So you want to sell your home, but you're feeling overwhelmed?
There is much more to selling a home than simply placing a ‘for sale’ sign in your yard – it’s a daunting process! It’s a time-consuming process that can be quite stressful.
Without any experience and a complex, emotional transaction on one’s hands, it’s easy for home sellers to make lots of costly mistakes.
Being prepared before putting your home on the market is key to a relatively smooth process.
In this article, I will share with you tips and strategies that can help you sell your Pleasanton CA home like a pro. Here is an eight-step guide to break it down, and walk you through the basics of how to sell your home.
STEP 1: Determine your motivation for selling
It’s important to know what your motivation is when you’re considering selling your home.
You don’t just wake up one day and decide to move house. Everybody has a reason to sell, so you should explore your reasons for selling.
Here are some of the top reasons why people sell their homes:
- Home has become too small
- It’s time to upgrade
- Job Transfer
- Personal Relationship
- Neighborhood Changes
- Downsizing
- Retirement
- Lifestyle Changes
There are two crucial questions you need to answer before you put your Pleasanton CA home on the market:
1. Why do you want to sell your home?
2. How soon would you like your move to happen?
Your answer to these two questions will affect how you price your home. It will also determine how much effort you will put into making your home presentable.
If your reason is not valid, you would later regret selling your home.
Remember that selling a house is a challenging task. However, it will be easier to plan out your home selling strategy if you know your motivation for selling.
STEP 2: Enlist the services of a qualified real estate agen
According to the National Association of Realtor®'s 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the average FSBO sales price was $185,000, while the average price for a home represented by an agent was $245,000. That's a difference of $60,000!
While you can try to sell your home on your own to save money on commission, hiring an agent definitely brings more advantages.
One of the most important decisions you'll make when you put your Pleasanton home up for sale is choosing the right agent to help you in the selling process.
With so many agents, it can be confusing to know which one to choose. Here are some things to consider when looking for an agent:
Your home is your biggest investment and you would want to work with someone who is not just good, but great.
The right agent can make all the difference in how quickly and efficiently you can sell your home.
Choosing the right Pleasanton real estate agent can take some legwork, but when you get the right one, like me, your real estate journey will be great and stress-free.
If you want to know more about what exactly I can do to help you get your home sold, check out my website at https://680homes.com/about/meet-doug-buenz/
Get in touch with me or any of my 680group Pleasanton CA real estate agents today and make one of the best decisions of your life.
STEP 3: Learn your home’s market value
Have you ever wondered, "What is my home worth?"
Your home’s value or its market value is how much your property would sell for under normal conditions. It has nothing to do with your mortgage statement or how many special memories you’ve created there.
Knowing your home’s market value will help you set the right asking price.
So how do you know for sure what your home is worth?
One good starting point to figure out what your home is worth is to enter your address on websites that will instantly price your home based on data such as square footage and recent home sales in the area. These estimates are automatically generated based on public information. However, your home’s unique features and overall condition will not be included in the equation.
As such, there is still no substitute for the expertise of a real estate agent who has access to a vast database of information to help you determine your home’s value. A professional agent has the experience and skills to assess how much your home is worth.
Agents like me deal with homes and properties on a daily basis which makes us very familiar with home prices and how locations factor in. We also have tools like the MLS that can help us identify the average price in your area. We also consider the upgrades you did in your home.
We specialize in answering the question, "What is my home worth?" by running a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). This process involves finding similar properties that had been sold within the past 90 days.
Watch the video below and learn how a CMA can help sell your home:
STEP 4: Determine your selling price
When selling a house, pricing it correctly is one of the most important steps.
Picking the right price tag for your home can be tricky. For one, it’s your home, filled with memories, hopes, and dreams. All that can affect your decisions and lead you toward the wrong price.
There are consequences.
If you price your home too high, there will be few potential buyers, with little chance of any offers to pay your unrealistic price. After the first two to three weeks of showing, you will lose the freshness of the home's appeal and interest will wane.
If you price your home too low, you may get many offers, but you could lose thousands on one of your largest investments.
That’s why I’m here to guide you through this tough but critical decision. I understand that arriving at an accurate asking price involves up-to-the-minute research and experienced judgment.
When setting the price for your home, several factors usually come into play. However, as a general rule, sale prices are based on:
- How much similar properties have recently sold for in the same area
- The supply and demand of your area, based on the local economy
- A fair market value of the home, based on an appraisal
- Your needs as the sell
As a Pleasanton CA real estate agent, I know the pricing strategies that work in the current market. We will discuss the price regularly, as well as the other factors that can change the conditions in order to get the best price for your home.
STEP 5: Make small upgrades
To get the best price for your home, you need to take some time to get it ready to sell.
While you may need to tackle some basic repair issues first, there are simpler improvements that can help polish up your home and set the tone for a quicker sale.
Critically examine your space to determine what needs to be updated, cleared out, or spruced up. Many times there are simple upgrades that will make all the difference.
