3 Things You Need To Do In This Shifting Real Estate Market

Bonus Material: A Free Guide That Helps You Get Sell Ready (18 Home Preparation Tips)

The real estate market was on fire in the start of 2022.

Then the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. Things slowed down.

In 2021, the median sales price was 17%.

The median home sale price in 2022 was $386,300, up 10.2% from 2021 and the highest on record.

Meanwhile with 5.03 million homes sold, down 17.8% from the year before, making it the lowest amount since 2014.

If you're planning on selling your home this year, there are a few things you need to do to make sure you get the most money. Or even to make sure your home sells.

Download The Get Sell Ready Guide (18 Home Preparation Tips)

This article will cover two main things:

• The Mistakes Sellers Make In A Shifting Market

• The 3 Things You Must Do To Sell Your Home For The Most Money

Mistakes Sellers Make In A Shifting Real Estate Market

Selling your home in 2023 might feel like a daunting task, with the real estate market shifting. Buyers are more selective. But making sure you get the most money for your home doesn’t have to be difficult. You can make sure your house sells quickly, for top dollar by avoiding common mistakes and following some key steps.

Don't Get Stuck In The Past Real Estate Prices

Many sellers are stuck in the past. They remember seeing a price for their home at the peak of the real estate market. And they want to price their homes as if it were still a hot market.

It's important to be realistic with your price. Understand that buyers may not offer as much as they did two years ago. Or even two months ago.

What Price Is Not

The market value of your home is determined by the market - that is, what today's buyers are willing to pay.

Buyers are comparing your home to other homes that are on the market at this exact time. Those homes are your competition. Buyers are also looking at what is under contract and sold.

Buyers don't care about:

• • What your neighbor says your home is worth

• • What another real estate agent says

• • What you spent on upgrades

• • What it costs to build a similar house today

• • What you spent on repairs

• • What you spent on remodeling your kitchen

• • What you spent on new flooring or carpet

• • What you paid

• • What you NEED

• • What you WANT

• • What Zillow says

• • What your tax assessment is

 

The reason none of these things matter, your neighbor, the other real estate agent, Zillow, and the tax assessor are not buying your house.

In fact, Zillow was buying homes for a while. But they did such a bad job at predicting home prices they shut down that side of their business.

“We’ve determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated and continuing to scale Zillow Offers would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility,” said Rich Barton, Zillow’s co-founder and CEO

Zillow admits they're not good at predicting and forecasting home prices.

Get In The Home Is Sold Mindset

Before you start to worry about your home's closing day, the curb appeal, home staging or what home improvement projects to focus on, you'll want to get in what we call, the HOME IS SOLD MINDSET.

Here is a cold hard reality: It’s not your home anymore. 

Not at the time your home sells, closes and you get your check.

Right now. Starting right now, this is no longer your home.

It’s a product in the marketplace. Competing with other products in the marketplace (comparable homes). Trying to attract buyers so you can get the best price.

You can continue to feel an emotional attachment to your house; remembering when you brought your kids home from the hospital for the first. Celebrating the holidays. Or any other countless memories you've created there. But you do that at the possibility of minimizing the money you’ll get. 

It could jeopardize your entire sale.

Some homes don't sell.

The reality is at some point, you’ll be packing up the moving boxes, saying goodbye to this house. Looking at the sold sign in your car mirrors. Leaving your keys behind, and never coming back to it again.

The sooner you get into this Sold Mindset, the better chance you have of doing the things you need to do to get the most dollars in the sale.

Emotional Attachment Cost Her

I had one seller call me, after her house had failed to sell with another real estate agent. She wanted me to come “rescue” her and her home sale.

After I did a Marketing and Pricing Diagnostic for her, she confessed that when she had listed with her previous agent when she was not yet ready to sell. She didn’t want to let her house go. 

For this seller, her emotional attachment had cost her a year of extra payments on her home. It sat vacant. Developed a stigma in the marketplace that there was “something wrong” with the home because it had been for sale for so long. This impacted the overall home value.

________

What Will A Real Estate Agent Do In A Shifting Real Estate Market?

Everyone probably knows 3 or 4, or more real estate agents today. In seller's markets it is very common for more people to become real estate agents. Now that the market is shifting many agents don't know what to do to help their clients. Or themselves.

But do you know what that agent will do for you when selling your home?

Besides, put a sign in the yard and list it on the MLS...

• Do they have a plan to attract buyers?

• How will they follow up with interested buyers?

• Can they tell you what home improvement projects will bring a higher sale price? Which ones are a waste of time and money?

• Do they have a home selling strategy to attract multiple offers for you?

If you want to know how to sell your home for more money, don't settle. Sure it will sell in these seller real estate markets, but could you have got more money?

Want to Talk Real Estate? Have Questions? Start A Chat with Katherine or Darin 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3 Things You Must Do To Sell Your Home For The Most Money

In a shifting real estate market, days on market are increasing and inventory is stacking up. Prices are stabilizing or falling. It is now crucial to do these three things to get the most money for your home.

In this section you'll read about:

1. Getting your home ready for market
2. Marketing the listing to reach the most buyers
3. Negotiating an offer and navigating through the transaction until closing day

How To Sell Your Home For More Money In A Shifting Real Estate Market

After you get the right mindset. Decide the market price of your house, not what you wished it was. These are the three things you must do when selling your home to get the highest sale price. 

