Hire someone else to do the selling
Unless you have endless amounts of time to answer phone calls and emails and conduct showings, you probably don’t want to go the sell-by-owner route. Reach out to friends, family, and professional connections for recommendations on a listing agent. An added benefit of hiring someone else to handle selling your home is they’ll take care of showings, which is especially helpful if you already moved somewhere else.
Stage your home
A listing agent is going to tell you to “stage your home,” but what does that mean? Essentially, they’re telling you to make the home look clean, attractive, but without distracting personal items. You want to do everything you can to make your home look large, open, clean, and in good condition. The staging not only helps with listing photos, but it also makes the home more attractive during showings.
Get a home appraisal and comps
Depending on your listing agent, they may have a working relationship with an appraiser. An appraiser will inspect the general layout, location, and condition of your home to determine what it is worth. Additionally, you need to get comps so you and your agent can price the home competitively compared to other houses in the area. Comps will also ensure you’re asking a fair price given what nearby properties have sold for.
In addition to these crucial steps to take when selling your house, you’ll want to take care of any major repairs promptly. If you don’t take care of major issues now, you’ll need to after the buyer’s home inspector finds them and by then, the problem might be worse.
