Dear Homeowner,
Congratulations on making the decision to sell your home! I’m sure it was a decision you contemplated carefully and I wish you great success in the outcome!
If you have decided to sell your home on your own, without the expertise of a licensed Realtor, I’d like to offer you a few tips that may help you through the process.
In real estate there are three important factors to getting a home sold. To the buyer, it’s all about location, condition and price. For the seller, it’s all about EXPOSURE, condition and price.
Let’s talk about price first. It would be nice if we could just pick a number out of the air and say “This is the amount I want someone to pay me for my house”. It’s not that easy unless you’re planning to give your house away or your secretly hoping that it does not sell. Ideally, you want to find the buyer who will pay you the most money for your home, but there is a very fine line between pricing your home to sell and pricing it to sit. The key to figuring out how much to list your home for is research. How much you owe, or how much your home is assessed for, or how much the house down the street sold for are not concrete factors in determining the price you set for selling your home. You’ve got to do some solid research. Don’t be afraid to call in a Realtor or two at this stage of the game. Most Realtors will give you a comparative market analysis on your home for no cost or obligation. A reputable Realtor will visit your home, gather some information, then take that information and look at your local real estate market and find homes that are comparable to yours in ways such as size, location and amenities. They’ll show you homes that are currently on the market, thus establishing your competition. They’ll show you homes that have sold, showing you the actual sale price of homes that are similar to yours. They’ll also show you homes that did not sell and offer some ideas as to why they didn’t sell. Using recent data from your local real estate market will help you nail down a price for your home that makes it appealing to buyers in your area. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your buyers don’t know the local market. Most of them have been looking at homes and comparing prices for quite some time. The average home buyer spends at least 3 months looking for the right home. In addition, many of your potential buyers will have an experienced Realtor working on their side!
The second big factor in selling a home is Condition. Think about it for a minute. If you’ve got two houses side by side with the same number of bedrooms, bathrooms etc and one of the houses needs a new roof, some new windows and a good amount of yard work, while the other house has a nicely manicured lawn and a better roof…which one are you more likely to look at and buy? Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that you need a new roof to get top dollar for your home, what I am saying is that when you are setting your price you must consider the condition of your property compared to the competition for your property and then price it accordingly. Hand in hand with condition though is curb appeal. For example, a home with a well cared for yard is going to be much more appealing to a perspective buyer than one where the grass is over grown and the bushes haven’t been trimmed in ages! For more information about the many easy and inexpensive ways to prepare your home for sale feel free to contact me: Julianne Krutka at 413-297-6718 or email Julianne.Krutka@NEMoves.com.
The final and most important factor in getting your home sold for the best possible price is EXPOSURE! Imagine this…you have a fabulous valuable work of art and you decide to sell it. If you have a lawn sale or put an ad in the local paper, how many people are actually going to see your piece of art. On top of that, of the people that drive by and stop at your lawn sale or call you on your ad, how many of them will actually appreciate the true VALUE of your piece of art? The answer is, probably not many. Now imagine you take that piece of art to an auction house such as Sotheby’s in New York
Ok, so let’s assume you’ve done your homework. You’ve priced your house properly, you’ve make it look nice inside and out and you’ve advertised sufficiently. Now you’re getting phone calls from people who want to view your property…Great! How do you show them your home? The first thing you need to do is protect yourself. Nine times out of ten the people calling to view your home are strangers. You might try to schedule showings during the daytime and you might want to be sure you have someone with you or maybe even have a neighbor or family member looking out for you while conducting your showing. When it’s time for the showing, you can show your potential buyers from room to room but remember not to rush them. Be sure to point out the features of each room but be careful not to spend too much time talking. You really want to listen to your potential buyers so that you can learn what their impressions are of your property. They will give you invaluable information about things that might need your attention and details you might have overlooked. Don’t be afraid to ask your potential buyers if they have been pre-qualified for a mortgage. A serious buyer has already consulted with a mortgage professional so that they are certain they are shopping for a home that is priced within their means. A Realtor rarely works with a buyer without a pre-approval because it’s heartbreaking to both the buyer and the seller when someone finds a home they really want to buy and then learn they can’t afford to buy it.
