Interested!

I didn’t sell one but until recently was house hunting, will resume after the first of the year. My advice, as always for sellers: Decluttering, depersonalize, clean , clean, clean & price your house realistically!

Find an experienced realtor with an excellent reputation; the realtor who sold me my previous home in SoCal was the same one I had sell it over the summer 2017 - she knows how to price the homes she sells and has all the possible contacts a seller or buyer could need, from handymen to inspectors to cleaners and more. If the realtor tells you to get a few things fixed before listing, do it! They will have contacts to help with that, all you need to do is ask them!

If you plan to live in the home while it’s on the market you can still have it staged - don’t let the stager bully you into putting all your furniture into storage if you would rather incorporate some of your own for staging, I wish I hadn’t let the stager do that but live and learn.

Selling a house is going to be a bit inconvenient, people will schedule a showing and flake, sometimes more than once, and you shouldn’t hang around when your house is being shown (take any pets with you and do your best to hide any sign of pets living there) - it’s hard to watch people going around the house talking about what they like and don’t like and it can impede your ability to stop seeing the place as yours and being okay with letting it go. Turn on all the lights and open all the blinds/shades/shutters/curtains - I hated having to do this but people want to see a bright and open view of a house so it had to be done. If you sell during hotter months of the year, run your a/c at a lower temperature, nobody wants to be sweaty because you’re too cheap to run yours and if you’re hoping to hide the fact that your a/c unit isn’t working or has problems - get it fixed or have your realtor adjust the home price downward to compensate a buyer who will have to deal with it once they take posession.

Over my lifetime my parents sold many homes with my mom always selling the homes on her own. For her it was a natural, she was already in sales and who knows your home better than you do?

But that wasn't the point I really wanted to make. Up until this house a couple years ago, we've always bought new. When we were looking for this house, we were both totally shocked that the seller had the house shown by a realtor with beautiful ceiling fans and an unusual shower head. Instead of leaving these items the seller took them with her at the last moment! If you are selling your house most states require you to disclose this and any realtor will tell you that too.

Also, I agree take your pets out of the house. If there is a showing and you come home early with Fluffy or Fifi, don't ruin a possible sale by rushing the people out of your house! Go get a coke, coffee, etc. or take a walk!

By the way, we will be selling two houses in 2018!

Spend the money to take care of anything that will come up in the inspection. Paint so everything feels fresh. Clean, or hire this out. Temporarily rent storage if you can’t part with clutter but get it out of there. I took pictures of every room and reviewed the look of each because your eyes gloss over imperfections in real life but they are obvious in pictures.

Listed my house on a Monday, got a full price cash offer on Tuesday with no contingencies. Closed the next Monday. Was told that I was listing a little high, but I had many upgrades not seen in comps. Real Estate is booming here in N. Texas, wish I'd listed maybe a little higher... Sold to get out of a declining neighborhood, but now in a rental and afraid I won't be able to afford what I want with the prices going up...

We almost instantly sold an incredibly comfortable and beautiful but very unconventional house priced high for the area to cash buyer for immediate closing. We changed 1980's pink tub, toilet and sink in the master bath to white based on realtor's advice; repaired cracked Saltillo tile floor sections, cleaned grout and re-sealed entire floor (big $$$$); painted pinky beige walls cream; addressed all inspection issues; had house professionally staged and had realtor recommended professional do a video. First thing buyers did was carpet over the tile floor. (It is possible they actually ripped it out...) So hire a realtor who has a vision and plan for reaching the likely market for the house and think hard about ways to ignore or spend less $$$ on big ticket items. We might have been able to do less work on the floors and instead offered an allowance if buyer wanted them to be like new. We did the work even before hiring a realtor because we saw floors as a major design feature and big selling point. Clearly buyers did not agree!! Money spent on staging was worth every penny. Although sparse, not to our taste and not practical for our daily lives, the stager made the house look amazing. Top quality video was a big help too. In addition to actual buyer it interested a number of folks from out of state who would have come to look if house hadn't sold.

