How to Get Top Dollar for Your Home: 10 Tips for Sellers
Simply selling a home is stressful enough. It would be terrible to go through the whole process and not have much money to show for it.
Fortunately, you can sell your house and walk away with a killer profit. If you’re wondering how to get top dollar for your home, keep reading to learn our top tips!
1. Market Research
Our first tip is pretty simple: you should extensively research the housing market around you.
You should focus on details like how much comparable homes have sold for and how many days they spent on the market. Also, check to see if home values are quickly appreciating.
If they are, that means you can raise your price!
2. Stage It Well
When you show your home, make sure it’s not empty. Prospective buyers want to see a furnished home.
However, “furnished” doesn’t mean to live the home “as is.” Instead, you should stage the entire house.
A real estate agent can help you with this, or you can try it on your own. The goal is to give every room a “show house” quality that helps make the sale. Be warned: that usually means spending money on new decor and renovations.
3. Season of the Sale
Think it doesn’t matter when you sell your home? You’re going to need to think again!
Generally speaking, more people are buying homes in spring and summer than fall or winter. It’s the basic law of supply and demand: when you have more buyers, that competition leads to higher offers.
There are some exceptions to this. For example, if you live in a college town, sales may pick up right before the fall semester so students have a place to live.
4. Price It Right
Setting the price for your home is about more than researching comparable houses. You must consider a number of other factors.
For example, it’s not uncommon to spend up to 10% on the real estate agent, minor repairs, and assorted other fees. If you want to walk away with a certain amount of money, you should price accordingly.
That is especially true if you have performed major repairs. If your local foundation repair company has done extensive work, factor some of that cost into your price.
And don’t forget to mention major renovations as part of your marketing!
5. Tailor Home to Buyer
So far, we have focused on appealing to everyone. But you may be able to narrow down to a specific buyer and tailor your home accordingly.
For instance, a small family home in a quiet suburb is likely to attract (you guessed it) small families. They are going to want a house that is furnished and move-in ready.
Such a buyer will appreciate the small repairs and renovations you perform and will make an offer more quickly because of it.
6. Upgrade Those Appliances
When you think of houses that look old, you’re probably thinking of wallpaper older than you are. Nowadays, though, nothing “ages” a home worse than older appliances.
When buyers see old appliances, they assume things will break down in the near future.
And they’ll be thinking of how they don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on new appliances right after a home purchase.
You probably don’t want to spend that money, either. But all-new appliances are a major selling point, and you can get your money back (plus a nice profit) after you make the sale.
7. The Best Offer Is Not Always the Highest
If you’ve never sold a home before, you probably think the equation is simple. You just want to get the highest possible offer…right?
Not necessarily. For example, many buyers may have special contingencies that allow them to cancel the purchase if certain conditions are not met. Alternately, those contingencies may allow them to ask you to make additional repairs.
As you can tell, these contingencies can be a headache. Because of this, you may prefer a buyer who waives contingencies because it makes everything easier and can help you save time and money.
8. Digital History
No good buyer walks into a home “blind.” Rather, they are going to do as much research as possible before making an offer.
To help them out, you can make sure your house has a digital history. This means providing info about the home’s warranty, floor plans, maintenance history, and so on.
You can provide this information in your online listings. And you can also use third-party services to spread your digital footprint even further.
Knowledge is power. In this case, the more they know, the more buying power they have!
9. Professional Photography
While the text of your digital history is important, there is another major factor: the photos of your home.
This is one case where the old cliche is right: “a picture is worth a thousand words.” All the staging in the world won’t help if the photos of your home look terrible.
Unless you have a great eye, we recommend you hire a professional photographer. The cost is relatively low, and high-quality photos will do more than anything else to stir up buyer interest!
10. Improve Curb Appeal
We’ve touched a lot on renovations inside the home. But make no mistake: your exterior “curb appeal” is absolutely crucial.
Try to replace (or at least repaint) your front door. And make sure the lawn looks clean and well-maintained.
It’s also a good move to bust out the pressure washer and really clean the exterior of your home. Doing so only takes a few hours but can make the house look as good as new (quite literally).
Never forget: you don’t have to break the bank to boost curb appeal. You just need to find small ways to make a better first impression.
How to Get Top Dollar For Your Home: The Next Move
Now you know how to get top dollar for your home. But do you know how to save time and money while making renovations?
We bring you the latest news in technology, lifestyle, travel, and more. To see how we can help you sell your house, check out our Home Improvement section today!
