Thinking of selling your home? Do you think all agents are the same and choosing any agent to sell your home will give you the same results? Think again!
It is true that most agents will pretty much just stick a sign in your yard and list your home on the MLS, and that’s it. I don’t blame you for thinking we are all the same.
However, our Unique Marketing Approach to selling homes is very different than other agents in the area. If you want to know what makes us so different then click here to find out.
The number one question asked by someone thinking of selling their home is, “What’s the max I can sell my house for?” Before that question can be answered there are few things you, the home seller, need to know about listing a home for sale and the price a home can fetch.
There are many factors that play a role in the sale price of a house. Some can’t be changed, such as location, layout, surrounding area amenities. However, many factors can be changed, like condition, upgrades, curb appeal, paint color, and cleanliness.
Consistently, our number one recommendation to all home sellers is to hire your real estate agent early on in the process. As soon as you know you will be selling your home, call an agent. Don’t wait for the moment you are ready to list to call a real estate professional. Your real estate agent should be an integral part in helping you prepare your home for sale. A few key inexpensive ideas from your agent can add $10,000 to $50,000 to the sales price of your home and help it sell much faster.
Our second recommendation to home sellers is to get educated. Avoiding the mistakes made by home sellers will go a long way in selling your home for the most amount of money possible. In order to help with your education, we have developed a video series consisting of 10 short videos to help you avoid the mistakes made by home sellers plus tips and tricks that will help get your home sold for top dollar. Prior to calling a real estate agent for help selling your house, watch our video series for home selling tips.
Free Home Review
Cooper City Realty provides a free full Home Review to home sellers in our service area including Cooper City, Davie, Southwest Ranches, Pembroke Pines, Weston, and Plantation. Our free Home Review service includes a Home Value Assessment as well as a full review of your home with suggestions to implement before placing your home on the market to help you get your home sold fast and for top dollar. This is a completely free service we provide with absolutely no obligation. If you would like to take advantage of this service just complete this short form and we’ll contact you to schedule a time that’s convenient for you.
Home Seller’s Frequently Asked Questions
If you are able to purchase a new home without depending on the equity of your current home, then it would be best to first find the home you want to buy, get it under contract, and do your inspections. If after inspections you are continuing with the purchase, then place your current home on the market.
Keep this in mind, statistically, homes that are placed on the market and are overpriced take 4 or 5 times longer to sell and end up selling for less than those homes that are initially listed at market value.
However, a vacant home does not mean an empty home. You will want to keep it furnished. It does not have to be fully furnished like when you are living in it, but it is best to keep the major pieces of furniture like the couch, love seats, coffee table, dining room set, bedroom sets (including the bed), etc. An empty house will show very poorly and expose flaws like warn paint on the walls, color discolorations on the carpet from ware, holes in the walls, etc. Everything will stand out in an empty house. It’s always best to make it look lived in to give the potential buyers a sense of home.
Maintenance must still be kept up in a vacant house. Electricity and water service should be kept on so potential buyers can see that everything works. You will want to keep the A/C on as well so the house does not develop a musty odor. If you have a pool, then pool service should also be kept up, as well as the lawn service.
- Real Estate commission, if you are using a Realtor.
- Advertising costs, marketing materials, internet marketing, and others if you are selling your home yourself.
- Attorney fees if using an attorney.
- Title Search (maybe)
- Documentary Stamp Taxes on Deed
- HOA/Condo Estoppel Fees
- Title Curing Fees (if needed)
- Prorated Costs (i.e. property tax)
Most Realtors will do a simple CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) which includes a small sampling of homes that may or may not compare to your home and situation. For instance, comparing homes that were sold as a short sale or foreclosure when you are selling your home for a completely different reason will provide a much lower listing price. Certain situations, such as divorce, death, job loss, bad condition, etc. will cause a home to sell for less than market value.
In order to get a more accurate and true market value for your home, you must delve deeper into the comparables to check for, not only like physical attributes, but also for the reasons they sold.
Using adjusted area square feet is a very accurate way to provide a market value for a home when the comparables are very similar. However, figuring out the adjusted square feet of a home is not so simple. Often the adjusted square feet shown in listings are incorrect. Most of the time, the square feet given in the listing are either for the total building or the living area square feet. When using this method, your Realtor must take the time to research each comparable to obtain the true adjusted square feet as calculated by the County Property Appraiser’s Office and recalculate the price sold per square foot. Unfortunately, most Realtors don’t take the time to calculate the true sold price per square foot and end up with incorrect market values for their listings. Whether they are too high or too low, this is bad for the seller. Too high and your home won’t sell, too low and you will leave money on the table.
As I stated previously, statistically, homes that are placed on the market and are overpriced take 4 or 5 times longer to sell and end up selling for less than those homes that are initially listed at “Market Value”.
Some of the least expensive things you can do to help sell your home fast include:
- Paint inside and out
- New hardware to kitchen and bathroom cabinets
- Deep thorough cleaning of the entire house
- Landscaping
- Fix minor items such as leaky faucets and jammed doors
- Replace burnt out light bulbs
- Remove clutter everywhere (closets, kitchen, garage, etc.)
- Remove half of everything in your closets
- Rent a storage unit to store all extras
- Remove personal pictures
- Make the beds every day
- Place the A/C on 72 degrees during showings
- Keep kitchen and bathroom counter tops clear
- Open all window blinds and drapes
- Put pets in cages or remove from home
- No dirty dishes in sink
- No laundry in washer or dryer
- Mold
- Chinese Drywall
- Wood Boring Insects (i.e. termites)
- Sinking Foundation
- Leaks
- Sewer or Septic problems
- Age of Roof
- Property Encroachment Issues
- Contaminated Soil
- Lead Based Paint
Cooper City Realty agents all use Supra Lockboxes. Unlike the standard lockboxes that use a combination that can easily be shared, a Supra Lockbox uses a special electronic key that is only sold to Realtors through their local real estate association. Supra Lockboxes can only be open by other Realtors. We are notified the moment someone opens the Supra Lockbox with their Name, Phone, Email and Company. Cooper City Realty agents go one step further and use what’s called a CBS (Call Before Showing) code on the Supra Lockbox. This is a special code we have to provide the other Realtor so they can access the key. This requires the buyer’s agent to call us and schedule the showing so they can’t just show up. The use of the Supra Lockbox also prevents the possibility of buyer’s agents from sharing the lockbox combination with their buyers.
If a lockbox makes you uncomfortable, then a schedule can be setup to show the home while you are at work and the buyers will be accompanied by your listing agent.
It’s a very good idea to go ahead and have your home inspected prior to placing it on the market. If you list your home with Cooper City Realty we will reimburse you for the cost of the pre-listing inspection at the closing of the sale. You may call us for more details on this offer. Whether or not you make the repairs to the items found in the inspection the report will give you an advantage when negotiating with a potential buyer. Providing the inspection report to a potential buyer will eliminate a possible “deal breaker”.
You may have heard of a “Loan Modification” where your lender will set up a new repayment plan. These “Loan Modification” plans usually only workout if you experienced a temporary life event such as a job loss and are now at the same income level you were prior to the loan becoming delinquent. If the loan delinquency was due to a more permanent situation, then your lender may not work with you on a “Loan Modification”.