Get Your Old Home Sold FAST
Congratulations! You’ve made the decision to either build your dream home or purchase a resale that perfectly matches your vision! This is such an exciting time and we’re sure plenty of things are swirling through your head. In the midst of all of this, remember that a major task still left to do involves selling your old home. Depending on a variety of factors, including the current market itself, this can either be a walk in the park or a long drawn-out process! No matter what the situation may entail, the end goal is all about getting it sold!
Here at Hearthside Homes, we typically discuss the other side of the story: building your forever home! However, today on the blog, we are going to take a look at this exciting time from a different perspective. We will be providing you with some of our team’s favorite tips for ensuring your old home gets sold FAST! From making financially-smart upgrades to ensuring pricing is perfect from the start, it’s all covered here! With that said, let’s dive right in!
Tip #1: Price it right from day 1
As briefly mentioned in the opening section, pricing a resale home right at the very start can provide immense dividends. When a home first arrives on the market, that is usually when you’re going to see the highest amounts of activity. Having said that, there are plenty of reasons for getting it priced correctly from the very beginning. Keep in mind, some recommend the strategy of pricing a home high at the start and then gradually lowering it. Yes, this can be effective, but there are also plenty of reasons how this could backfire:
Attracting the wrong audience. When buyers are working with their real estate agent, the agent is going to provide recent statistics to compare similar homes. This will be an instant revelation of overpricing at work. Additionally, the buyers that are looking for a home priced in a similar ballpark as what yours is listed at, will be looking for something with more or higher quality features. In essence, in the marketing world, this would be referred to as targeting the wrong audience!
Make other homes in the neighborhood more appealing. Overpricing could result in selling your neighbors home! If your home is priced too high, chances are a buyer will be much more attracted to another home in the neighborhood with similar features, but cheaper on the price tag!
What’s wrong with the home? If your home was overpriced from the get-go and sits on the market for a few months, buyers will start wondering what’s wrong with the house. Remember, buyers are always going to notice the “number of days on the market.” Over time, you’ll have to lower the price and likely end up at what you should’ve started with in the first place. In the real estate world, this is known as “chasing the market down.”
In the end, our first tip is all about taking the time to get pricing right from the start. It doesn’t hurt to go a touch high, but certainly don’t price yourself out of the market and delay the transaction 4 or 5 months!
Tip #2: Professional photography is a MUST
With as many home listings as there are in bigger markets (Kansas City and the Northland included), getting yours to stand out is all about creating a positive first impression! It’s no different than applying for a job where there’s likely dozens of applicants and you need to make a lasting impression with your resume. Somehow, you need your listing to pop out when buyers are browsing Zillow or Trulia! Keep in mind that most buyers are going to do their preliminary browsing online before heading to visit homes in-person. Like mentioned in the previous sentence, websites like Zillow and Trulia will serve as a foundation for prospecting.
With this in mind, it’s critical to make your listing look appealing and professional. One easy way to make this happen is with professional photography. Studies have routinely proven that not just the quality of photos result in a home moving faster, but also including MORE photos on your listing. This allows potential buyers to get a complete overview of the home before committing time to viewing it in-person. Quality AND quantity!
Have a higher-end home you’re looking to sell? For those trying to sell a home that’s over $750k, we recommend investing in video tours and possibly even drone photography/videography. In recent years, this has become expected with high-end listings. This doesn’t impact everyone, but is worth keeping in mind!
Tip #3: Find the perfect real estate agent to work with
One awesome aspect of living in a growing market like Kansas City is there’s no shortage of talented real estate agents to work with. For one, having an experienced real estate agent on your side will ensure everything goes smoothly and that you receive a fair selling price for your house. Going right along with this though, you’ll certainly want to conduct your own due diligence to ensure an agent is the right one for you!
You’ll want someone that knows the area in which you’re trying to sell. They should know the neighborhood and understand which features of the home are going to be worth highlighting! Just as we mentioned professional photography above, your agent should also know the importance of this and have a plan in place for promoting your listing online and through social media. In 2020, knowing how to run Facebook Ads and generate buyer leads digitally is a MUST for real estate agents! Lastly, don’t feel compelled to sign with the first agent you meet with. Feel free to do your own research and work with whoever you feel most confident in!
Tip #4: Declutter and remove any personalized items
A common theme throughout this blog thus far has been about creating that perfect first impression! Following right along with this pattern, you’ll want to remove any and all clutter from your home. Empty out the closets and any storage areas. It’s extremely important to make your home look bigger. Moving some of this to an external storage unit and maybe even getting rid of a few boxes will go a long way in getting your home sold! You’re going to have to go through it eventually anyways, so consider this an early spring cleaning!
Similarly, you want to create a space where prospective buyers can envision their own families living in. Envisioning this can be difficult for them if there are family portraits on the walls and baby pictures spread throughout! Remove any personalized items and put them in storage for the time being.
Tip #5: Minor upgrades can make a major difference
Our final selling tip involves upgrades to your home. Unless something major is wrong with the structural integrity of the home, we don’t recommend doing anything drastic! For example, investing in a new paver patio with a stone fireplace likely won’t generate a return on investment that you’d like. Rather, when thinking of upgrades, consider areas that buyers will recognize right away! Think of the rooms that buyers are going to spend the most time evaluating. The kitchen, bathrooms, master suite and so on! As a side note, anything that livens up a space (possibly a nice fresh coat of paint) is always a smart investment!
Ready to build your dream home?
Having read this blog, we hope you feel more confident in selling your old home! Any time you build or purchase a new home is certainly going to be an exciting stage in one’s life! Obviously, selling your old home is an important part of this entire process, but it shouldn’t necessarily be a stressful one. If it’s priced right and you’ve worked with a knowledgeable real estate agent along the way, you’ll be surprised how quickly it can be moved.
If you feel comfortable about the selling piece of the puzzle and now are prepared to dive into truly building your forever home, then you’ve come to the perfect place! Since 1987, our team at Hearthside Homes has been honored to have had the opportunity to help thousands of fellow Kansas City residents do just that! With a team of passionate and educated homebuilding professionals, we feel confident in our ability to consistently create a quality product and do so in a stress-free manner! Our process is built around keeping our buyers in the loop every step of the way and creating a space where memories can be made in the years to come!
To learn more, we encourage you to browse through our current listings and set up a time to chat with one of our homebuilding experts. We look forward to hearing from you!
