4 Things You Need to Know Before Selling Your Home

If you are planning to put your home up for sale in today's tough market, there are four things you need to know first. After 25 years of experience in real estate, these are the four key things I believe are important if we expect to find happy results when putting our homes on the market today.

#1 - Reality

I love what I do and I love helping people with their real estate needs. But one of the most difficult things for me to do, is sit down across the table from somebody, look them in the eyes and tell them their home is not worth what they thought it was; it's not worth what they hoped it was, and it may not even be worth what they paid for it.

So the hardest thing is just to get into the reality that the market doesn't care about our plans. The home is worth what someone is willing to pay for it; that's the hardest thing, just getting into reality. Life has taught me that the sooner we can get into reality, the sooner we can get past it.

#2 - First Impressions

I was out showing a house the other day that happened to be one of my own listings. I could tell the place wasn't ready to be shown and I ran into the kitchen to pick up the garbage and put some dishes in the sink. I told the people to go ahead and look at it, then I ran down the hallway and I picked up underwear, I make beds, and I cleaned up as much as possible.

That night I called my client and reminded them that my job is to get people into the home; their job is to make sure the home is presentable. And my client told me, "Well people are just going to have to understand that we have a busy household; we've got teenagers." I told her unfortunately nobody cares about your world; they are dialed into their own world. When a buyer walks up to a house, they don't care about what's going on in your life; they care about their own life. And they are looking for reasons why they shouldn't buy your home so don't give them any reasons - that means the photos when you list, all the way to the presentation of during a showing. Always make sure your home looks the best it can.

#3 - Make It Look Like a Model Home

Living in your home is a lot different then actually having it on the market. You have to make your home look like the model home that nobody lives in, unfortunately. That's why I try to stress to everybody that living in your home and having your home on the market are two different worlds. And, the sooner you line up with that reality, the sooner you get past the hurdle of selling your home. The longer you fight that with the idea that people are going to understand what your challenges and problems are, the longer you're going to have to deal with that. It's a good reason to have a clean house. Not too long ago I actually had somebody tell me that they liked their home so much better once they kept it clean that they had decided to stay where they were.

#4 - Price

I don't want to be too redundant about the price issue, but it used to be "location, location, location" and in today's world it is "price, price, price"; you've got to price it where it looks like it's a good deal because we're still competing with distressed sales. And we're going to continue competing with distressed sales for a while longer yet. Again, the market doesn't care how much money you want, or think you deserve for your home. Your home is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.