We sold a home 4 years ago. We didn't have to declutter since we were already in our new home. The realtor advised us to just ensure everything was clean. He said none of the updates we had in mind were necessary. We were very pleased with his advice since the house sold quickly for well over the asking price. We had a big bidding war going. Best lesson we learned was...depending on the market you're in...decluttering and cleaning are enough.

As a seller, look at your home as if you were a buyer, starting right at the curb. As a buyer what would you change? As the seller does it make sense to make the changes or does your price reflect these short comings? Remove yourself emotionally from your house and look at it as a business transaction.

Put away the pet bowls and don't fill the rooms with air fresheners. As a buyer, I would be less interested in your house as I would wonder what you are trying to mask and would wonder what your pets have done to the floors and walls..

And don't rely totally on your Realtor, no matter how good you think they are. Do your own research if you aren't quite comfortable with what the Realtor tells you. As a seller, I accepted an offer today and if I had listened to my Realtor I would have left quite a bit of money on the table. And she is the top producer in my area!

I sold three houses in 2016 - OUCH the taxes! Two houses belonged to my mother, who had passed away. They were relatively easy because they were waterfront and were snatched up pretty quickly. They were shown and sold completely empty; I did not paint or repair a thing. My mom's house was never even listed. The realtor threw some photos up on Facebook and someone snatched it up right then and there, for my asking price. The other was listed for a few months because it was smaller, and I did have to reduce the price once.

The third house was a little different, though it was empty. It was the house I was living in and was in the mountains. The glitch was that the realtor listed something on the house that was not there (and I missed it) - and the buyer wanted it! I ended up having to concede $500, but all things considered, it was a great sale - the house was only listed two weeks. Lesson learned: pay attention to the listing and correct any errors before they become a problem!

I will be selling my current house this spring so that my DH and I can move into our aging-in-place home. For the first time, we will be living in our house as it is listed. Ack! I hope we can keep the clutter to a minimum!

In a seller's market, don't be afraid to list your home 20% higher than your comps show, and don't be quick to make concessions for a buyer after an inspection because you're afraid you'll lose the sale. Again, this applies in a seller's market and especially if your home has something the comps don't, like a view! Lesson learned, we sold our previous home in a down market, buyer's market, it was terrible, sat for two years on it and sold near bottom. Then moved into our investment property to resell in two years and the market was UP! Much more than we realized, and our realtor let us be hesitant to pricing the home too high, Well, we got our first offer in 12 hours after listing it, in fact, I'll never forget the image of our realtor pounding in the real estate sign as we drove by her up the driveway to meet with her (to go over the offer). These buyer's came back with their inspection and wanted $5000 off to replace the aluminum wiring in the home! We conceded just because we weren't at any time soon ever going to replace the wiring that was original to the home, though everything was working fine. Ends up the buyer was a Fire Chief! :( So, felt like they got the edge on the price on a great location and a discount because they knew where to look.

Every single sale is different -- some unexpected crisis, whether financial or timing or competitive bids or nervous buyers... You can't let it get to you too much. Do your homework in advance, and then have faith in your listing.

It wasn't faith in the listing we had a problem with in our sale, it was faith in the realtor-not!

Have a good realtor! Ours knew what she was doing. She told us exactly what we needed to do to list our house and get top dollar. She had resources when we had things we needed to get down quickly. she compared comps in our neighborhood before we listed, and when two other similar houses went on the market days before ours she listed at ours at the right price, we had a full price offer the first day on the market. She then held our hand as the process went on.

Do not let memories, or ego, get in your way. Not everyone will appreciate your favorite feature. Set a fair price, based on the comps and condition of your house. We toured a home that was asking more than the comps. The bathrooms had wall to wall carpeting. The seller loved it, and refused to remove it. His realtor said lots of interest, but no one wanted to deal with his choices at that price.

I completely agree with the comments above...

