Selling your home
Marketing and selling your home is a complex process with a lot of money at stake. If we could take the emotion out of the process and make selling a house purely transactional like buying a Snicker's bar, it would be easy. But as humans, we feel emotion - stress, anxiety, anticipation, elation, depression, confusion and the entire range of emotions possible during the sale process - on both sides of the transaction!
The process of selling your home, when viewed from forty thousand foot view, is simple. The expression "the devil is in the details" is extremely applicable to real estate, as it is to just about any profession. A task, when viewed from a high enough level, is not difficult. Here is a typical transaction viewed from the heavens:
- Price your home - maybe a little higher than your neighbor.
- List your home on Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, Realtor.com and a few of the other hundreds of relevant real estate portals.
- Open your front door and see all the people looking to buy your home.
- Accept a cash offer.
- End of transaction.
Unfortunately, an experienced REALTOR® will tell you how many times that happens in the course of a REALTOR®'s career. If I had to estimate the odds, it would be about the same as winning a substantial amount in the lottery - it happens but it is rare. In fact, my favorite clients are people that have tried to sell their home and realized, holy cow, this is insane and the deal falls apart for one of a myriad of reasons. These sellers have seen the devil and realized they need a professional to help them navigate the process. I never discourage anyone from trying to sell their own home.
Selling a home can be easy. Actually closing the real estate transaction is complex. There are a number of factors you need to consider when selling a home so here is some advice:
Select your Realtor® carefully
Your most important decision when you are selling your home is the selection of the person you choose to represent you. The job of your Real Estate Adviser is to support you during the entire process of the sale process and to help you get the best deal possible. Your Real Estate Adviser will explain the process of selling a home, and familiarize you with the various activities, documents and procedures that you will experience throughout the transaction. Here are some tips on finding a REALTOR®.
Developing a Marketing Strategy
In order to sell your home quickly and on with the best possible terms, you need to prepare your home for the market. This process includes timing the market, calculating a reasonable price, staging your home and advertising it to potential buyers or REALTORs®. There are other factors so read my tips on marketing your home here.
Manage the Transaction
The first piece of advice I like to give people during the sale process and they have received a great offer on their home from a potential buyer and everything is looking rosy: do not lie. At this point you have successfully passed the first, and easiest hurdle to selling your home! There are still hundreds of ways the deal can go south. Here is an overview of the transaction and what you can expect. Click here to read my tips managing your transaction.