When it comes to selling your home, you will naturally want to look at the costs associated with an often stressful time in one’s life.
There are also now many other things to consider in this day and age.
What happened yesteryear is vastly different nowadays
Thirty years ago, you would never have entertained staging your home at a huge cost and indeed, sometimes considerable inconvenience.
Often, I have felt sorry for people who are forced to declutter to such an extent that their home feels like a cold uninhabited show home.
Home buyers of course are attracted to the stylish, appealing homes that are clean and uncluttered.
Remembering past comments from disgruntled husbands about having to remake the bed with their comfy duvets and not mess the show home duvets, or risk a telling off from the wife….
Or having to scrub and clean the shower daily and race around before work making sure any personal items are hidden, as well as keep the garden looking like a “pristine weed less garden of Eden.”
Children also are put on high alert – being reminded constantly not to leave toys such as lego all over the place- but to put it “back in its box and hide it with Teddy in boot of the car!”
Surely, as a seller, you could declutter, tidy and clean and make your home a warm inviting haven, by simply buying a few colourful cushions and duvets and suitable artwork without having to spend thousands on show home staged furniture?
Of course, the fees for selling your home are an important consideration but beware of agents offering deals or inducements to get you to list with them.
Instead, look for an salesperson who has a reputation for being a strong negotiator.
You want someone who will get you the best price for your property, not someone who charges the lowest fee, and, ironically, could end up being the most expensive because they achieved a lower price.
Reasons being that they might not have marketed your property to a wider audience because they have spent minimal on advertising or have refused to conjunct with other salespeople’s buyers.
So, when you ask, “what are the costs to sell my home?”rather ask a better question like “what is your company’s policy on conjunctions with other agencies?”
You want to know the salesperson is truly working in your best interests.
Salespeople should work in the best interests of their seller
Some leading salespeople will refuse to do conjunctions with other agency’s buyers, but realistically, the more buyers you can get for your property, the more your salesperson can leverage your final selling price.
All salespeople are supposed to work to a code of conduct, so surely, working with as many buyers as possible, even if it means sharing the commission would be in the seller’s best interest?
Don’t be enticed by salespeople that offer to pay for advertising your property.
There is always a catch.
After all they will have to recoup that cost somewhere, won’t they?
Also, make sure that your salesperson is digitally savvy. You don’t want to miss out on a huge chunk of the market by paying for expensive print media only.
Lastly, an “appraisal” or current market analysis should reflect current market conditions and be supported by information on comparable sales.
Real Estate markets move faster than people and data on settled sales can be over three months old.
So, instead of asking “what is my property worth” ask “what comparable sales have there been within the last month”.
You should also ask what the “on the market” numbers were compared to the “final selling prices” of those comparable sales, as these can be dramatically different.
A professional and experienced salesperson will know the difference.
©2021 e-propertymatters.com|women-in-realestate.com|Author|Kathryn
