What To Prepare For When Selling Your Family House
Selling your family house can be pretty daunting. While most homeowners decide that all the work be done through an agent, who would demand about 5% of the sales price, via Investopedia, others roll up their sleeves and take the wheel. For a property sale to be noteworthy, three primary factors must be considered. First, sell the house to a suitable buyer within record time. Make a sport out of it, would you? Next, sell the house at its asking price or higher if you can, and finally, fill out all legal matters. But before all that can be done, your home needs to be prepared. Like a bride, if you like analogies. And if not, forget you read that.
For your home to be sold as the deal of the century, it has to appeal to the buyer's market. But to do that, where exactly do you begin? For one, you could decide to read our article on what to do before buying a house. That way, you get to trade places, mentally, with the buyer. But, even if you've had zero experience in real estate, this comprehensive guide to selling your home is all you need.
Declutter your home –– make it less personal
Even if you lived in it for only a year, your house is a representation of you. From the décor, art, photo frames, embroidered pillows and knitted blankets, etc. It's all customized to your taste. While that is a good thing, it is not when it comes to showing off your house to buyers, writes the experts at Opendoor. You see, when you show your building off, buyers want to see a place they can envision a home in. And, they cannot do that if everything is already taken. They do not want to feel like they are invading your personal space and, even worse, be offended by specific interests or beliefs of yours. So, to get your house "on its best behavior," take down all the photographs, tone it down on the personalized décor, remove religious items, et cetera.
According to Fun and Food Cafe, you want to leave enough room for the potential buyers to envision what they could make your home into. Meaning, leave your couch and basic appliances, decluttering the shelves, corridors, et cetera. Now we understand that you might have a lot of stuff, so, during the showing season, you could consider renting out a storage space for most of your belongings. Especially since you'd have to show your home to a wide range of buyers before you hit the "deal of the century."
Clean everywhere!
Not to say that your home is dirty or anything, but we trust your home keeping skills. We want you to double your efforts and, if you can, triple them. What home buyers want is somewhere they can move into with very minimal costs of cleaning, and so the very first thing you want to do is to clean out all the living spaces: the sitting room, corridors, kitchen, et cetera.
According to the experts at HomeLight, you also want to take the ceilings, the windows, the vents, and the shafts into consideration. Literally, clean everywhere. No one wants to buy a dirty and unkempt house. Moving on, you are advised to pay extra attention to key areas like the bathroom, the sinks, the kitchen, and every crevice. Homebuyers are meticulous and best believe that they would check everywhere. So be prepared to clean around. If you can't, you could always hire a home cleaning service. According to Fixr, the standard pricing for a 2,000-square feet home is about $221.
Replace and repair whatever you have to
The next things you want to take care of are repair and replacement tasks. Every core home area has had a hitch or two recently. Now, this is important because replacing or repairing items, especially in the bathroom and kitchen, can boost the resale value of your home, says Urban Resource. Wear and tear are expected, so do not deceive yourself into thinking that creaky doors don't matter or that the heater's repair isn't necessary.
So, the first thing to do is to identify what needs repair. Go about your home checking all doors, all windows, floorboards, sockets, lights, kitchen appliances, all plumbing works, ventilation, air-conditioning, heating system, garbage disposal, and even the furnace as listed by Opendoor. Having identified the problem, you then have to determine if you're replacing them or if you are just going to attempt a repair, be it professional or DIY. The tips we shared in our guide to replace or repair that appliance are still valid here. Get professional help when needed, and do not worry so much about the costs; you'll make every single cent back!
Do your research
Moving on, beyond taking care of your home to ensure you get a good deal on it, it is important to do your research so that you can thaw the ice of the pricing dilemma. In case you do not know yet, the worry of either overpricing your home and repelling potential buyers or underpricing and losing out is called the pricing dilemma! But, you can scale through this by simply knowing how to price a house.
According to the experts at The Balance, the first thing to do is search for similar listings. This information is primarily accessible online, and you could always ask local assessors if you're lost. Pulling these listings together, filter the search by neighborhood, size, and age. It is essential to consider these details because the same kind of house could be sold at different price ranges depending solely on the kind of neighborhood. After filtering the search, the final step is to look for withdrawn listings and assess why they were taken off the market. Finally, NerdWallet says to research if a house was sold higher or lower than the original asking price and, of course, assess why!
Connect with an agent
We understand that you might be tempted to do the work alone, especially because you're slightly attached to your house. But trust us when we say it never hurts to get professional help. It might cost you 5 to 10%, via HomeLight, of the profit from selling your home — depending on the agent or agency, but in the long run, it is always worth every dime.
One of the top benefits of selling your home through an agent or an agency is that you will get access to a network of people and an even wider range of professional buyers. According to Investopedia, what this means for you, in the long run, is that you might just get to bag that "deal of the century" and sell your property at mind-blowing prices. Who knows, it could even be an auction. Trust the pros. Furthermore, these companies not only help find you a suitable buyer but also take care of all of the legal considerations that go into buying and selling property. This would be less work for you in the long run, for only a nominal fee. Remember, value!