Remove Outdated Window Treatments
If you have dreary draperies, torn window shades, or bent mini-blinds, remove these outdated items and replace them with simple white mini-blinds or wood blinds cut-to-measure at a home center. This simple fix can refresh your rooms in just one weekend.
Showcase your Wood Flooring
Buyers get easily turned off by worn, dirty, or badly colored carpeting. However, this is easy to fix if you have hardwood floors. Remove the carpet and expose the wood so that buyers will be able to see the look and the patina of the hardwood flooring.
Should you decide to keep your carpet, at the very least make sure to clean it thoroughly before buyers come knocking on your door.
Update the lighting
The lighting of your home is a very important component of its atmosphere. Before putting your home on the market, take time to look over your lighting.
Is it dated? Does it serve the space poorly?
You can find relatively inexpensive light fixtures which can make your home look new and stylish in no time.
Don’t forget to replace any expired light bulbs, and check exterior lights as well as interior ones.
STEP 6: Amp up the curb appeal
When it comes to selling your home, first impressions make a difference. Your home must look attractive to potential buyers even before they take one step inside.
You want your property to have a wow factor!
A home with great curb appeal will sell faster and for more money because of the positive effect it has on buyers.
Unfortunately, some sellers tend to overlook their home’s curb appeal when putting it on the market.
That is a huge mistake!
If you don’t put effort into boosting your home’s curb appeal, it can cost you the sale and drive down the perceived value of your home.
Here are some reasons why curb appeal is an important factor in selling your home:
1. Your home’s curb appeal is the first thing buyers see
2. It is a reflection of your home’s maintenance
3. An unimpressive curb can be a deal breaker
4. It helps your home stand out from the rest of the competition
5. It can increase the perceived value of your home
Do you want to boost your home’s curb appeal? The video below shares 5 simple ways to spruce up your curb appeal:
STEP 7: Hire a professional to stage and photograph your home
Photography and staging go hand in hand.
As a typical buyer looks at an online listing, the first thing he or she does is to look at the photos. Online listings with bad pictures or no pictures at all can cause buyers to overlook a home.
You want to create an amazing first impression of your property. You can do that by making sure your home shows well on online listings. Studies show that homes with more than six listing photos online are twice as likely to be viewed by buyers.
To ensure that the pictures portray your house in the best way possible, you must tap into the talents of professional stager and photographer. Staging the property for professional shoot is also a very important part to get the best shots of the house.
The goal of home staging is to help home buyers emotionally connect with your home. Buyers’ realtors reported that 81% of their clients felt that staging helped them to imagine the property they were viewing as a future home (National Association of Realtors, “2015 Profile of Home Staging”).
The following are the most important rooms to be staged:
Of course, after staging your home, you need a professional photographer with extensive knowledge and experience in photographing homes to highlight the beauty of your Pleasanton CA home.
Listing photos captured by a professional photographer always attract more potential buyers because the professional photographer produces images that resonates with the buyers.
Quality real estate photography helps to motivate homebuyers to see the house in person. Remember to make your property easy to show. Be flexible about your schedule so that more people will be able to see your home.
STEP 8: Review each offer and close the deal
You’ve received offers – hooray!
You need to review each offer carefully to be able to pick the right one to accept. Here’s a plan for evaluating offers:
Know the process.
You have three options when you receive an offer. First, you can accept the offer - this means that, subject to the conditions of the sale, your home is officially sold. Second, you can reject the offer. Or third, you can counter the offer.
Decide which terms are most important to you.
Before showing your home, we should discuss your baselines. For example, if price is of utmost important, you may need to be flexible on your closing date.
Establish an offer review process
As your agent, we will establish a review process. This includes setting a time frame during which buyers must submit offers. Doing so will give us ample time to market your home. This will also give us the time to review all the offers you receive.
Review every term
Evaluate all the terms of each offer. Determine the strengths and the drawbacks.
With each term, ask yourself: is this a deal breaker, or can I compromise to achieve my goal of closing the sale?
Once you’ve found a buyer and agreed to a sale price, now it’s time to close the deal.
There are several procedures that must take place in order to complete the sale of your home. These include:
- A home inspection where an inspector will do a thorough examination of the physical structure and systems of your home
- A title search to verify you really own the property and there are no other claims to it
- A property survey, which shows the boundaries of your home and includes a written description of your property
- A final walk through where the buyer is allowed to inspect the home within 24 hours prior to closing
- Disclosing to the buyer anything that may interfere with their decision to purchase the home
During the closing, the deed is delivered to the buyer, the title is transferred, financing documents and title insurance policies are exchanged, and the agreed-on costs are paid.
As your agent, I will take care of all the time consuming details and issues on your behalf.
Once done, you’ll relinquish your keys and the legal rights to your property in exchange for the balance of payment from the buyer.
Congratulations, you have sold your home!
Learning how to sell a home will take some time, but with the help of a trusted professional like me, we can make it happen!
Your Pleasanton CA home is a valuable asset. You deserve to get the most out of your investment!
Let me be of service to you!
I am Doug Buenz, your top real estate agent from Pleasanton CA, and with my help, we can successfully sell your home! Call me at (925) 621-0680 to get started.
