If you’re looking to sell your home in the fast-approaching Springtime, get ready for pent-up buyer demand! Many homebuyers want to act before interest rates or home prices rise, and given the limited supply of homes for sale, we’ll likely find ourselves in a serious seller’s market this season. With that said, buyers continue to insist on good deals, so you’ll need to be competitive and make sure your home’s condition and price are up to par if you want to sell it.
Here are a few tips on how to sell your home this Spring:
Pay Attention to Curb Appeal
Most buyers decide within 60 seconds of seeing a home whether they want to buy it or not, so make sure you don’t turn them off before they get in the door. Trimming trees and bushes so buyers can see the house, pressure-washing the driveway, cleaning and painting the front door, and adding colorful flowers in the Spring will all help to boost your home’s curb appeal (and ultimately increase the likelihood that it’ll be sold in a timely fashion and at the price you want).
Pare Down Possessions
Eliminating clutter is key to making your home as attractive as possible, so start by going through all of your furniture and closets with a discerning eye to clean things up. By paring down your 17 sweaters to 2, as an example, your closet will look bigger. Pack up anything you want to keep and put it off-site in a pod or a storage unit, because you want your home to look like it always has plenty of space in the closets.
Do Pre-Inspection Repairs
If you find it likely that a home inspector is going to find something wrong with your home, fix it first! Hiring your own home inspector before your home goes on the market (so as to make appropriate repairs before you try to sell it) will make your home much more appealing to the typical buyer. It usually costs less to fix things before the buyer-mandated home inspection, so doing the repairs ahead of time (keeping in mind that they’ll need to be taken care of anyway) will save your money and time while also increasing your home’s saleability.
Price it Right
While prices are rising in some areas, sellers need to continue to be reasonable and compare their homes to similar properties that have recently sold. Today’s buyers are savvy, and if you price your home too low, they’ll think that there’s something wrong with it. Meanwhile, if you price your home too high and have to lower your price, it’ll hurt you more than if you priced it right the first time. By pricing your home just right, you’ll increase the likelihood that it’ll sell at a fair price in a reasonable period of time.
Hire a Marketing Magician
The majority of buyers start their home search online, so to sell a home this Spring, you’ll want to hire a real estate agent who ensures that professional photos, a virtual tour, and a vibrant description are widely available on multiple sites. Buyers are increasingly using mobile phones and tablets to search for homes as well, so marketing materials should be mobile-friendly as well.
Source: Bankrate