Is It Time to Sell Your Home? 3 Things to Consider Before You Do
[Guest Post]
Selling your home yourself is more difficult than you might imagine. For one thing, preparing your house for sale and finding a buyer is time-consuming, and it’s especially draining if you work full-time. For another, it’s emotionally challenging. Besides the grief of leaving your nest, you also have to deal with strangers invading your sanctuary. When you’ve decided to sell, here are three things to consider.
Do You Understand the Real Estate Business?
The idea of putting a “for sale by owner” sign on your front lawn has gained popularity over the years. It appeals to the imagination. You instantly think of how much you’re saving on agent commission fees.
Unfortunately, the reality of selling a home is often fairly challenging, particularly if you have no prior experience.
Taking a do-it-yourself approach to selling a home is also not as easy or as profitable as you might imagine. You might make so many expensive mistakes that you would have saved money getting help from someone who knew what they were doing, someone familiar with the technical details involved in selling.
So, unless you know a great deal about the housing industry and have sold a few houses before, it might be better to work with a real estate professional rather than selling your house at a lower price than it’s worth.
Working with someone who understands the real estate market in Las Vegas will not only help you arrive at the optimum price for your home and understand the legalese of contracts but will also help you avoid a savvy buyer taking advantage of your naivete.
No matter if you’ve decided to go it alone or use a professional Realtor, there are things you can do to make your home sale go more smoothly.
Nobody wants to buy an energy inefficient home, one where the cooling costs are excessively high, especially in the heat of a Vegas summer.
If you show a prospective buyer an attic filled with junk and deteriorated installation, they probably lose interest in your house because they will have to pay thousands of dollars each year in energy costs. Worse still, rodents may also have made themselves at home in your attic.
Rather than set yourself up for failure, hire a contractor for professional insulation installation. Besides upgrading the insulation, many contractors can also arrange for attic cleanup services.
There are many ways to improve the look and feel of your home, and here are three suggestions on how to make your home look more inviting to prospective buyers:
Improve the Curbside Appeal
Landscape your front yard by mowing the grass, trimming shrubs, and planting colorful flowers. Paint your front door a bold color and touch up exterior features like the sidings and shingles with a mellow shade.
Clean Out Closets and Cabinets
Buyers usually want to know how much space is available for their stuff. They will find it hard to gauge how much storage room they have if you’ve already packed the space. Although it might be inconvenient, put away most of your stuff in a rented storage space. This will convince people peeking into your closets and cabinets that they are spacious.
Declutter Your Rooms
Over the years, you’ve probably acquired a lot of stuff that you don’t even notice anymore. Go through your entire house and reduce the quantity of stuff you no longer need. Decluttering your home will make it easier to sell the house as well as easier to move out after you’ve found a buyer.
In conclusion, if you price your home right and do everything you can to make it look like a wonderful place to live, then you should be able to sell your house more quickly.