Clean, Clean, Clean your home and keep it clean

No clutter or strong odors including plug ins

Take your furry family members out with you for the duration of the showing and have a plan if your home is on lockbox and will be shown while you're away

Curb appeal is a must to ensure they are eager to see more

Price realistically with all of the above and it will sell quickly

We sold a townhome 4 years ago and spent $4K for drywall repairs/painting to make everything look fresh and new. We made $100K on the deal but probably didnt need to spend any $$ as the home had tons of interest locally but ended up selling sight unseen to an out of town buyer who was transferring for work purposes. Of course, we could not have know that was going to happen. We had the pictures taken of the home furnished before we moved out and we did de-clutter. The pics were professionally done, not sure if that is somethong all realtors automatically do? They really made a difference with al the wide angle shots and high def colors. The realtor also had a beautiful virtual tour made and I still have it to this day. When we finally listed the home we were already living somewhere else so the house was empty. But I garuantee that video really helped people see what the house could look like and that was all on the realtor's dime. I didnt have to spend $ staging. We also priced to sell although realistically we probably could have gotten $5K more.

My next door neighbor's house took 2.5 years to sell because she was stubborn and wouldn't budge on the price. She bought high then the market crashed and she wanted to get all her $$ back. I guess after 2.5 years of waiting and then seeing our house sell in less than 3 weeks finally triggered a budge; she ended up selling for $15K less. Be realistic when pricing; she probably ended up spending more $$ paying an extra 2 years worth of morgage AND taking $15K less when if she had just been realistic from the get go she would have been in a much better position. And she wasn't desperate, as some readers might think, since many were after the crash. Just stubborn.

Even though I am not in the market I look at listings everyday. When I see pictures of the inside of houses that are blurry or the house looks as if it was hit by a hurricane I wonder what the heck are these people thinking! Maybe they aren't looking for top dollar???

We sold our home in 1 week in April, I started decluttering the December before,. I would suggest that you hire a building inspector before you start changing what you think needs to be changed. If we had hired the inspector prior to listing we would have saved a few weeks on the closing and we wouldn’t have changed a few cosmetic items that my husband wanted to change.

We will always hire the building inspector now before selling.

Consult a stager. Get an amazing realtor. Jump at a hot market.

First and foremost do you really want to sell? Why are you moving? New job, downsize, upsizing, divorce, inheritance relocation?.. Are you a 100% onboard with selling your home? If you are ready, tell yourself this is not your home anymore and now you are going to have it ready for the new owners.

Try to be objective about your home's worth. Some realtors will tell you anything to buy a listing. The unethical realtor is more interested in getting your listing because they get free advertisement with a sign on your lawn or a listing through their brokerage. The homeowner becomes frustrated that their home is not getting showings and is ignored and sitting on the market for 18 months. Instead get three or even 5 different relators to come and price your home and discuss what they would list it for. And then be realistic about what is really selling in your town.

What is the supply and demand in your city, town or state? In NYC upper westside homes rarely sit on the market. The right house near the right highway in San Diego usually disappear faster than they are listed. However a home in Hattisburg Mississippi might sit a little longer than a brownstone in Hyde Park Boston. The last thing you want is a house that has been overpriced in an unbalanced market. If there are too many houses at 550,000 selling yours at 595 because you think the cabinets are nicer or the floors are prettier is not going to help you. You need to undercut the competition and make your buyers think they are getting a deal. Find out how many houses are listed at the price you want to sell yours and be honest. Do you want to sell it or be greedy? If money is what you want than be realistic about what you want and know it may take years to sell your house for the amount you want. This is okay just know it takes a lot of work and time.

The favorite rule my father always said, if a house doesn't sell in 90 day's its overpriced. If a client is serious about selling they need to be serious about the price of their home and ready to accept an offer. Better to let the client know up front what the house is worth than have a house sit on the market ignored. I have seen clients go with another firm only to run back to my dad's office begging him to sell their property for the real market value of their house.

• Today homes sell via internet before they are even walked into. People have already made a choice about your home because they saw it on Zillow, Realtor or google... You or your realtor need to hire the best photographer in the industry. Selling it yourself? Hire a house photographer. They can add so much light and clarity to make a house look fantastic, more spacious and clean. Stagers? Sure but sometimes just meeting with a bunch of objective friends can help. Tell them to be candid to you. Go to open house and walk around listening to what other shoppers are saying. If you hear people complain about wallpaper, ugly floors, soffit in the kitchen... be realistic about what you need to price your home so those flaws are ignored because then they can see value in your home and want to have it.
• Why is your house special? Why should someone pay $____ for your home? Put this information everywhere. Do you have great schools? Lovely back yard? List every amazing thing you can about your town, neighborhood, street then house and all those wonderful details about your home. Do this on the internet, facebook. Instagram, and design your own free web site with WIX.

