11 Things to Know About Selling Your Home in Spring and Summer

Blog_May_19

| Best Real Estate Agent | Buy And Sell Homes In Oradell Nj

If you’re thinking spring or summer is the ideal time to put your house on the market, you’re certainly not the only one. Real estate information site Zillow reports home sellers make the most money and sell the fastest in the first two weeks of May, with June and July respectively as the best months to list your home. While the market may be as hot as the weather this time of year, there are still some steps you shouldn’t skip – and details your should know about – before selling your home property in spring and summer.

– BY Devon Thornsby, Editor, Real Estate

There are more buyers.

6 Simple Tricks to Make Your Open House Memorable

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Hosting an open house is a great way to showcase a property to potential buyers, and your real estate agent will likely recommend holding one early on in the marketing process. This promotional event is unique in its professional yet low-pressure atmosphere, and with careful planning and preparation it’s easy to maximize a home’s appeal. Since your guests will be a mixture of agents and interested buyers, an open house has the potential to attract plenty of new and valuable contacts.

As the seller, you won’t be present during the open house, but there are a few things you can do to prepare your property. Here are six simple tricks that will help make your open house stand out from the rest:

  • Improve your curb appeal.
  • Stage the home.
  • Rent a storage unit.
  • Offer a brochure.
  • Cater to all the senses.
  • Market the event.

Improve Your Curb Appeal

The outside of a house makes the first impression on your guests. If the property’s exterior looks worn down and neglected, expectations of its interior won’t be that high. Though it’s wishful thinking to not judge a book by its cover, dirty siding and rampant weeds do tell a story about a home, and it isn’t a positive one. By touching up the landscaping and other necessary exterior maintenance, your open house will begin by making a good impression before anyone goes inside.

Stage the Home

A simple consultation with a home stager will tell you what you need to do to get your home fit for photos and the open house. Sometimes, stagers can simply declutter your home and rearrange furniture to make a home’s interior appear more pristine. In other instances, you may need to rent furniture to replace the items you currently have. By following a home stager’s guidelines, you’ll get a great interior design that will give your home a good flow and appeal to buyers.

Rent a Storage Unit

Renting a storage unit to free up unwanted clutter you can’t part with is the best practice during the open house and showing process, as clutter makes any home look smaller. Hosting an open house is easier if a few extra pieces of furniture are stored away so you can make rooms appear more spacious and clean. Having more room to roam and explore makes a positive impression on potential buyers, who see an open, inviting space.

Offer a Brochure for Memory’s Sake

A professional, full-color brochure that highlights the home’s best features is a must-have for any complete open house. This extra marketing step gives buyers something to remember the property by after the event is over. A good brochure will include key information like the price, address and contact information in easy-to-find places. Offering tangible media like a brochure is important, since buyers can confuse properties if they have seen many homes within a short period of time.

Make It a Feast for the Senses

An open house should be an immersive experience that’s unique from browsing pictures online. Sensory-wise, you want your visitors to be thrilled in every way. Offer refreshments to help them feel welcome and at ease. If it’s a nice day out, open a window to let in the perfume of spring. In all you do, highlight the home’s strengths so they appeal to potential buyers. For example: Maybe the kitchen is impressive and fully renovated. Having a professional chef come and make hors d’oeuvres in your kitchen not only keeps your guests fed, but it also shows off your amazing appliances.

Market Your Open House Well

In this digital age, making events like an open house known online is a must. All the bells and whistles at the event mean nothing if the event doesn’t get enough exposure. Your agent should share with leads, past clients and other real estate agents. Don’t be afraid to share the information through your networks as well to help it spread by word of mouth for people in the market. Especially in the luxury market or for a home that’s priced above the median for the area, every impression counts.

