The key to selling your house for the most money includes quite a few factors, including the current market, pricing your home properly and more.Here’s some tips for you to get top dollar for your home.
Know Your Market
It’s important to know what’s going on in the market so you can determine where the demand is and what you need to price your home at. The local housing market reports are fairly easy to access (or ask your agent to share them with you).
If your home is going to be one in a large sea of homes for sale on the market, with more buyers than there are listings, that’s a buyer’s market. In this market, prices are typically lower because the sellers are competing with one another for the buyers that are looking.
If there’s not as many listings on the market and a larger number of buyers, this is a seller’s market. In a seller’s market, prices will generally increase.
Is Now the Right Time to Sell?
This can be determined by a number of factors. One of the biggest being – will the price your home could sell for cover your existing mortgage (if applicable), or will you need to be paying the difference out of pocket?
Are you looking to purchase another home? What does that timeframe look like?
Do you have kids? Would it be easier to move when they are out of school?
These are all factors you want to keep in mind when selling. Connect with your agent to determine your personal situation to see if you should be selling now, or waiting just a little longer.
Pricing it Right
Pricing your home is essential to making sure you get top dollar. Pay attention to the recently sold homes in your neighborhood. What are they currently selling for? Are any similar to yours?
When you find homes similar to your own, dig a little deeper to see exactly what went into that home. Did they have any major upgrades? Was something like an RV or furniture included into the sale? Do they have a pool, new appliances, a larger garage, etc. that may have increased their sales price?
Once you’ve done your research, now it’s time to take the current market into consideration. If it’s a buyer’s market, you may want to list slightly below market value – this makes you a top competitor and can result in numerous offers being put in (many of which may be at or above market value).
Remember, you don’t have to accept an offer under market value, just because your home is listed under market value.
If you’re in a seller’s market, then you may be able to list at or slightly above the market value – connect with your agent to determine what will be the best move based on the existing market.
Keep Fees in Mind
You will always want to factor in how much you may need to spend on seller fees, closing costs, repair costs, etc. when it comes to selling your home.
This will affect how much you pocket when the sale is done, so if there’s a goal number that you need to profit, do the math so there are no surprises later on.
Minor Upgrades
Take a look at your home and see if there are any minor fixes or improvements that you can make to your home to increase its value. This can include:
- Upgraded cabinetry
- New countertops
- Updated appliances
- New window fixtures
- and more.
Each market is different, so connect with your agent to determine what upgrades are deemed valuable and worth-while to increase the value of your home. You would not want to waste your time and money on an upgrade that does not increase your profitability.
The Highest Isn’t Always the Best
If your home is priced right, it’s likely you will receive numerous offers on your home – that means you should accept the highest price, right? Wrong.
You want to keep in mind things like:
- Financing – what financing does the buyer have. Is there a possibility it could fall through? How long is the contingency?
- Home Sale Contingencies – are they having to wait for their previous home to sell before they can purchase yours? If their home sale falls through, that can force the deal to fall through and you will have to start all over again.
- Home Inspection – if your home inspection comes back with items that need to be repaired, this can cause delays in the deal closing if the buyer asks for any repairs to be made. Even more urgently, if there are any major issues that were not disclosed, the buyer could rescind their offer entirely.
Be sure to take all of this into consideration when reviewing your offers so you can accept the one that makes the most sense for you.