Another great rule that my husband has heard me repeat. The first offer is almost always the best offer. Don't turn it away or make someone mad. Work with them. Because if you have your house priced right, and priced based on supply and demand, that first offer could be the best offer you get.

When you do decide on a realtor tell them you won't pay anything more than 4 % . You will let them list your house. Remember they are working for you! Tell them you are serious about selling which means you are going to be serious about the price. Ask what would it sell in 10 days? 30 days? 90 days? If they complain they can't do it for that price in that amount of time walk away! A good realtor would rather sell your house for a lower commission than wait around another 12 months for a potential listing. A good realtor will not even blink when you say 4% and if they are from an ethical brokerage firm they will accept this. A good realtor will be honest about the price of your home and work hard to get it seen by other firms and people. They are there to show your home and tell everyone how great it is.

A few extras that I think are important... Be sure the contract states you get to approve the photos and all listing information before it goes public. The last thing you want are blurry ugly photos of your home. And do not have an open house. I know, I know your realtor is going to tell you to have one. Now what she/he isn't telling you is that the open house is sometimes a great way for them to drum up clients. And find how many houses they have sold during an open house. Trust me it is not a high number. Open houses are often used for a realtor to give you feed back on your house. So if they didn't price your home correctly to start they will try to tell you that buyers are saying they don't like the chandy in the dinning room or the large basket ball hoop in the driveway,.. They should have told you this the day you hired them. Sometimes the realtor will try to tell you to lower the price because buyers are saying they think it is worth X. Again if a realtor is good they will have an accurate list price.

Lastly take a deep breath. Selling is hard work and when it is all done you will be so proud of yourself!

I've sold several homes over the years and have learned not to be surprised by what buyers ask. Like the time a buyer wanted a huge discount because the house had (well maintained ) cedar siding and they preferred vinyl. Keep your emotions out of the negotiations. People have their own tastes, for which there may not be any accounting.

Give yourself enough time to completely clean and de-clutter the home. Clean off your counters. Tend to the front yard to improve "curb appeal". Buy a new welcome mat. Remove personal items and as many clothing items, shoes and 'stuff" from the closets. If you need to get a storage unit, do so. Remove family pictures and religious items from walls and furniture. Wash windows, inside and out. Make the house sparkle. Repair anything that doesn't work (faucets, appliances, fans, lights) Replace burned out light bulbs. If something is torn, worn, threadbare, frayed, scratched or broken - remove it from the home. Remove all traces of any kind of pet. Vacuum rugs before every showing. Clean shower enclosures and tubs. Play soft music throughout the home when it is scheduled to be shown. If you have a pool, spa or waterfall - run them so the buyer can see them working and picture themselves relaxing poolside. Turn ceiling fans on low speed, put out your best towels and arrange them in the bathrooms. Go to several model homes (if possible) and mimic their types of décor - even though you may not ever want the style in your own home. Touch up any areas that may need re-painting and shampoo carpeting if needed. Hire a reputable Realtor who uses the best photographer. People are previewing homes online nowadays. If the pictures are terrible they will move onto the next listing. Prior to the showing turn on every light in the home and raise the blinds/open the shutters. Let as much light in as possible. Price realistically and be patient. The right buyer will come along.

We had purchased some land and were planning a new build but we needed to sell our current home before construction could begin. We moved into a rental immediately before putting the house on the market. We left some furniture and decor there for staging. I just couldn’t live with all of the showings and having to leave the premises each time (sometimes several times daily). It was just too much of a hassle and way too much pressure. Thankfully we had multiple offers and closed in a few weeks.

So, yes to keeping things decluttered and immaculately clean, but if at all possible, move out. I realize this is not at all feasible for many due to financial constraints and I would never have moved first if the market wasn’t strong, but I knew the house would not last long after listing and felt comfortable with moving out before selling. It was the perfect choice for us.