So now you’ve shown your home and you have someone who wants to make an offer. Should you take the first offer that comes along? Well, again, if you’ve done your homework and you’ve priced your property accordingly then the offer should be pretty close to your asking price if not right on! If the offer is where you had hoped it would be, then congratulations, you did a great job pricing, marketing and showing your home! If the offer is significantly lower than you had hoped, go back and do your homework again. Is the buyer trying to take advantage of you because they know you’re not working with a Realtor? Or are they trying to steal your house by making you think you’ve over priced it? Some things to take into consideration…how many showings have you had? What kind of feedback have you received from those showings? How motivated are you to sell your property? Can you and will you negotiate? Keep in mind that setting the contract price is just the beginning of the sale…you’ve still got inspections and appraisals to get through. Will the potential buyer find any major repair issues after they complete the inspections? Will the appraisal on the home meet the guidelines for the mortgage company to lend upon? What if your buyer’s have a home they have to sell first? Will you take your home off the market indefinitely while they try to sell theirs?
Yea, now we’re down to the wire, you’ve found your buyer and you’ve negotiated your price and your terms. Now, the buyer is requiring inspections. They want a mechanical and structural inspection, a pest inspection and a lead paint inspection. Are you going to be present for all of these inspections? Are you going to be willing to make repairs or re-negotiate if necessary when they’re done? If repairs are needed are you going to find the contractors to do the work, will you oversee the work and will you have it certified as being completed properly? Once you’re past the inspection period, assuming any issues have been dealt with and the buyer still wants the property, who will oversee the appraisal process? How much longer before you know your buyer’s financing is in place? How much longer after that will be the closing?
The average time frame for selling a house from the date of offer to the day of closing is 6 weeks. The first 10 to 14 days after the offer is accepted is time used to draw up the contracts for the sale, have them approved by the attorney’s representing the buyer and the seller and then schedule and conduct inspections. The financing process should be started within this time frame as well. After the inspections have been completed and both parties agree to continue with the transaction the buyer’s lender will then order the appraisal. The appraisal can take another week to two weeks to complete. Once the lender is satisfied with the creditworthiness of the buyer and the appraisal has confirmed the value of the property the lender will notify the buyer of their loan commitment and closing can be scheduled typically within 10 to 14 more days. To protect yourself, in the very beginning of the negotiations to purchase, there should be some dates included in your contract. For example, two weeks from date of your offer should be sufficient time for inspections to be completed and any areas of concern to be addressed. Four weeks from date of offer should be adequate time for your buyer to obtain a commitment for financing. Two more weeks from date of loan commitment should be ample time for the lender and the attorney’s to schedule a time for closing. It’s important to keep your sale moving in the right direction. By putting these time frames into your contract to purchase you protect yourself from harm from a buyer who could drag out the process because he or she may be unable to perform.
When all is said and done, Congratulations! If you’ve followed the advice in this article, you have or will soon sell your home. If at any point you feel you need the advice or service of a professional Realtor please feel free to contact me either by phone at 413-297-6718 or by email Julianne.Krutka@NEMoves.com. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have and if I don’t have the answers, I’ll happily refer you to someone who does.
This information provided as a courtesy by:
Julianne Krutka
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
48 Court Street Westfield, MA 01085
Office: 413-568-2324
Cell: 413-297-6718
Cell: 413-297-6718
Fax: 413-263-3536
Email: Julianne.Krutka@nemoves.com
Email: Julianne.Krutka@nemoves.com
Site: www.chainreactionrealestate.com - Serving the real estate needs of Buyers and Sellers in Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut.
Fan us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Westfield-MA/Chain-Reaction-Real-Estate-Serving-Western-MA-and-Northern-CT/145401069566
Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JulianneThibodeauKrutka
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JulianneKrutka
A wise person once said..the only stupid question is the one you don't ask! I am never to busy to answer your questions about Real Estate...ask away!
No comments:
Post a Comment