Often when you buy your first place you believe you will be there for quite a few years. Statistics show that most people move every 5 years on average. You already know how to buy a home but it is a little different when you are presenting your first home to new buyers. You want to be sure that you are ready to take on this next challenge.
You will probably have a different mindset than when you purchased. When you are selling you are now reversing to the mind of the buyer and what they may want in a home. Here are a few tips and tricks our Anne Winch Ottawa Real Estate and Staging Team suggests to make the transition from buyer to seller easier for you.
Find a Reputable Real Estate Firm
Your first course of action is to find a reputable real estate firm that you can trust that will take into account your wishes and also be able to present your home well. This is not a time to be pressured by your friends to use a specific firm that has a low commission. Remember you get what you pay for. Choose wisely. Not all real estate agents are the same. Check out a few firms before you decide. Look at their listings. Do they use professional photography? Are their homes staged to look their best? Do they have good reviews? Do they use social media? Do they communicate directly with their clients?
Prepare Your Home to Sell
How you may live in your home and preparing your home for sale is like comparing apples to oranges. Let’s face it we all want to jazz out our house a bit when selling and now is the time to look at how to improve it. Take a look at each room and see how you can declutter both items and furniture to present its best features. Do you need to freshen up your paint? This is where you need the experience of home staging to create the look buyers want to see. You are in direct comparison to many homes that are for sale. Let’s face it we are not all design gurus and help from professionals is always welcome and less stressful.
True Value
Your real estate team is there to help you decide what your house is worth to be in competition with other similar homes. A lot of factors come into play such as: size, location, type of housing and the real estate market. The real estate market can be either a buyer or seller’s market. This can make a difference in how to price your home together with how many homes similar to yours are selling in your area.
Be Flexible
You need to have your home available for open houses and showings as much as you possibly can. Your buyer may be at your next showing and you don’t want to miss an opportunity because your home wasn’t available for a viewing. We cannot stress this enough on the importance of being flexible when your home is on the market.
Don’t Stall
When you receive an offer look at it carefully. Your real estate team is there to help you negotiate any counteroffers or answer any questions about the process. You may think better offers may be out there but often this doesn’t happen. Usually the most action on your home happens within the first couple weeks. This is when you want to make sure that your carefully consider any offers. Don’t forget it isn’t always about price. Sometimes it may be a closing date that appeals to you or there may not be a lot of conditions on the offer.
How Our Team Can Help
Our Anne Winch Ottawa Real Estate and Staging Team has been in the real estate business for many years and we want to make sure that you start by having the right team to sell your home. We always make a presentation to our clients that helps you understand how our team works and how we can make this transition for you less stressful. We offer free home staging so that your home will look its best along with professional photos of your home. We also will present information on homes that have sold in your area, the prices they sold for and how we can get the best pricing for your home to sell it quickly and efficiently.
We hope these tips have made you think about what you need to do when you hire a competent real estate firm. Our Anne Winch Ottawa Real Estate and Staging Team would be happy to answer any questions you have about buying, selling or staging your home. We are here to help and make your real estate process run as smoothly as possible. Give us a call, text or email and see how we do things differently than other real estate firms.