Not to start anything here, but we just sold our house in Orlando on 1/2/18 ourselves, no realtor. We had no trouble, saved a lot of money, and could talk directly with buyers so there was no middle man. Used local closing company for all paperwork. We spent around $600 in total to sell house. And we sold for a fair price in a good timeframe. The worst part was the many many calls I received from realtors trying to get us to list with them. It was kinda relentless. So, we had a good experience and wouldn’t use a realtor to sell again. Just my experience and not a commentary on the real estate professionals etc. Good luck!

my biggest lesson is that if you save monies in one area, definitely spend it in another to bring out the wow factor! Every home needs the wow factor in order to sell it quickly and at the highest price. I put my wow factor in the kitchen tile and the bathroom tile and upgraded to a marble fireplace. I saved monies in the tile in 1 bath and the carpeting in bedrooms, and refinishing the doors. both bath and bedrooms still look beautiful.

Paint!! Number 1 !! Gray is current and cheaply updates any house. Stay away from strong colors as many people can’t see past them. If you reno, spend money on things that are obvious. Stone or granite counters are great but things like cabinet organizers are usually not discovered until the buyers have already made up their mind about your house. Upgrades like hardwood and new bathrooms are much more obvious than a expensive sound system and also have broader appeal.

The best advice I can share, after selling two houses in 5 years: don't let buyers play the game of making an offer based on a home inspection. YOU get the home inspection, fix the major issues and have the inspection and receipts for repairs available for serious buyers. This way you can prove the house has no structural or serious defects. Point out the minor issues that you didn't get fixed and let them know the house is priced with those issues considered. This avoids the negotiation ploy of a buyer making an offer contingent upon a home inspection, then after finding a bunch of insignificant flaws (and remember: your house is off the market for a few weeks during this process) they renegotiate (based on their home inspection) and slash their offer by tens of thousands of dollar because minor cosmetic problems that they'd never fix anyway (a hairline crack in a ceramic tile, or a closet door with a tiny nick). This is the most infuriating games buyers play, and one that can cost the seller time and money. Get your home inspected by a reputable company and let buyers know that the house has been priced accordingly.

If your market is “hot” , as my area is, sell your house “as is”. That’s what most sellers in my area are doing. This only works in a sellers market obviously. And don’t waste your money on expensive upgrades to sell, unless you have a crystal ball that tells you what buyers want.

PODS! We sold a house while our kids were 3 and and less than a year old, and renting a mobile storage solution let us pack (and unpack) stuff at a pace that worked for us. It also meant we could easily retrieve stuff from storage easily if we found we'd packed something that my toddler thought was critical to her happiness!

The second big thing was to provide a write up of our house, with pictures. Our house had features that weren't common in our market -- solar panels, rubber mulch that would last a decade, top of the line hardwood floor finishes, etc -- and we realized agents showing the home wouldn't be able to explain them the way we could. Unfortunately, we only realized this after the house had been on the market a few weeks and had one price reduction. However, after we did this write up, the very next person who saw the house put in a full-price offer and we closed quickly. I wish we'd done that from the start, and I'll definitely do it next time!

A buyer does not have to accept the seller's inspection as the inspection. And since most inspectors are not licensed, it probably is in the buyer's best interest to have their own inspector. As many times inspectors will offer "off the record" insight that would not show up in an inspection document. I've bought 8 homes in several different cities and states and I have yet to see the same document used and the level of inspection has been different in each one even though I always use a "reputable" company.

If the buyer wants this or that fixed or a concession on the price after an inspection, it doesn't mean the seller has to accept those conditions. This is still part of the negotiation stage of buying and selling a house so it shouldn't be approached as a waste of time and money as a seller. It's a business transaction so keep your personal feelings out of it.

As a seller you have to decide if there is a benefit to having your own inspection and spending the money for it. And usually the only benefit is to bring to the seller's attention to things that should be taken care of before the house is listed or listing the house at a price that takes those issues into account.

A seller's perspective on the listing negotiation process:

(1) in the listing agreement, everything is negotiable.

