Research shows that in February of 2021, the number of active home listings across the United States decreased 40% from listing levels in 2020 — reaching a historic low. There is a shortage of housing from Seattle, Washington to Portland, Maine.
What does this mean for you if you’re considering selling your home? It means you’re in an excellent position to sell!
However, even with the fierce buyer competition, selling your home is not an easy process if you want to maximize the value of your home.
So let’s take a look at that!
Preparing your home for sale
An experienced seller’s agent, such as myself, can help you identify what improvements could be made to your home that will be the most appealing to buyers and provide the highest return on investment. I often refer contractors to help with the preparation process too.
By getting me involved early in the process, I can help you avoid making costly mistakes as you decide between painting your interior walls and replacing your roof.
Simply put, as your seller’s agent, I will help you make the most of your property and get it ready for sale for top dollar.
Experienced Seller’s Agents Have Detailed Market Knowledge
Another reason to work with an experienced seller’s agents is to determine how much your home is worth and to create a pricing strategy that will attract multiple offers.
I know neighborhoods, the market, and have access to comparable home prices, so we can make sure that you price your home effectively.
Another part of this is knowing what buyers are looking for and emphasizing the strong points of your property.
Professional Staging and Photography
Professional staging and photography work hand in hand. If your home isn’t staged, the photos will not be as good as they could have been. If the agent takes pictures of your home with their I-phone, no matter how well the home is staged, it could have been done better if a professional photographer took the photos.
I bring an amazing stager and photographer to the table to make your home more appealing to potential buyers.
Negotiation Expert
One of the top reasons to work with an experienced seller’s agents is for their negotiation skills.
The reality is, selling a home can be an emotional experience due to the attachment you have to your home. Fortunately, an experienced seller’s agents is removed from this so they can provide you with more objective and better advice and guidance.
Choosing an offer when there are three to five offers is challenging, but when there are 10, 20 or more offers, the process of vetting offers can be very complicated, even for an experienced seller’s agent, so you can imagine how challenging that is if you were doing it yourself, or working with an agent that doesn’t have extensive experience in negotiating in today’s market.
The market has changed significantly since 2019 and especially since the beginning of 2021. We’ve gone from Escalation Clauses, to non-refundable earnest money, buyer’s offering to bring extra cash to overcome low appraisals, appraisal floors and many other creative contract terms.
Sometimes agents create their own creative terms on an addendum, and some aren’t very good at it or don’t fully understand the complexities and potential pitfalls to the seller or their buyer, as a result of the terms they have created.
Having a deep and current understanding of the Real Estate Purchase Contract and these new terms is critical to avoid potential issues which could cost the seller if they aren’t properly understood and clarified.
How I Can Help
If you’re considering selling your home, contact me a couple months before you want to get the home on the market, so we can start to plan for the sale and track the value.
As I mentioned above, preparing your home for sale is the first step of the process and those prepartations almost always take at least a few weeks to accomplish and sometimes longer. Contractors are super busy right now so there are lead times to deal with in addition to how long the work actually takes to get done.
If you want to get started with that, Get in touch with me today, or any time that works for you.
