Top 5 Tips Before You Sell

Real Estate advice can be found everywhere, whether you are looking for it or not.  National real estate websites, your local Realtor®, friends, neighbors, family, the  newspaper, television networks, web videos; they all have something to say about buying and selling a home.  Information overload can be reached in a matter of hours, and then more time can be spent sifting through the sometimes conflicting information to try and draw an actionable conclusion.

Before this becomes another piece of information overload, the purpose of this guide is to focus on the five main topics to keep in mind while preparing to sell your home. These five topics will help you put a plan in place to make the best move and come away with every last dollar from your home sale. 

1. Know Your Competition

The best way to know what buyers in your area are looking for is to see how other homes for sale are presented and how the buyers are responding.  

Be careful not to carry in any preconceived ideas about what buyers are looking for – TV networks may be airing old episodes of their home buying shows and magazine articles may be summarizing national trends.  It’s important to know what the local buyers looking in your neighborhood, your school district, even on your street are responding to.

2. Planning is Everything 

Once you’ve started to think of selling your home, the planning has already begun – congratulations!  But you’re not done yet.  With all the factors that go in to selling your home, you will need to take time to consider a plan for each of them.  Some of the major factors to consider include:

• The condition of your home
• The timing of your move
• The team to help you move

3. Expect the Unexpected

Inevitably, something will occur during your home sale that you had not expected.  With all of the planning you’ve done until this point, don’t beat yourself up for not planning for absolutely everything.  No one can.  The planning you’ve done up until now will make navigating any unexpected turn that much easier.   And keep in mind, unexpected events are often the ones that are also outside of your control. 

In order to really save money and walk away with a higher return from your sale, it is be best to have resources in place to handle an array of factors so whenever something does come up you have someone to call.

4. Beware of Being "Penny wise and Pound Foolish"

While you are calculating the fees for different aspects of your home sale, be judicious about where you decide to cut back.  Cutting the budget for updating or cleaning by half may look great on paper, but the impact to your home’s presentation, and ultimately the price you sell for, may take a larger financial hit.

5. The Right Realtor Makes All the Difference

Researching the competition, making a plan, running your calculations will all take time and expertise.  While you can certainly do as much of this on your own, calling in a full time Realtor® who knows your area will give you a professional opinion and  summary of these aspects, saving you the upfront time and giving you the opportunity to draw your conclusions.  When it comes to choosing a Realtor® to represent you in your sale, you will again find yourself with information overload as friends, family and neighbors may know someone who dabbles in real estate and you see signs and other marketing throughout the area. 

At the end of the day, there are ways to save money selling your home and there are ways to strategically spend money to prepare your home for sale so you walk away with the highest return on your investment.  Working with a full time, professional expert will maximize your opportunity for that high return.  There will be expenses and costs to face when you are selling your home, that is unavoidable. 

Debbie Dogrul Associates Listing Specialists are full time, dedicated Realtors who eat, sleep and breathe Real Estate.  It would be our pleasure to put our market knowledge, tailored planning, network of resources and years of experience to work for you.   

This page was prepared for information purposes only, if your home is currently listed with another broker this is not a solicitation of that listing.