So the time has come to move on from your beloved home, well what are you going to do? Currently, we have an unprecedented seller's market in my area of Northeast Ohio (and much of the country) but I honestly feel this has hurt and lost many people thousands of dollars!! If that makes no sense to you let me explain. People fall into this trap of saying, it's a seller's market, I'll just toss a sign in the yard and my house will sell. Well, Susan, that's fine but you're losing out on thousands and thousands of dollars and you're sitting on the market longer than you should be!! 

Don't squander your largest investment! People don't often sell houses, I mean how many times have you actually sold a house? It's OK to not know exactly what you're doing, but please don't let ignorance and pride let you lose out on such an important investment. I see it so often that I decided someone had to help! So read on and get that house sold!

1. Declutter and Depersonalize

A cluttered home feels small and closed in. Did you know that a cluttered home actually raises cortisol - the stress hormone? We need people to feel at home and at peace when they enter your home, not stressed and anxious!! Start moving out, and clear out all the junk and knickknacks. Clear out your closets so they seem larger

and more open instead of cramped and small. If it's warm, remove all that bulky winter clothing and store it at a friend's or family's house if you can. Organize your cabinets so they look more spacious. People will look in your closets and cabinets, if they're jammed with items, it will appear there is not enough storage in the house. It's not about what's true, it's about what the buyer thinks and feels! Take away personal items so buyers can envision and make the home their own!

2. Touch Ups and Repairs

Small imperfections all around the house will show a buyer the house wasn't taken care of. If the owner didn't take care of the small things, they for sure didn't take care of the big things. Again, that may not be true, but as I already said, it doesn't matter what's true, it's what the buyer thinks! If you're not able to accomplish this yourself, hire and handyman. For a small amount of money, it costs you will make that back tenfold every single time. Touch up your paint, or even better repaint entirely (and keep it neutral please!!). Small things like tightening up a door handle, tightening a loose toilet, sealing any cracks, cleaning the grout on your floor or backsplash, freshening up an unfinished basement with fresh paint on the walls and floor, changing your furnace filter, and having the HVAC cleaned and serviced. Small, quick, easy repairs that will show you cared for the property will make a major difference. If the buyer's first impression is the house is unkept, that will also be the impression of other buyers. You'll have lost them in the first few minutes. I see this all the time while walking through with buyers.

Have major repairs such as a leaky basement or roof, or maybe foundation issues. These repairs need to be addressed, or, if it's too much to undertake the house has to be priced to reflect those issues. However, people fear these issues and don't want to front the large amounts of money needed to repair and will therefore make your home difficult to sell. If possible, have them fixed and you'll get that money back when it sells.

3. Staging

Now that your home is clean and beautiful, let's keep it going! Stage your home in a way that's inviting, clean, and welcoming. Simple things like fresh flowers bring light and brightness to the home. Diffuse essential oils to evoke that sense of peace and cleanliness that comes with a clean scent (sweet orange oil promotes peace, lemon or lemongrass promotes cleanliness). I personally wouldn't use artificial scents like candles and air fresheners, they are harsh and not as inviting. In some people they may even cause issues like headaches and respiratory issues, that's the last thing you want. Not sure how to decorate, consider hiring a staging professional. They are very affordable and will come in with their own decorations, or use yours for even less. Again, these little things will bring you back your money tenfold. $200 for staging, when coupled with everything else on this list may bring a bidding war that brings you thousand more than you even hoped for.

4. Media - Professional Photos and Videos

You've spent time, money, and effort making your home ready, now you MUST showcase that! Your listing is your storefront, your packaging, and the buyer's first impression, DO NOT skimp on that. Listings with professional photos receive 140% more views! That's more buyers and more offers and more demand. Buyers are shopping almost exclusively online, you absolutely have to be in front of them with a draw-dropping listing that will make them immediately fall in love. Use professional photos, video walk-throughs, and drone photography to show the best your home has to offer. Every listing I have gets all of this plus more. A vacant home doesn't show as well, staging is the best option but it expensive, can't swing it, virtual staging. I provide it on all vacant listings for a reason! Show people what the space can become.

Make the buyers fall in love with the home before ever stepping foot inside. When you do this they will bid higher and more often.

5. Description

The photos and video of your home, that's the hook, use the description to sink it! People look at pictures first, then if they like what they see they'll then read the description. The media and the description must both knock it out of the park. Tell them why your house is different, and what makes it unique and special. Don't be afraid to show some emotion! Buyers love a seller who has an emotional attachment to their house. Why is your home better than the 50 others they just scrolled through, what sets it apart? I sit down with sellers and make a list of what makes the house unique, do the same, and use that when making your description. copywriting not your strong suit? Go to fiverr.com and have someone do it for you for a few bucks.

6. Market Correctly With A Calculated Plan.

So you have an amazing house, with killer photos, video, and a description that will bring a grown man to tears. It's all useless if you don't get it in front of the correct buyers! Putting it up only on Zillow is not going to bring you the demand you need to pit buyers against each other and get the dollar amount you deserve! You have to do more. What I do personally is that you should also be doing. Make sure it's on every home listing site there is. If you're not with an agent, you're not on the MLS so you are already battling uphill. Send flyers around your whole neighborhood, you never know who knows someone looking to buy. I've had this happen myself. Run social media ads specifically targeting a 7-mile radius. 95% of buyers buy within 7 miles of their current home. Post it on all your social media and ask your friends to share it, post it on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, in social media groups like the "Buy, Sell, Trade" groups, and hang flyers. Another thing that I personally do, that may or may not be available to someone without an agent, is I run retarget ads that follow buyers around the internet showing them the listing multiple times. I send it out to my email list and into groups of other agents. Get everyone excited about your house! When all this comes together, you get demand, and people will be outbidding each other trying to give you more money than you even asked for.

7. Price Your Home Correctly

Once everything above is in place, if you do not price it correctly you have set yourself up to fail. Of course price too low and you leave money on the table, but,  price too high, and statistically, you may end up selling for even less. Here's why, the longer the home is on the market, the deeper the discount required to sell it. People start to think something is wrong with it. Why has it been for sale for so long? In order to sell a home at top dollar you need to move it quickly, and In order to do that and not leave money on the table, you need to know exactly what your home is worth. Just looking at a Zestimate isn't going to cut it. There are many other factors at play that a computer cannot take into consideration. You need to do an in-depth market analysis and know exactly what the value of your home is. If working with an agent they can accomplish this, if not, you have some homework to do

Well, you've done it! Do this and you'll have buyers eating out of the palm of your hand. In closing, there are a few other optional ideas that I like to do.

1. Get a pre-listing home inspection.

Take away the stress and unknowing of some person you don't know coming through your house telling the buyer every single thing wrong with it. Get that knowledge ahead of time and make those repairs. Give that report to buyers so they can see you've had the issues fixed. Many times buyers will accept this as their own and move past the inspections with no issues.

2. Highly Consider A Real Estate Professional

People want to put as much money in their pockets as they can when they sell their homes. I do too! Unfortunately, so many of these people end up losing money

FSBOs accounted for 10% of home sales in 2021. The typical FSBO home sold for $225,000 compared to $330,000 for agent-assisted home sales.

So in other words, even if you subtracted a full commission from that amount, the seller made tens of thousands of more dollars when using an agent (actually $87,000 more to be exact). This speaks to what I'm preaching, I personally do all these steps plus more with every listing bringing in more buyers and more demand. That demand is your ultimate goal. The more demand, the more offers, the more offers, the higher the offers!

Thinking of selling, reach out with any questions! Contact ME

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