Price
The first step when you decide to sell your home is to determine what your home could sell for. Most homeowners confuse what your home is worth with what your home could sell for. Although these two meanings could be similar, in some markets they could be very different. In a buyers market with lots of inventory and low sales, it is extremely difficult to make your property stand out over the 100’s of others that could be listed in your neighbourhood. One way to make your property “POP” is to price is better then your competition. By pricing yourself more competitively then your neighbours you may not get the full amount that your home is worth, however you will be more likely to ensure a sale. It is extremely important to know which houses are for sale in your neighbourhood and how they compare to your home. Pricing your home is not as simple as using the amount you paid for it 4-5 years ago and tacking a extra 30-50 grand on to the price. It requires a lot of thought and is one of the most important decisions you will make when selling your home.
Pictures
Pictures are everything! The days of buyers going out with their Realtor and viewing 20-25 properties is long gone. Over 90% of home buyers are searching from properties online. Most of which are using mobile phones or tablets to do their searches. Your pictures are what is going to make buyers stop scrolling and take the time to read the information about your property. If you are just going to walk through and snap a couple photo’s with your iPhone that’s probably not going to turn too many heads. Lets put this in perspective. You are attempting to sell a property that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, spend $100 to have some quality, professional photographs taken by a professional photographer.
Marketing
There are a millions different avenues you can go down to market your property to potential buyers. It is important to determine what demographic is most commonly buying in your neighbourhood.
- Young Couples
- Families
- Retirees
- Young Professional
- Seniors
Each one of these groups of people are going to respond to marketing in a different way. For example; a young couple may find out about a property for sale from scrolling through their Facebook news feed however retirees and seniors may be finding out about properties through the local paper/ classifieds. If you are advertising a property that is most likely going to be purchased by a young couple or professional, advertising in the local paper may be a waste of time and resources. Obviously the more avenues you can pursue the better chance you have a reaching all of the potential buyers out there.
Some of the most common avenues people use to find buyers are as follows:
- Kijiji/Craig’s List
- Local Paper
- Online Advertising Agency (Property Guys)
Consistency
One of the biggest reasons why most people struggle to sell their home is because they are very inconsistent with their marketing techniques. If you post ONE Kijiji ad and it does not generate any potential buyers for you that does not mean you should stop running Kijiji ad’s entirely. It is important to stick with your marketing plan. Set a schedule of when you are going to run certain ads and post certain links. Follow that schedule and you WILL get results. Same goes for all forms of advertising and marketing. If you are paying for news paper ads. You need to run those ads consistently if you want to make them work. In todays world there is so much information being shared everywhere it takes people seeing something more then one time for them to remember it.
Showing Your Home
Congratulations! All your marketing and advertising has payed off. You have a interested buyer that wants to come take a look at your house. This is wear almost all home owners go wrong during the sale process. Do NOT show your home to just anybody with out pre-qualifying them. The last thing you want to do is let a complete stranger into your home without finding out if they are serious about buying it or not. Some questions you should ask before showing your home are:
- Have you been Pre-Approved for a Mortgage?
- Do you have a house you would need to sell first in order to purchase this one?
- If so is it currently on the market?
- How many houses have you looked at so far?
Typically when home owners are getting their homes ready to show there are a couple things they do not keep in mind. First thing is cleanliness. The last thing someone wants to walk into is a dirty house. Second is clutter. A kitchen with a lot of appliances (coffee makers, toasters, blenders etc). Having a lot of appliances in a kitchen can make it appear like their is very little countertop space and ultimately make it look smaller. A living room with a lot of furniture in it. This can make the room look smaller and less open. Little things like this can go a long way. One last issue that some owners have is having a lot of personal, family related pictures and memorabilia around the house. Potential buyers hate to feel like they are intruding when viewing a house. They also want to be able to picture how their own possession would look in the house. You don’t want the house to be bare, but you also do not want to have a ton of personal items everywhere. It’s important to find that happy medium.
People tend to want to give potential buyers “The Tour”. Although this can be beneficial since you know the home the best, however people want to be able to go through at their own pace. It is important to give people their space and let them browse at their own pace.
Follow Up
Two things people tend to do after a buyer shows interest in their property.
- Wait for them to call them and place a offer
- Bombard them with phone call and emails trying to force a offer
You absolutely need to follow up with the potential buyers that are looking at your property. However if you harass them they definitely will not want to do business with you. Make sure when you call someone to see if they are still interested you have some information to give them. Information on price, utilities, or other interest from other buyers. Do not lie about have other interest, people will be able to tell when you are serious or not.
Price your home properly right out of the gate, take great quality pictures, market your property consistently and effectively. Show your home strategically and follow up with your potential buyers!
CLICK HERE or scan the QR code to get help selling your home from a professional.
williamcampbelldotca.wordpress.com 