Seller Best Practices In A Buyer’s Market

Price Right The most critical factor in the sale of your home is pricing right. If you do nothing else, pricing right will get you 50% of the way to a sold home. Price according to market from out of the gate and save yourself an untold amount of time, energy and concern.

Show Great The second most critical factor in the sale of your home is showing great. If you do nothing else, showing great will get you 40% of the way to a sold home. You can never go wrong by following the fundamentals: show your home spotlessly clean, light and bright. This is a seller’s best investment for a quick, top dollar sale. Ask your agent what areas of your home need the most attention – they will be happy to provide guidance. Check out real estate/home staging shows on tv for solid, simple, no cost ideas that you can implement in your own home.

Share Knowledge Gather relevant homeowner information to create handouts for buyers to take away from a showing of your home. Gather these docs, make copies and create simple handouts for buyers to take with them.

- Seller’s Disclosure
- Homeowner Association Disclosure
- Packet of basic homeowner info
- Property tax bill
- Property insurance bill
- School reports/grades from the county
- Electric bill from each quarter (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct)

These are all areas of critical importance to a buyer, so make it as easy as possible for a buyer to decide “yes” to your home and “no” to the competition. Why not stand apart from the competition and present yourself as a cooperative and reasonable seller – not a bad thing to be nowadays. You’re cutting to the chase and providing helpful, relevant information to your potential buyer.

Accessible Home If a seller wants to sell in the buyer’s market we have today, they must accommodate every showing request…you never know which showing will lead to an offer. Even today in scheduling home showings, I routinely hear “The home can only be shown when the owner is present”; “The seller doesn’t want showings today”; or “The key is missing from the lockbox”. Frankly, these are the responses of a seller who doesn’t want to sell. There is no sense for a seller to put restrictions on the showing of their home. A showing is the first step to a sale, right? So why on earth put restrictions on showing requests? Buyers are going to want to see your home, which can and will occur at times that are less than convenient. You will survive these inconveniences. It’s best to suck it up for a short period of time and make showings a priority – get it over with!

Accessible Agent Your agent is your number one advocate in the sale of your home; they must be 100% responsive and timely to all inquiries about your home more today than ever. Unfortunately, even today in making inquiries for showings or other home info, I routinely experience what I call “lazy agent syndrome”…agents who do not respond in a timely manner or sometimes even at all! Pretty outrageous in my opinion.