7 Tips That Will Make Selling Your Home Stress-Free

Make selling your home a process that is stress-free and easy by using these seven tips.

1. Find a Real Estate Agent

Finding a reputable real estate agent to help you sell your home is one of the most responsible decisions you can make. Despite many people opting to sell their home privately, finding a real estate agent will make the process easier on you, allowing you to focus on the many other factors that come into play when selling your home.

Speaking to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, Shane Kempton, Chief Executive Officer of Professionals Western Australia says that selling your home privately, may also, in fact, turn out to be more costly than hiring a real estate agent to do the job.

“While only a small percentage of sellers – less than three percent – decide to sell their own home, they should be fully aware of the potential losses before considering this course of action,” says Kempton.

Remember, real estate agents are qualified and capable, understand the property market in which they operate, can advise you on repairs and improvements that might be undertaken on the property, and handle all the paperwork on your behalf. Should you have any questions during the selling process, experienced real estate agents are sure to have the answer. In addition, real estate agents are objective and will not allow their emotions about the property to influence decisions during the selling process.

Finding a qualified and experienced real estate agent is easy with an agent finder like Perfect Agent. All the agents we recommend have a proven track record of good service.

2. Price Your Home to Sell

Good real estate agents will be able to advise you on a selling price that is fair, while also making a profit for you. Because they are objective observers with a good understanding of the property market, real estate agents will suggest a price that is in line with comparable properties in the suburb or city.

Says Shane Kempton, this is an invaluable aspect of having a real estate agent along on your selling journey, as home sellers often tend to overprice their properties due to the emotional attachment they feel towards these homes.

“Because they (sellers) are emotionally attached, they also tend to overprice their home, which means the property stays on the market longer and becomes ‘stale’, with the end result being the seller may have to sell the property for lower than its original market value,” says Kempton. 

Contrarily, real estate agents help you to avoid settling for a price that may be too low.

When advising you on the selling price of your home, real estate agents will take a number of factors into consideration, including the age and condition of the property, the city or suburb it is located in, and comparable properties on the market. Many factors may influence the price of your home, and your real estate agent will be able to explain these one by one, before establishing a selling price that is fair and allows for profit, but is not too high, discouraging potential buyers.

3. Set a Home Selling Timeline

Telling your real estate agent when exactly you would like to list and when you would ideally like to have sold the property is of paramount importance. This gives your agent a good idea of their own deadline for selling the property. Sometimes this deadline is already set when, for instance, you have to have moved to another city for a job by a certain date. Even if you don’t have external factors motivating the sale of your property, you should still decide when you would like to have sold.

A good selling timeline will chronologically include the following events and tasks.

Two months before listing the property

During this part of the selling timeline, you should do research about comparable properties to get a ballpark figure of what you can expect to sell for. Ask your real estate agent for information about the local property market.

Six weeks before listing the property

Now is the time to get the property ready for staging. Repair small cosmetic issues and take care of larger issues that you might want to pay attention to, like remodelling and larger repair jobs.

A month before listing your property

Even if it feels rather soon, this is the ideal time to start packing up your home. Sentimental items like wedding pictures and other personal titbits should be put away in storage, not only to assist you, come moving time, but also to make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Real estate agents often advise that home sellers put personal items away in order to let potential buyers see themselves in the space, and you’ll be grateful that you’ve started to pack when packing time arrives in all earnest.

Two weeks before selling your property

Declutter and clean your home as much as possible, especially if you have undertaken any type of repairs or paint jobs.

One week before listing your property

Your real estate agent will now set the marketing wheels in motion. They will take photos of the property for listing online, and will start promoting the home to potential buyers. By now, your home should be ready to be displayed – and hopefully to be sold quickly.

Once your home does go on the market, stay in touch with your real estate agent regarding offers and negotiations, and to find out whether things are on track to selling your home by the date you’ve set.

4. Get a Home Inspection

A home inspection is a cardinal part of the selling process. Property inspectors are in the business of identifying problems with homes, which may, in turn, influence the value they hold.

Property sellers will often enlist the services of a property inspector to ensure that they are not buying a property that they’ll have to spend money renovating (unless you’re selling a fixer-upper, in which case they will decide whether the price of the home warrants the work that needs to be done on it).

Your real estate agent will probably have advised you on potential issues by this point, and you will hopefully have paid attention to them.

5. Stage Your Home For Potential Buyers

Don’t underestimate the importance of staging your home! The purpose of this part of the selling process is to allow potential buyers to envision their own families in the space, and making it easy for them to do so will go a long way in selling your home at the price you’re asking for.

First things first: get rid of any clutter that may make your home seem untidy. For the duration of time that your home is open to potential buyers you should try to keep it inspection-ready all the time. Make the beds, give the bathroom a quick daily clean and make sure the dishes are clean. Try to keep personal effects to a minimum, and scour the internet for home staging tips that are simple, but make a big difference in the way your home is perceived.

Courteously receive potential buyers into your home, and make sure it is always ready for showings by letting your property look like the pictures they saw of it online.

6. List Your Home For Sale

Once you’ve sorted out the logistics of getting your home ready for sale, it will be time to list your home on real estate websites and other media. Your real estate agent will be indispensable during this part of the process, enlisting all the marketing tools they have at their dispense.

Your real estate agent will market the property to potential buyers, but don’t forget the value that word-of-mouth marketing has in getting news about your property out into the public. Tell friends, family and neighbours that you are selling – it often happens that these conversations reap fruits when an acquaintance of a friend or family member becomes interested in buying your property.

7. Negotiate The Sale Price and Close!

Together with your real estate agent, you have decided on a selling price that is in line with the property market, the type of property you’re selling and the condition and features of said property.

Once offers start coming in, it will be time to sit down and negotiate the selling price with interested buyers. Your real estate agent is an asset during this process. Because your agent is an objective representative, he or she will be able to handle negotiations on your behalf without getting sentimental or emotional.

Unless you’re lucky enough to immediately sell at the price you’re looking for, you can expect a fair amount of back-and-forth during negotiations between you and/or your real estate agent and the people looking to buy. Let your real estate agent assist you here, but don’t fall into the trap of simply countering lower offers with a price that is below your initial asking price. Rather counter with the asking price, before letting flexibility cause you to miss out on larger profits.

Once you have come to an agreement regarding the selling price of your home, it’s time to close the deal and take care of the final arrangements before handing over ownership.

Conclusion

Selling your home may be daunting, but it shouldn’t take all your time into account. Setting a timeline for the sale of your home helps you to plan the process, leaving enough time to get everything that is necessary, ready, including repairs, improvements and the staging of the home. Once your home is listed, following these crucial measures can help you to sell your property in no time at all.

Selling your home needn’t be tedious and complicated. Enlisting the services of an experienced and qualified real estate agent takes the stress out of selling your home, and Perfect Agent is here to help.

Are you looking for a real estate agent you can trust?  Contact us to help you find an agent that can help you sell your home quickly, at the best possible price.