Real Estate Blog

When you put your home on the market the key to selling your home is to work with your Realtor in a true partnership. What this means is you need to have open discussions with your realtor regarding their advice and the selling process. What you as a seller may consider as unimportant or not neccessary may be imperative to getting your home sold.

Take into consideration the following issues you may come across in selling your home:

1. Objecting to staging, updating or improving your home if suggested by your Realtor. Your Realtor isn't just suggesting this to get you to spend money. Your Realtor has seen your competition and what has sold. They know what a buyer is looking for in this market and what can be done to put your home more in line with that "look". They also have a pretty good idea of which fixes will get you the most "bang for your buck". So even though they will let you know that something isn't "in style" anymore and may come back as a negative in feedback; they will also tell you it is too expensive of a fix to make it worth while.

Your Realtor is going to be spending money on your marketing and advertising. Along with the man hours put in to make it happen. They don't want to do this unless they know your home is "sellable". Your agreement to work with your Realtor is a sign that you home will sell.

2. Not allowing your home to be shown or keeping the home in showing shape. Putting your home on the market is a pain. First you have to get it into "showing shape". And then you have to keep it there. Why would you go through all that effort if you are not going to allow your home to be shown?

Of course, there are going to be times that don't work for you. And that's ok. But if you find yourself having to reschedule every showing appointment to a different time then you need to consider if you really want to sell your home. You might have perfectly legitimate reasons but the buyer only sees this as a sign of a difficult seller that they may not want to get involved with. Also, your home will get a reputation as difficult to show and this will greatly cut down on your showings.

Often we have buyers coming in from out of town and have a short window to look at homes and buy one. They are looking at many homes or many areas. Their realtor has diligently planned out the trip in order to maximize their time. By asking the buyer to reschedule an hour later you may be crossing your home off because they could be in a totally different area/town at that time.

3. You are way out line with your neighborhood in size, style or updates. This is not saying that your home is not drop dead gorgeous or perfect. This is saying that value is derived from your immediate neighborhood sales. If your home is outside the norm for your neighborhood then it will take longer and more difficult to get you above neighborhood price. That not saying you haven't put the extra money into your home. It's just saying that most buyers would at that price range choose a home in another neighborhood. After all one of real estate's rule of thumbs is "Be the cheapest house in the neigbhorhood."

Please read our Home Seller's Guide for more helpful information.