7 Factors To Consider When You're Selling Your Home

When you've made the decision to sell your home, then the fun really starts!

Selling your home involves a lot of different moving parts. However, it all gets easier when you take things one step at a time. Going into the selling process with a clear idea of what you need to do will reduce your stress and prevent you from overlooking key details.

Here are seven things you need to consider while selling your home:

1. You Need a Real Estate Agent
   First and foremost, you'll need a terrific real estate agent to help make your goals a reality. A local real estate expert will help you manage and accelerate the process: Pricing the home right, finding motivated buyers, and getting you to closing without a hitch. By contrast, sellers who try to go it alone often spend many extra months on a sale and get a much lower final price.
2. Gather Your Paperwork Early
   You'll need a ton of paperwork to make sure your sale goes forward on schedule. That includes lots of things you may not think much about, like warranty paperwork for your roof and major home systems, instruction manuals, details of home improvement projects, permits and certificates of compliance, mortgage information, and more. Get started early to get it all together.
3. Get a Professional Inspection
   A pre-sale inspection will save you time in the long run and put you in a superior negotiating position. An inspection is intended to help you uncover problems with the home. Things like roof, septic, and electrical issues can make potential buyers wary. Having the information in front of you, however, allows you to work on repairs or adjust your approach to selling.
4. You'll Need to Prepare the Home
   When you're finally ready to sell a home, you can't simply open the doors. Cleaning it from top to bottom is imperative. That should include steam cleaning carpets and drapes and removing about half of the items from closets. Sometimes, it's also a good idea to remove certain furnishings and to make lighting a bit brighter. This can make the space seem larger and more inviting.
5. "Price it Right" from the Very Start
   Pricing a home correctly is one of the most challenging things for a homeowner to do. When you try to price a property after living there, your own feelings inevitably play a role. A real estate pro will produce a research-based price after looking at recent sales in the area and other factors. This is the best way to ensure you reach your goals on your desired timeline.
6. Perform Staging Before Showings
   Staging isn't the only aspect of selling a home, but it is very important. Your real estate agent should be versed in staging techniques or use an expert stager at no additional cost to you. The purpose of staging is to make your home show better, and there are hundreds of little ways to do this, from simple things like opening the blinds to more complex tactics like baking cookies.
7. Yes – Hold Weekly Open Houses
   Forget about any "controversy" you might've heard: Holding open houses is the most effective way to meet motivated buyers fast. Yes, your real estate agent should still be marketing your home proactively online, and yes, a vacant home is more challenging to show than one that's still occupied. Even so, the time and effort of weekly open houses are almost always well spent.

Selling your home starts with a firm decision. Once you've made that choice, give yourself every advantage by reaching out to a local real estate agent you can trust.

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