How to Sell Your House in a Buyer’s Market

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The tables have turned across the U.S. as the real estate market has shifted from a seller’s to a buyer’s market, which means that more homes are for sale than there are buyers to purchase them. Gone are the days of listing a home and it selling overnight simply because of its mere existence, as if it were the last home to be had. In many parts of the country, buyers had felt lucky and accomplished just for winning a bidding war for a property.

Those days are over and now sellers have to do everything perfectly, from initial pricing to marketing strategy, in order to sell their properties on a reasonable timeline. But not everything about this shift is unfavorable for sellers and their agents.

There are a few things sellers can do to ensure the buyer’s market doesn’t get the best of them. This new set of rules is critical to follow in any market as it forces both sellers and agents to think carefully about all aspects of the transaction process, and the importance of getting it right the first time around.

Here are five details to focus on while you prepare your house to sell in a buyer’s market:

  • Pricing
  • Staging
  • Marketing
  • Showings
  • Attitude Adjustment

Pricing

Understand the comparable recent sales and active listings in your area, and work with an agent to price your property accordingly. A buyer’s market is not the time for aspirational pricing. Only unique properties, which are really outliers, fly off the shelf these days. Buyers are looking for deals and they rarely bid at asking price.

When pricing, it’s best to factor in a cushion for negotiating. Price up slightly, but not out of the range to lure in buyers. It’s important to note that, as a general rule in this market, underpricing is not recommended as a strategy to drive up demand. Underpricing works best in a seller’s market, when multiple bids can drive a price up. But when buyers have the upper hand they’re rarely bidding properties up, and you may end up with offers lower than your bottom price.

Staging

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but not always in the eye of the buyer. This can be a hard pill to swallow because you may not only need to freshen up your decor and paint, but the work also costs you money at a time when you’re looking to make money, not spend it. Make that first impression count. Buyers want properties that look clean, fresh and uncluttered.

Marketing

Make sure the online listing photos and marketing materials are of the highest caliber and quality, and appeal to the widest pool of potential buyers. The photos are your calling card, and the deciding factor when agents and customers are choosing whether to view your property. You’d be amazed at how many bedroom photos show wrinkled comforters and how many kitchen counters are overcrowded with appliances and decorative bowls.

Most importantly, work with your agent to review and plan a comprehensive marketing strategy that best suits your specific property, which might encompass a combination of a custom video tour, social media advertising campaign and print or digital advertising.

Showings

Make your property accessible to buyers within reasonable days and times, which often means being able to make yourself scarce during evenings and weekends. Remember that you want to make it as easy as possible for interested buyers to come and see your property. After all, they are the customer and you want to make it the most pleasant experience, not a hardship. This is why most agents schedule open houses in the morning or early afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays.

Attitude Adjustment

Get real. Listen and educate yourself on current market conditions in your neighborhood. Ask your real estate agent for recent comparable closings and active listings, and size them up to market highs. It’s also very important to take into account the number of days on market. In New York City, for example, the median time from a listing hitting the market to contract signed increased to 117 days in February 2019, nearly a month longer than in February 2018, according to a report from New York real estate information company StreetEasy.

If you don’t like the hand the current marketplace is dealing, and if you’re not in a hurry to sell, you may want to consider positioning your property when market conditions are more favorable to sellers. It’s critical that the seller has realistic expectations and is on board with the new playing field if he or she wishes to have a quick and profitable transaction.

The real estate market has pressed the reset button. Now more than ever, sellers cannot leave anything to chance if they want to get top dollar for their properties in this new arena. In the end, consider these guidelines as best practices for any market, up or down. Putting your best foot forward, pricing correctly and marketing your property with excellence should always be the gold standard.

The data relating to the real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange Program of the NJMLS. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than RE/MAX Real Estate Limited are marked with the Internet Data Exchange logo and information about them includes the name of the listing brokers. Some properties listed with the participating brokers do not appear on this website at the request of the seller. Listings of brokers that do not participate in Internet Data Exchange do not appear on this website.
All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Last update: 06/05/18.
Source: New Jersey Multiple Listing Service, Inc