So you want to sell your home in 2015...

Five Crucial Home Selling Decisions if You Want to Sell in 2015

If you’re planning on selling your home in 2015 there are five crucial decisions that can help you maximize your sale price, get your home sold quickly and do it all without the mountain of stress that often comes with the sale of your home.

Decision #1 – Decide to prepare sooner than later. Home sellers who wait until spring to get their home “ready” are already behind the curve. The real estate year is in full swing by March 1st and homes that sell quickly and for top dollar during the “selling season” are the homes where the owner had a plan, got their home ready, staged, and listed early in the year.

Decision #2 – Decide to prepare yourself emotionally. Selling your home can be very emotional. When you receive an offer for less than you think your home is worth, it generates a whole host of negative emotions. You can feel angry, frustrated, and think everyone is trying to steal your home from you.

Well, they’re not. Buyers just want to know they’re getting the best price. We all feel similar when we make a big purchase. So be careful to manage your emotions. And if you get a “low-ball” offer rely on the help of a trusted professional. A good agent can often gently negotiate the price into a range where everyone wins. The key is to keep your emotional swings in check.

Decision #3 – Be realistic and price your home accordingly. One of the big keys to getting your home sold quickly, for the most money, is pricing it correctly. If you price your home too high, thinking you’ll “test the market,” it can be costly. Your home can sit on the market too long and get labeled as a “no-need-to-show” because you’re viewed as being unrealistic.

You see it all the time. Sellers think they are going to “hold out” and get a better price. Well, you need to consider how soon you want to sell? The reality is you can get just about any price you want if you’re willing to wait long enough. If you wait 5-7 years your home will very likely sell for a more than it will today. But if you want to sell in 90-120 days for top dollar, pricing is a crucial issue that you should discuss at length with a trusted real estate professional.

Decision #4 – Reconcile reality quickly. This is somewhat similar to decision #2, but it’s actually more practical and actionable. Emotions can be hard to define and control, like in point #2. But what is fairly easy to judge is your market’s numbers, and the realities of value.

Agents always hear things like, “But my home has this, this and this. Therefor it should be worth a lot more.” In theory that’s somewhat true. However, the reality you have to be prepared to reconcile is, if people won’t pay more for those things, it doesn’t make your home worth more.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to soften you up so you give your home away. The goal is to help you get the highest possible price, in the shortest time, with the fewest hassles. But something that’s very important to deal with is reality, not wishful thinking. Wishful thinking backs tens of thousands of home sellers into very difficult positions every year.

Having a clear objective view of reality, as well as a trusted professional to help guide you through the emotional ups and downs, can help you avoid a massive mountain of emotional stress, while your home just sits on the market.

My encouragement is, prepare yourself for the true realities, while maintaining high standards throughout the process. It’s a balancing act that with the help of a trusted professional can be far easier to navigate.

Decision #5 – Trust your gut. When interviewing agents there are few things more important than a deep level of trust between you and the agent you choose to represent you. And trust comes in two crucial parts. The first is professional competency.

To trust someone with what is likely the single biggest financial transaction of your life, you need to have confidence that the agent you choose has the skills, technology and ability to fight hard and win what’s in your best interests. That’s why choosing someone just because they’re a “friend of the family” isn’t always the best choice.

The second layer of trust is personal. When you work with someone on something as important as the sale of your home, you need to know you can trust that person personally.

You need to feel a deep sense of confidence that your agent puts your needs in front of their own. It’s not about flash and glitter, or how many homes that agent sold. What’s important is, “Can I trust this person with my financial future?”

That’s where “listen to your gut” comes in. most of us can sense authenticity and integrity. It comes out in many ways and generally when you’re in the presence of it you know in your gut. Sometimes the person might be a little quirky, other times they’re not, but again it’s not about flash and charisma.

The bottom line, choose someone you trust on both a professional and personal level and “go with your gut.”

This content originally comes from Gary Elwood of Proquest Technologies. You can find the original post by clicking here.

How to choose a real estate agent

The decision to buy or sell a home is one of the most important financial decisions most people make, yet many give little thought to finding the real estate agent best suited to their needs.

Agents are often chosen solely on the recommendation of a friend or an ad in the newspaper. But choosing the right agent can save you time, effort and aggravation in finding the perfect home at a price you can afford or selling your home quickly for top dollar.

"Real estate has always been a mark of independence and freedom in this country," says Donald R. Brenner, professor emeritus at American University. "Owning property is very important, and when you deal with someone who is going to help you buy or sell a piece of property, you'd better find someone that knows what they're doing.

"If you pick up the phone book and choose from the yellow pages, you won't make a better decision than if you picked up the telephone book to choose a brain surgeon," says Brenner.

Realtor Grace Frank isn't interested in hearing the odds, only in beating them. For example, when she took her plan to build South side Village to the banks, they told her she was nuts. She showed them they were wrong.
"It took us a year to negotiate the land deals, and then we started building last May. We've sold nearly an entire street, and we did it when no one thought it was possible," she says.
The banks not only underestimated Frank's ability to build and sell the South side project, also her entrepreneurial spirit, Read More...

Selecting the wrong listing agent can (cost you dearly) (bruise your bank account) (ruin your chance of profit) (destroy your profits) (be a very costly mistake) etc.

The Wall Street Journal recently published results of a study showing experienced agents sell homes for an average 12% more than their less experienced counterparts. According to the article, this amounts to an average sales price gain of about $25,000. You can find that it here if you're interested.

But selecting a poorly qualified listing agent can cost you much more.

Earlier this year, I represented a buyer who wanted to find a home on Chattanooga’s thriving South Side. She mentioned she had driven past a house and seen the For S
ale sign, but could not find the listing in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).  My research discovered that the listing agent had entered the wrong zip code for the property, and therefore potential buyers did not find it on searches of the MLS, Zillow, Trulia or similar web sites.  In addition, the listing agent had only posted one (very sloppy) photo and had significantly understated the actual square footage of the property.

During phone conversations, the agent demonstrated little insight into new construction, failing to recognize the term “C.O.” (certificate of occupancy). As a result, we were able to negotiate a sales price for the buyer approximately $50,000 below the actual market value of the home, creating $50,000 of instant equity for the buyer (and that amount of lost profit for the seller).

Picture is not unrelated.

In the Wall Street Journal article, Bennie Walker, Professor of Finance and Real Estate at Longwood University, points out “the more experience you have, the more likely you are to sell the properties that you list, the more likely you are to sell it at a higher price and the less time it stays on the market.”  

Experienced agents have greater knowledge of neighborhoods, a larger network of buyers and sellers, and well developed relationships with home inspectors, appraisers and mortgage brokers. These connections can also really make a difference, and should be considered when you are deciding on who will represent your interests when it comes time to sell.