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Published: July 21, 2022
When we say it’s a Seller’s Market right now; we mean it!! Even though the interest rates have doubled in the past few months, they are still only in the 6% range and that is excellent! When I purchased my first home in 1990, I paid 8 & 1/8 and that was with me paying a point and the Seller paying a point!! So 6% is still a fabulous rate for Buyers!!
But that doesn’t mean that a Seller doesn’t want to optimize their selling potential! Preparing your home for market will reap you benefits and is well worth the time and expense in the long run. When I do a market analysis, I go in the first time with my yellow legal pad ( yes, I’m old school. I write things down lol ); and I take notes about the house and its’ attractive and not so attractive features. I start at the curb and I end in the backyard. Anything from yard cleanup, bushes trimmed, power washing, roof repair/replacement, exterior painting etc. on the outside, to deep cleaning, painting, flooring, furniture movement, de-cluttering, or staging on the inside…. ( If you check on my Resources tab and click on “Staged to Sell” ; it will give you an idea of the specific areas that may be my concern room by room ).
I like the Sellers to be with me for that first meeting. We bat some ideas back and forth that I think will give them a good bang for their buck so to speak 🙂 And I also give them names and numbers of certain tried and true contractors I’ve used that I feel are reliable, clean, and reasonable so that they don’t have to waste time searching. Many times they don’t have service people for those categories that need the sprucing up but I almost always have one or two names to try.
The Sellers share with me what type of budget they may have to do these things, so if we can’t do them all; we do the things that Buyers seem to be looking the most when they are previewing homes to purchase. We want to do the right things… I heard a saying once that a ladder propped up against the wrong wall just gets you where you don’t want to be faster…lol
The information I gather at that 1st meeting helps me greatly to determine the list price for the property. The more a Seller tells me they can do, the higher the amount typically is, but we want to also have the work done before we go live on the market…. You may notice that often my listings go on first under the category of “Coming Soon”? That is because I am giving the Sellers time to get their house spiffy before a Buyer walks thru the door! I try to get the front of the outside done and then I take a few quick pics so it can go in the mls as coming soon, and give Buyers Agents advance notice. As they are calling their Buyers and emailing them the listing and preparing them for the start date, the Sellers are finishing up their “to do” lists. I love this relatively new category!
So for all you potential Sellers out there: whether it be finding out there may be a few small things needing to be done like furniture placement and de-cluttering, or big things like roofs, new carpet and paint etc… the initial meeting of my FREE market analysis, is critical and a service I enjoy. It not only gets me familiar with the house, but also You and I value the relationships I have with all my Sellers!!
In my next blog, I will talk about Buyers and preparing offers in this hot market!
