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Here is the only tip I can give and it comes from personal experience. When you finally do put your home on the market and you start getting offers don't be surprised that the offers are below what you think your home is worth.
I turned down offers because I thought I knew more than the Realtors.
Well one year later I finally sold for 100K less than I was offered the year before.
Shows how smart I was.
Listen to the Realtors they know more about the market than you ever will.
Live in Southern Illinois where real estate is cheap.
Wanting to move to CO in June at the latest
Colorado is not cheap. Median/Mean is $350+K.
Very strong sellers' market. My daughter's house went on the MLS this morning. 15 showings and 2 offers. 2-5% over asking.
I know Colorado isn't cheap. We aren't looking to buy anything out there for awhile...maybe like 5 years out. I've been researching CO since 2014...it went from us being able to rent in the Denver area to not even being close to affordable for us. I moved my research to Colorado Springs, which for the moment is still doable, and we will be a 60K - 70K minimum household income.
I wish I could sell only after a day on the market! Unfortunately Southern Illinois is not a happening place...or Illinois in general.
Thanks for all the advice! I was going to provide pics of the outside but can't figure it out. Lol we've powerwashed and it looks better but not good. It's pretty rough looking. My husband doesn't like working on our house when he's worked on houses all day...but we'll get it there. There are some relatively inexpensive things we can do that will help, but I guess I'll get the ball rolling and start interviewing realtors.
Interviewing realtors is a great place to start. Not only will you likely get some good advice while you select the one that you think will do the best job of selling your home, you will be alerting a number of agents and agencies that your home will be coming on the market.
Would also recommend that you and the kids start working on serious decluttering right away. It will be easier to finish the reno projects without all the stuff in the way.
Thanks for all the advice! I was going to provide pics of the outside but can't figure it out. Lol we've powerwashed and it looks better but not good. It's pretty rough looking. My husband doesn't like working on our house when he's worked on houses all day...but we'll get it there. There are some relatively inexpensive things we can do that will help, but I guess I'll get the ball rolling and start interviewing realtors.
Your agent will give you suggestions on what to do to the house, too.
Had a realtor come out today. Not hiring this one! She did not sell herself at all when I told her we were going to interview at least one more realtor. And...she did a comparable market analysis on active listings....now from everything I know, a market analysis is done with recently sold homes. She got kinda snooty when I asked if we should have an appraisal done and said that her CMA was basically an appraisal. I call BS! I think we are going to pay for an appraisal after we get the house "pretty" and go from there.
Had a realtor come out today. Not hiring this one! She did not sell herself at all when I told her we were going to interview at least one more realtor. And...she did a comparable market analysis on active listings....now from everything I know, a market analysis is done with recently sold homes. She got kinda snooty when I asked if we should have an appraisal done and said that her CMA was basically an appraisal. I call BS! I think we are going to pay for an appraisal after we get the house "pretty" and go from there.
I can't see any downside to an appraisal other than we might not get the number we want. But at least we know what we can sell it for and what a bank would approve a mortgage for, for the buyers.
Appraisals for the same house can be for different prices, depending on what comps the appraiser uses.
The mortgage company always uses their own appraiser. But don't know if a lower, obtained-by-seller appraisal will make any difference.
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