(1a) the agreement (contract) will have 2 commissions that you as a seller will have to pay - the listing agent's commission and the selling (buyers) agent commission. I used Redfin as my listing agent; they charge a 1% commission. There is no reason you have to bow to a realtor's "standard" commission (I get pitched 3%/3% buy/sell all the time). The internet does most of the marketing, and in a hot market, the listing agent doesn't have to work hard "selling". So, be prepared to negotiate hard on that issue. You can ask for the listing agent to pay for 30 days of staging instead of going for a commission reduction... It's up to you. All negotiable. (New disrupter in the market here in Seattle is FAIRA.com... read their terms - interesting!)

(1b) Then, in that listing agreement, you also specify what you are willing to pay the buyer's broker in commission. 3% in my market is "typical", but you can stipulate whatever you want. The risk is a low commission amount will turn off buyers agents - but these days buyers find houses, not their agent. So, for example, in my listing agreement I agreed to pay Redfin, the listing agent, 1% and the buyers broker 2-1/2%. I saved $30k in commissions from the "typical" 6% total.

(1c) Don't be talked into a long listing contract. I never go over 60 days. Whatever you do, don't let them suck you into anything longer than 90 days. If they are doing a lousy job, you are stuck. If my house hadn't sold quickly, I was going to rent it. So I limited my most recent listing agreement to 45 days. It sold right away at 10% over the list price.

(1d) The list price. There are strategies here depending on your market. I went in with a listing price 10% lower than I thought it would sell for. I had 3 offers, all over the ask, with the best offer about 11% over. That is something to go over with your agent.

(2) Move out and stage the house. If you can't move out - get rid of most of your stuff. I can't stress this enough. HIre professional stagers - either using their furniture or arranging yours.

(3) Get professional photographs. 'Nuff said.

Know your market - you don't have to be a pro but educate yourself by keeping track of sales in your area. Go to open houses, see what your competition looks like.

Get the best realtor you can find, make sure you like and trust him/her, then listen to their advice.

Do a pre-inspection and fix what needs to be fixed before the house goes on the market.

If you don't have a house keeper, this might be a good time to get one.

Don't whine, put your stuff in storage, and let a good stager do their stuff. Don't whine.

To sell fast and for top dollar, houses need to be turn key. Fix everything that is broken. Clear all of your personal crap out. Clean it well. Stage it well. And make it feel like all the buyer has to do is move in.

If you don’t have the option of living elsewhere, moving everything you plan to keep into storage of some type is going to be difficult and a stager should be willing to use some of your stuff in that situation. I don’t think it’s whining to stand your ground on that, I wish we had when we were selling back in August 2017 - we sold it quickly and over ask, but had to spend more than we wanted on PODs that luckily worked out financially in the end...which we didn’t really know would be a for sure outcome until December 2017 after we’d moved all those months ago to our new home.

Biggest lesson learned: "sex-appeal" sells! Tap into human nature of desiring things beautiful and dress up the house so that it's appealing to the prospective buyers: update to current to the tune of simplicity-is-the-ultimate-sophistication (i.e. simple, clean lines, classy), and stage it (you're selling lifestyle in this house, not an empty dwelling) but stage it with a theme which is different than fill the house with furnishing. People in general (1) don't have time for renovation (2) have limited artistic imagination, therefore an updated property that's staged to a particular theme help prospective buyers envison what it would be like to be living in this house and remove the burden of having to do reno work on their own. Such properties consistently sell faster and for more $$

Not sure I agree with turnkey ready-I guess to some buyers- to me it was a turnoff. If you had spent the money on a new kitchen/bath etc and priced it accordingly I would offer a price as if it wasn't upgraded.

The houses we looked all had updates, unfortunately I did not like any of them- not my style: ugly cabinets (I like white shaker) or granite color (uba tuba, black, gold granites, etc), or wasn't practical like marble countertops/or hardwood in in the kitchen.

So we found a house that had all the original builder grade cheap crap, offered them what is was worth and spent the money on redoing it ourselves. I would do it again the same way in a heartbeat- plus when it's freshly redone I was always suspected they were covering up something.