Join Forces with Your Agent to Sell Your Home Faster

Selling your home can be as collaborative as you want. More than ever, sellers want to assist the agent in marketing their home with additional photos (such as spring time garden pictures with listings in the fall and winter) and even starring in videos featuring their property. Many agents will ask you to review and collaborate on the property description, brochures and the over-arching theme of the marketing. Keep in mind that we have follow certain advertising rules and comply with the Fair Housing Act.

Photos Rank High

Photos can make or break your listing. Buyers are looking at the price, a tiny bit of descriptive information and a thumbnail photo on a page of similar listings. Your listing has to stand out. Year after year, surveys tell us that the photos are the most important piece in marketing your home. Some agents have made photography part of their package - meaning they have the equipment and the know-how to take great photos. Others will hire a photographer to get the job done. Either way, the end result has to be great photos.

Copy Matters

Make sure you share all of the details about your home with your agent. They will measure your rooms, gather all of the necessary details needed to load the listing and write up the listing description. The description should be reviewed and speak up - use this opportunity to make sure you are showcasing the best features of your home.

House vs. Home

You might be selling your house, but the buyer is looking for a home. You are not "selling the house". You are selling the promise of a lifestyle and memories made there. Your prospective buyer should envision himself as living there with his family. Rather than the house, it is the idea of living in a home that should be projected. 

Why Certain Houses Are Not Selling

Why is my house not selling? Typically, it is for one of the following 3 reasons.

1. Price

Price is the most common reason that houses do not sell. Buyers are doing their homework - they know market and they have seen the homes listed. They might love your house, but they are not going to overpay. Other agents also know the market and they have seen and know the inventory well. They will dismiss an overpriced listing when searching for homes for their buyers and will not encourage their buyers to even consider your home. Last but certainly not least, an overpriced house will not appraise. You will be hard-pressed to find a buyer that is willing to pay more than the number on an appraisal. Appraisers use the MLS in determining their values just like an agent would, so we should all come up with roughly the same price point when doing a comparative market analysis.  

2. Condition 

Staging your home is very important. Go through your home and appraise critically. Look at the defects and repair all those leaky taps, change shower heads and replace the cracked tiles. If you want top dollar - make staging a priority and fix the place up a bit. Minor renovations and repairs can go a long way. Remove clutter and clean clean clean!

3. Location

A house on a busy street may sell for less than the exact same house around the corner (and off the busy road). Over the years, you have become immune to the noise; you may not even find it a problem. But a buyer coming to look at the house for the first time will be struck by all those noise. You may need to take location into account when setting or negotiating the price of your home.

Seems simple, right? 

Selling your home is hard - it's emotional, time consuming, life-altering and well, not always fun. If you are serious about selling your home, talk with an agent who will show you the numbers. They can take you to see the competition, show you what has sold, and help you understand the price range where your home will sell.