1. Getting your home ready for market

The most important things a seller should do to get your home ready for sale:

First, do what we call OCD.

Organize, Clean & Declutter

This is simple and does a lot to help first impressions and the home's appeal.

Organize things so there is more space in the house.

Do a deep cleaning so the house makes a great first impression.

Then Declutter. Get rid of things you don't need, no longer use and don't plan on moving. Then pack up the things that you don't need for day-to-day living.

A decluttered house will help the home feel more spacious. Also makes it easier to keep clean before showings.

Next, repair any damage or fix any broken items

Updates aren’t always necessary. Your focus should be on repairs and maintenance. A new quartz countertop might look nice, but a leaky roof will kill the sale. During the home inspection, if a potential buyer finds a list of items wrong with the house, the deal falls apart. This impacts you getting the best price.

Finally, decide what to update or remodel

These are the toughest decisions to make.

If you're trying to get a higher price and increase the perceived value, you might think upgrading or remodeling your house is the best way. And you might be able to increase your list price. But that doesn't mean you'll be walking away with more money.

Not all remodeling projects fetch a higher selling price.

For example, according to the Remodeling Cost vs Value Report a major kitchen remodel only returns 57% of the cost.

That means if you spend $20,000, you'll only get $11,400 back out of it. Sure, higher sales price, but less money overall in your pocket.

You don't want to waste time and money doing things to get your home ready for sale that won't help it sell for more money. That would be silly.

You don’t have to spend a fortune and all your weekends updating and remodeling your house to get it sell-ready.

INSTANTLY DOWNLOAD OUR GET SELL READY GUIDE + 47 point Checklist.

 

2. Market the listing

Now that your home looks great, it's time to get it seen.

First impressions matter. But the first impression of your home doesn't happen when the potential buyer walks in the door. It happens online.

Real Estate Photography

Good real estate photography is key to getting your home seen by as many people as possible. It's important to have good-quality photos that show your home in the best light. You want to make sure potential buyers can see all the features and amenities of your home. If the photos are blurry, dark or just not appealing, potential buyers will move on to the next house.

Real Estate Video

According to a study by the National Association of Realtors, listing videos result in higher conversion rates than listings without videos. This makes sense when you think about it.

People are visual creatures.

We like to see what we’re buying before we buy it. Having a video of your home allows potential buyers to do just that.

It also allows them to get a feel for the space and how it could fit their needs. It’s also a great way to show off your home’s features and amenities. Potential buyers can get a better sense of the layout and whether or not it’s a good fit for them.

Good real estate video marketing is like having a 24/7 open house. But without all the weirdness of strangers freely walking through your home.

7 Real Estate Video Facts

- Properties with a professional video tour are perceived as being worth 6% MORE than similar homes without.

- 86% of buyers watch videos to find out more about a community

- 70% of buyers watch videos to tour the inside of a home

- Video generates 1,200% more shares than text and images combined

- Real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without video. (In other words, real estate ads with videos generate quadruple the interest of those without videos.)

- 85% of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video as part of their marketing efforts

- 51% of home shoppers rated YouTube as their top video research site. Brokerage websites with 41% and video from the organic Google results with 37% were the next most popular options.

SOURCE: DigitalSherpa, eMarketer, NAR, YouTube, Google, Forrester Research

Paid Marketing

At Persinger Group we like to invest money into the marketing of our listings.

A sign in the yard will let people in the neighborhood know the home is for sale.

The MLS and real estate websites will let active buyers who are in the market RIGHT NOW know the home is for sale.

But if you really want to know how to sell your home for more money... it comes down to simple supply and demand economics.

Would you rather have fewer buyers or more buyers interested in your house?

Paid marketing and advertising helps create more awareness and potentially generates the most buyers. And doing paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube with a great real estate video allows us to reach the most buyers.Real Estate Agents, Video and Paid Ads

We've noticed some real estate agents will invest in a real estate video on higher-end, luxury-type properties. But rarely will they invest in paid advertising.

Just look on YouTube. You can probably search any (city name + real estate) and see a bunch of great listing videos that only have 10, 20 or 30 views.

So you have a great listing, at the right price, looks awesome in the video but it's not getting viewed... how does that help sell your home for the most money?

It doesn't.

In a shifting real estate market, it's more important than ever to have a great real estate video that's marketed well. At Persinger Group, we've seen great success with this strategy and know how to get your home seen by the most buyers.

We even offer a 10,000 Views Guarantee.

3. Negotiate and navigate

Once you start getting offers the real work begins.

In a shifting real estate market, you're probably not going to get 12 offers $60K over list price.

It's important to have an experienced real estate agent who knows how to negotiate and navigate the offer process. You don't want to scare off buyers in a shifting market.

Then there are all the important timelines and deadlines in a real estate transaction. If these dates aren't met, the deal has a greater chance of falling apart.

BONUS TIP - Find the right local real estate agent to help you do all this.

We're your local real estate agents in the North Idaho real estate market and Western Washington helping you do those three things.

You can spend a lot of time online looking for tips, but until you start talking to a local real estate agent, who understands the local market, trends and want buyers preferences are you're not going to be any closer to selling your house.

 

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO NEXT:

1. Get your instant home value report

2. Start Smart Moves Conversation with us

3. Message us at m.me/persingergroup to get a FREE GUIDE - Get Sell Ready™ Guide & 47 point room by room checklist. (Just type - Sell Ready - and we'll take it from there)