Selling a home is a major undertaking, no matter how well prepared you are or how much experience you’ve had selling properties in the past. You’ll need to get the home ready for prospective buyers, get yourself ready to move out (if you’re currently occupying the property), and set expectations for your listing.
Ultimately, this amounts to many hours of effort, usually spread across several weeks. But if you go into home selling with the right strategies and efficiency as your main goal, you can reduce the amount of time you spend while maximizing your potential results.
These are some of the best preparatory strategies you can use when selling your house:
The whole process should start with an honest self-evaluation of your general goals and priorities. Obviously, you’re interested in selling your house, but why? And what, specifically, are you hoping to achieve?
For example, are you about to move to another house? If so, are you hoping to sell this home before you close your next purchase? Are you interested in selling the home for a specific price, at minimum, or is it more important to sell the home quickly? Would you be willing to take a lower offer if it meant closing the transaction faster or more reliably?
Answering these questions early can help you mentally and financially prepare for the next steps.
It’s tempting to sell your house on your own, especially with the abundance of highly trafficked public real estate platforms currently available. If you skip the real estate agent, you won’t have to pay a commission – which could be profitable for you in the long term.
However, in the vast majority of cases, working with a real estate agent is better. They can help you get a higher sale price for your home, often eclipsing their own commission and resulting in a bigger net profit for the seller. They’ll also help you with managing the sale (and managing your stress along the way). That’s why it’s a good idea to hire a real estate agent early in the process.
Even if it seems early in the process, there’s no such thing as packing too early. If you’re moving somewhere new, packing early will help you save stress (and save time) later in the process.
More importantly, packing and removing some of the items from your home will help create more empty space – making it easier to make repairs, clean, and ultimately stage the home for potential buyers.
Next, put together a mobility plan. How and when are you going to move? How will you handle the logistics? Are you going to hire movers or rent a moving truck? Will you need an intermediary place to stay?
Similarly, you should have a plan for getting out of the house if and when a prospective buyer schedules a tour. How much advance notice will you need and where will you take the family?
Prepare to enter the selling market by researching market trends, especially those influencing your local neighborhood. Is this considered a buyer’s market or a seller’s market? How might that information influence your coming decisions? Do experts think there’s going to be a reversal of momentum soon?
You probably know your neighborhood well already, especially if you’ve lived there for many years. But this is a great opportunity to dig deeper. What types of people typically buy houses in this area? What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of this neighborhood? How quickly are homes selling and what seem to be the biggest obstacles for sellers?
You don’t want to spend too much money on upgrades and repairs, but if you stay within budget, these small improvements can make a big impact on your home’s appeal and eventual selling price. Focus on major structural issues that could scare buyers away and cosmetic issues that are cheap and easy to fix.
It’s easier to sell a home if it’s completely depersonalized. Neutral spaces appeal to a much wider range of demographics. You can start the depersonalizing process by taking down family photos, painting rooms neutral colors, and removing polarizing or niche pieces of décor.
People have a tendency to get emotionally attached to their homes. In some ways, this is a good thing. It means you’ll have richer memories of the time you spent in this house with your family. But when it comes to the selling process, emotions can be disruptive.
If you’re too emotionally attached to the home, you might have unrealistic expectations for what it could sell for. You also might be overly critical of certain offers if they don’t meet those expectations – passing up otherwise good deals in the process.
Finally, you’ll want to clean and stage the home. It’s important to clean your house as thoroughly as possible, because a single rogue scent or dirty patch could turn buyers off. Hire a team of professionals if you can afford to do so.
Staging the home with neutral furniture and other finishing touches will also help it make a better impression with your touring prospects.
Once all this prep work is done, you can move forward with next steps as guided by your real estate agent, which could include getting professional photography for your property or listing it on major real estate platforms.
If you know you’re going to sell your Texas home in the near future, and you’re not sure what the next step is, consider contacting us here at Green Residential. We’ve got a full team of real estate experts, including the agents who can help you sell your home quickly and for the highest possible price. The sooner you get started, the sooner the stressful parts of home selling will be over.
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