3 Things You Should Do (Even In A Red-Hot Sellers Market)
Bonus Material: A Free Guide That Helps You Get Sell Ready (18 Home Preparation Tips)
The real estate market was on fire in 2021.
Most reports and indexes show that home values appreciated by 19% - 20% in 2021. Predictions for 2022 are a slight cooling -- if you call 11% appreciation cooling.
In the last couple of years, we've seen more and more listings getting offers over the initial asking price.
So if you're looking to sell your home, the chances are high that you'll get the sale no matter what! But even though many people know a real estate agent or a few - not everyone knows what a listing agent will do to help them sell their home for the most money.
Download The Get Sell Ready Guide (18 Home Preparation Tips)
This article will cover two main things:
- The 2 Mistakes Sellers Make In A Sellers Market
- The 3 Things You Must Do To Sell Your Home For The Most Money
2 Mistakes Sellers Make In A Sellers Market
Giving money away
Some sellers would rather opt for an easy sale rather than get top dollar.
They sell their home without ever putting it on the market.
You can't get market value if you don't put your home on the market.
The upside of this,
- It's convenient. Don't have to get the house ready for showings.
- It saves time. The closing can happen quickly in most cases.
- Don't have to worry about home inspections, home improvements or remodeling projects.
The downside is you're walking away from potentially $25,000, $50,000 or more than $100,000.
Fast Easy Cash (But For Who?)
We had a seller client that was out of state. They got contacted by "investors" saying they could pay cash. Make it quick. Make it easy. Even said by selling to them they would "save commission" because they won't have to pay a real estate agent now. I believe the investor was hoping the seller wasn't aware of local market trends.
The problem with selling to this investor: our client would have lost over $120,000.
The cash investor was lowballing them hoping to get the home sale at a minimal cost. Do a little remodel here. A little paint job there. And voila! A nice Six-Figure Flip for the Investor.
Not only do cash investors and real estate flippers look for these types of deals. Many iBuyer companies exist now. Zillow was doing this before they famously failed, admitting they don't understand local markets or how to predict where home prices are going.
“We’ve determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated,” Zillow CEO Rich Barton.
Sell before you list Recap:
Pros: Quick and easy
Cons: Giving your home equity away
Leaving money on the table
Home sellers leave money on the table when they just list with any real estate agent.
Home sellers shouldn't list their home with just any agent. You need to find an agent who will work hard for you and help you get the most money for your home. A good agent will market your home and be able to bring in potential buyers. An agent who will help negotiate the best offer and make sure the transaction goes smoothly. The right agent who knows the local market, where the market is going, has a pricing strategy and knows how to sell your home for the most money.
What Will The Agent Do To Bring Prospective Buyers?
Everyone probably knows 3 or 4, or more real estate agents today. 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 and 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?
Or You Could Maximize Your Sales Price
Instead of giving money away to an investor or big corporation. Or leaving money on the table that you could really use now to buy your next home or later to retire. You could maximize your selling price.
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 hot sellers market, where homebuyers are offering more than the list price, it's still important to do these three things in order 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
Get The Home Is Sold Mindset
Before you start to worry about your home's sale, the curb appeal, home staging or what home improvement projects to focus on, you'll want to get, what we call, the HOME IS SOLD MINDSET.
Here is a cold hard reality: It’s not your home anymore.
Not just at the time your home is sold, closed and you get your check. I’m saying 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 prices.
You can continue to feel an emotional attachment to your house - remembering bringing your kids home for the first time from the hospital or celebrating the holidays, or any other countless memories you've probably created there - but you do that at the possibility of minimizing the money you’ll get.
The reality is, at some point, you’ll be packing up the moving boxes, saying goodbye to this house, looking at the sold sign, leaving your keys behind, and never coming back to it again. The sooner you get into this Sold Mindset, the better chance you have for doing all the things you have to do to get maximum dollar in the sale.
Emotional Attachment Cost Her
I had one seller call me, after her house had failed to sell with another local real estate agent, 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 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 as it sat vacant and 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.
How To Sell Your Home For More Money
After you get the right mindset and decide it's worth it to you to not leave money on the table, here are the three things you must do when selling your home to get a higher sale price.
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 and make 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 home value of your house, 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.
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 that don’t have 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, without all the weirdness of strangers freely walking through your home.
7 Real Estate Video Facts
- Properties with 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 have fewer buyers or more buyers?
Paid marketing and advertising helps create even 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 many real estate agents will invest in a real estate video on higher-end or 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 hot sellers 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.
Negotiate and navigate
Once you start getting offers the real work begins.
In a hot sellers market, you're hopefully going to have a lot of offers. But not all of them are going to be the best for you. Just because one offer has the highest price doesn't mean that's the best offer.
It's important to have an experienced real estate agent who knows how to negotiate and navigate the offer process.
We've developed a spreadsheet for our seller clients to help them look at all the key terms. Then based on priorities and personal importance they're able to select the best offer.
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)
Darin Persinger
Started a real estate yard sign business in high school. Got real estate license in 1997. Now licensed In Washington and Idaho.