally occurs within the first month of a home going on the market, so you want your home listed at a realistic price, so that offers come in right away.

Pricing competitively

At any point in time, there are several other homes for sale competing with your home. You must know what's going on in your local housing market in order to price your home competitively and to attract the qualified buyer.

I will help you determine the market value of your home by generating a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) report, which will show you a range of prices being paid for homes in your area.

We will also discuss other factors that help us determine the value of your home:

• Location
• Square footage of your home and lot
• Condition of your property
• Buyer demand level for homes in your area
• Your motivation
• Availability of financing
• Interest rates

Marketing Factors affecting the sale of your home: Who controls them?

We will determine price based only on the factors under your control:

Marketing Factor	Who Controls?
Market (Price/Timing)	Seller
Saleability/Appeal to Buyer	Seller
Marketing Program	Agent
Market Value	Buyer

The combination of an accurate Competitive Market Analysis, a precise property evaluation, and a well-executed marketing plan will help you price your home realistically in order to attract the full-price buyer.

Benefits of realistic pricing

Why not just price your home as high as you think you possibly can?

The chart below, from the National Association of Realtors, shows your likelihood of selling at different market values:

Price % Above	Percent of
Market Value	Homes Sold
+15%	20%
+10%	30%
Priced at market	60%
-10%	75%
-15%	90%

Realistic pricing means you will:

• Capitalize on the first few weeks of high activity and interest.
• Attract more prospects.
• Increase the likelihood of receiving higher offers.
• Minimize the inconvenience of keeping your home ready to show.
• Accomplish a faster sale.

Remember, your need for money does not increase the value of your home. If IBM stock trades between 104 & 108, it does no good to insist on selling at 112. Pricing too high only means your price will make other homes in your area look like better deals.

Overpricing your home could also make it difficult for a buyer to finance. 99% of all homes are financed. If you overprice your home, a buyer may be denied financing because the appraisal will come in too low to justify the loan.

Catching the crest of the buyer-interest wave

Timing is critical!

The majority of buyer activity occurs in the first two weeks after a home goes on the market, and peak sales activity occurs within the first 10 days. Buyers who see a property at a non-competitive price will not be back for a second look. The longer your home stays on the market without an offer, the more it risks taking on a "shelf-worn" appearance, reducing your chances for closing a sale with a full-price buyer.

3. Preparing Your Home for the Market

The most important thing to do to your home is to make it as attractive as possible. Start with the first impression that a potential buyer has when they drive up, the so-called "curb appeal". Mow and edge the lawn, get rid of the weeds, and plant some nice, colorful flowers if it the correct season. Stand back and critically look at your home. How do you see your home? If you stand in the shoes of a potential buyer, you will probably see things that need to be done.

Preparing your home for market does not stop at the outside. Preparing your home inside is just as important. Just as you cleaned up the outside, the inside should be just as clean. Put away any items that would contribute to a cluttered appearance. While family pictures and other treasures have meaning to you, to a potential buyer they are just things which tend to make a room seem smaller. Make sure that the lights are on and the window coverings are open when a buyer comes into your home. Light and cheerful is much better than dark and cheerless when it comes to showing your home. Sort out closets and arrange things neatly. It will make your closets look bigger, and further contribute to the sense of tidiness. Pride in your home will be seen by a potential buyer, and hopefully make them want to buy your home.

Pre-sale inspections

Pre-sale home inspections help us plan our pricing strategy for your home.

It’s often a good idea to have one or more inspections done prior to placing your home on the market. The results will give you a better understanding of conditions which may be discovered by the buyer's inspector, and an opportunity to make repairs that will put the house in better selling condition. Some of the inspections that we will consider include:

• Pest Report
• Home Inspection
• Roof Inspection

We will also discuss these Seller disclosures:

• Earthquake Fault Zones
• Local Seismic Hazard Zones
• State Fire Responsibility Areas
• National Flood Insurance Program Areas
• Landslide Inventory Report
• Liquefaction Susceptibility Determination
• Flood and Inundation Hazards
• Transfer Disclosure Statement and Addendum

I will help you determine which inspections and disclosures you should or must undertake. In general, knowledge is preferable to ignorance in any matter relating to the condition of the home you are selling. Avoiding discovery of a problem with your property will not make it go away!

Once you are prepared with the inspection reports you need, we will take some steps to make sure your home looks its best. By the time it’s ready to view, your home should look simply irresistible to buyers.

4. Showing Your Home to Potential Buyers

Perhaps the most invasive part about the marketing period will be actually showing the home. Most likely your home will be on Broker's Tour, the day that all of the brokers in your local Multiple Listing Service will tour the home. Most likely you will be asked to leave the home during the broker's tour so that your Realtor can show off the home to the local brokers. This will probably take most of the morning.

If your home is placed on a lockbox, brokers will call your agent if they have a client who would like to view the home. They will schedule an appointment and use the lockbox to gain access to the home if you aren't there. If you are there, most sales agents like to have you remain out of the way as they show the home, although they may ask you questions regarding the home that you should cheerfully and honestly answer.

Unfortunately, sales agents may schedule appointments in the early evening if they have clients who work during the day, so be prepared for some disruption in your daily lives. Obviously, weekends are a particularly popular time for showing homes, so while you may prefer to relax on weekends, you must keep your home ready for showing at almost any time.

You should try to be as cooperative as you can. If brokers can't show your home, or you make it an unpleasant experience for the broker and his/her client, your home is going to be "forgotten" and it won't sell. Also, ignore comments that you might overhear from potential buyers. Each buyer is looking for their ideal home, and things in your home may not correlate to their dream home. It is very normal for them to make comparisons.

In the end, a buyer will view your home and match their dream with yours and a successful sale will result.


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