Pricing Your Home to Sell

Pricing your home is one of the most important items when choosing to sell your home and doing this wrong can be a costly mistake. You have to consider more than just the price to do this properly. The condition of your home, average market time for your area, availability for showings and the competing homes can all play a big role in choosing the proper price.

To accurately determine the right price for your home you need to find current prices for comparable homes in your area, as well as find recent comparable sales in your area, and know the demand for housing in your area.

Here are some helpful steps to help you select the appropriate price when selling your home:

Step #1: Measure Your Home

Measure your home against similar homes in your area that have recently been sold or currently are for sale.

Step#2: Compare Features

Find what features either make your home stand out against the comparable homes or maybe appear not as attractive. Items such as square footage, number of bedrooms, number of garage spaces and lot size can make a big difference. Buyers will be comparing your home to these others, so it's a good idea to do so yourself.

Step#3: Cosmetic Fix-Up's

Determine what cosmetic fix-ups you can complete to make your home more appealing than the competition but without spending too much. You don't want to invest money you will not recoup when you sell your home. This will highly increase the marketability of your home.

When Pricing Remember:

The right price is usually within 5% of the market value. If you select a price that is too high the home will have little interest and few showings. If the price is too low there will be many buyers and you will miss out on potential profit.

Selling Your Home: Presentation is Everything

In today's more challenging real estate market, selling your home becomes even more of a challenge.  With more and more homes on the market, how you present your home is key.

Uncluttered homes; spacious, clean and organized; bright and open is the desired look these days. Homebuyers are looking for a home to grow into not grow out of. So it is imperative that one make good use of the space they have in their home to prove to potential buyers that they can feel comfortable in your home, regardless of the square footage.

First, give a thorough inspection to the interior and exterior of your home, carefully going over every detail. If necessary, enlist the aid of a professional home inspector who can help you inspect your home, looking for any necessary repairs and maintenance issues. It is vital that you clear up any of these problems regarding the safety of your home before you even consider putting your home on the market for sale.

Presenting your home in a manner that will make buyers imagine living in your home is a step in the right direction to a quicker and more profitable sale.

If you want to know more about what you need to do to make your home more presentable to buyers, give us a call or drop us an email.  We'll be happy to help in any way we can.

Selling a House: Make Your Home Stand Out

In today's market and the increased choices buyers have when shopping for a home, one of the most important factors you need to consider (other than price of course) when getting your home ready to sell is the condition of the home.

Condition reigns supreme over all else.  Buyers have so many choices right now that anything that looks like it needs work can be enough to kill your chances of selling.  People prefer move-in condition, so if your property isn’t, you probably need to do what it takes to make it that way.  It's worth the money to remove old wallpaper, paint, replace carpet, and replace the roof if it’s almost at the end of its life.  Offering an allowance doesn’t work in the market we're in now because buyers tend to overinflate the costs of these improvements, anticipating double or triple what it will actually cost you to just go ahead and do it now. 

Plus, with the number of homes for sale, if yours is the one that needs to be painted, chances are it’s also the one that won’t sell. 

There are exceptions, such as homes that need a complete overhaul, so it’s a good idea to discuss your home and your plans with a real estate agent before getting started.

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Closing Escrow: What Does it Really Mean?

Escrow is a written agreement between the seller and buyer of a property. The moment escrow comes into existence, a third party person, known as an escrow holder, comes into existence. An escrow holder is liable for all the activities executed by both the parties for the purpose of closing the escrow within the desired period of time.

An escrow holder acts as an unbiased personal agent for both parties and collects the funds and documents for the smooth transfer of ownership.  An escrow holder is trusted by both the parties, and carries out his job faithfully.

For the successful closing of escrow, the escrow holder strictly follows the instructions of the escrow deed.  If the conditions of escrow are not fulfilled, the seller can ask the escrow holder not to hand over the documents to the buyer.  And, in the same manner, if the buyer's requirements are not fulfilled, he can also ask the escrow holder to not move the funds.

In some states, attorneys act as the escrow agent or holder.

Closing of Escrow

Closing of escrow can not be completed without the fulfillment of certain conditions. To ensure that both parties are performing according to the guidelines of escrow, the escrow holder inspects the ongoing process on regular intervals.  If there is any lack of performances, by any of the parties, the escrow holder will immediately report this matter to the concerned party, and follow the instructions, as given.

All the expenses related with the escrow are paid by both the parties as decided.  Payment of title insurance, attorney fees, fees for preparing the documents, notary fees, and loan fees are some of such expenses. The payment details are given in the escrow.  All of this is to assure that no disputes arise between the seller and the buyer.

The process of escrow is simple, and can be fulfilled by buyer and seller. But, just because of the nature of activities and involvement of paperwork, keeping an escrow holder is always advisable. Closing of escrow under an escrow holder becomes easy, and all parties involved in the transactions can easily relate their responsibilities with each other to avoid creating extra work, and also to save time.

How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days

How to sell your home fast using real estate auctions; This CNN report describes how to sell your home fast with the 5 Day Sale Method.

(The video runs 2:58)

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