Michelle McQuade

The right way to list and sell your home

Handing Over the Key from a New Home

When you’re a home seller, one of your main objectives is to sell your home fast (for a great price, of course). While there is no fail-proof recipe, there are plenty of ways you can list and sell your home to attract more offers from prospective buyers.

Set the Best Price

When it comes to selling your home, the best price will make more difference than the correct price– that is, the price that accurately portrays how much your home is worth. You can determine the best listing price for your home through a variety of ways. First, ask your real estate agent to prepare a comprehensive market analysis on your local real estate market.

Survey the neighborhood and look for homes for sale (and recently sold) that are similar to yours in terms of size, style, and amenities. You can also have your home valuated by a professional to get a better, more accurate picture of how much your property is worth. With all these information, set a price range based on your findings instead of a specific amount. By doing so, you’re opening your doors to more offers and invite competition among more enthusiastic buyers. And as a result, you increase your chances of selling your home at a higher price.

The Importance of Staging

One of the best ways to make home buyers fall in love with your home is to have it staged. You can do it by yourself if you have the penchant for interior design, or you can hire a professional home stager to do his or her magic.

Think of home tours and open houses. In these events, your property is the star. By staging your home, you’re allowing interested buyers come in and envision what it’s like to live in your property. When done right, home staging shines its spotlight on the house’s best features and lets the property itself do the talking.

You can start by decluttering and de-personalizing your home. Start removing personal effects, like photo albums and collections. You can, however, leave a family photo or two if you’re marketing the property towards families. And speaking of families, determine your target market. Are you gearing your home towards growing families? To on-the-go young professionals? Creative types? Active and outdoorsy folks? Retirees?

By identifying your target market, you (or the professional stager you hired) can weave a more effective story that will make your target home buyers make an offer on your property. Read more about home staging here.

Sifting and Negotiating Offers

Ideally, you want to sell your home to the highest bidder. After all, profits sure are attractive. In-home selling, however, the highest offer doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best among the bunch.

A lot goes into considering which offer to accept. Aside from the price, you have to consider contingencies, requests, their willingness to deposit earnest money, and their financing– are they pre-approved for a loan? Most sellers nowadays entertain buyers who have obtained pre-approval letters from their chosen lenders.

Other sellers also consider the personalities of interested home buyers, especially if they’re attached to the property. And some home buyers appeal to emotions by including a note or a letter stating their intentions or enthusiasm in regards to buying the home.

There are also cases where an offer is looking great but there are several points you’d like to counter. In this case, there are several negotiation tactics you can try to reach an agreement both satisfactory for you and your buyer.

I can help you sell your Cleveland home. For more information, get in touch with me today at 440.823.2448 or michellemcquade(at)howardhanna(dotted)com. You can also check out my resources for home buyers and sellers.

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