I'm ready to sell - what do I do first? (agents, room)
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I'd interview agents right away. Why? You don't mention whether or not you have to sell or want to sell and you might find that you can't afford to sell at this time. A good agent will tell you the truth and not what you want to hear.
I'd interview agents right away. Why? You don't mention whether or not you have to sell or want to sell and you might find that you can't afford to sell at this time. A good agent will tell you the truth and not what you want to hear.
For what it's worth, I've lived here for 15 years. I like my house, I like the area, and the mortgage is very affordable - as long as I keep working. But I want to retire, and I can afford to do it only if I get a part time job, which I don't really want to do, and which may be difficult in this economy, or I sell my house, and take the equity and buy in an area where real estate is more affordable. So the balancing act means that even though it's not an ideal time to sell, it is an ideal time to buy. If I get lucky and can sell my house, then I can take advantage of the buyer's market. By the way, I'm currently in the Baltimore area and I'm hoping to relocate to Florida.
For what it's worth, I've lived here for 15 years. I like my house, I like the area, and the mortgage is very affordable - as long as I keep working. But I want to retire, and I can afford to do it only if I get a part time job, which I don't really want to do, and which may be difficult in this economy, or I sell my house, and take the equity and buy in an area where real estate is more affordable. So the balancing act means that even though it's not an ideal time to sell, it is an ideal time to buy. If I get lucky and can sell my house, then I can take advantage of the buyer's market. By the way, I'm currently in the Baltimore area and I'm hoping to relocate to Florida.
I sold my towhouse almost a year ago. I became addicted to these boards as well as watching HGTV shows such as Get It Sold and Designed to Sell. What I learned is that decluttering is THE MOST important thing. Get rid of clutter (or at least put in storage), clear all surfaces, remove pictures from the refrigerator (and things like that). Do not waste money but invest wisely on some small fixes. Change knobs on cabinets to update the look of the kitchen. Update the dining room fixture if you have an outdated one. Clear out the closets so they look bigger. These small things really help.
Take care of the minor repairs which, hopefully, are not to costly to you but would make a big difference in a buyer's interest. If you're going to invest on a bigger scale I would do so in the kitchen or bathroom. Those are the places you get the best return on your investment.
Next you need to decide whether you want to take on selling by owner or hiring a realtor. If your time is limited or if you are concerned about the current real estate market you should consider an experienced realtor.
As for a realtor, I suggest that you interview at least 3. Ask what makes him/her different. Keep in mind that the listing agent is usually not the one who will be bringing in the buyers. The listing agent should be one who has a strong marketing plan. Ask which websites on which your listing will be posted. Ask how many pictures will they post. Find out if they will post a video as well? Will your house be "featured" on realtor.com? Will they have a professional photographer / videographer taking the pics and video? They should.
Don't get locked into a contract longer than 6 months. When it comes to determining the commission percentage don't believe that you're more likely to get a faster sale or more traffic if you offer a higher commission. Find out the standard for your particular area at this particular time (usually 5% which is 2.5% for listing agent and 2.5% buyer's agent).
Make sure you price your house right. I have learned that this is the single most effective way of selling your house. Check out the competition. Go to some open houses in the area and see how those houses compare with yours. Don't let emotions get in the way of your price. If you're not getting traffic it could mean you priced too high. Stay away from small price decreases... they make you look desperate and they often don't make a difference to buyers. One 10K price decrease is more effective than 3 smaller decreases.
Stay in touch regularly with your realtor. You don't have to call daily but at least a once per week for an update I think is a good idea.
Track progress. Keep count of how many visits your house receives and make sure you get feedback from the realtor so you can make adjustments if necessary. Keep all business cards of realtors who have visited with or without buyers.
When you get an offer, remember that your first offer is usually your best and that many have turned away buyers only to find themselves waiting and waiting for another (at least in this market in most areas.... yours might be different). Depending upon your situation certainly consider a counter-offer if it's significantly lower than your asking price.
Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed. Just stay focused and know that your house will sell. They all do. Good luck!
Ask friends, neighbors, co-workers..the lady who sells you coffee if you need to! Get a good agent and they will help make the process no so overwhelming for you, and will help you save money on fix-ups not necessary.
A good real estate agent will be able to offer you excellent advice in the time leading up to listing your house. Agents get really frustrated when a seller calls them after making all their "updates" to their home and it turns out that the updates they made and the money they spent in no way increased the value or marketability of the house (this happens way more often than you'd ever want to know). A good agent will be able to guide you to make the best choices and the most judicious use of your "update" funds (as well as your own time and energy), and she or he will probably also be able to help provide referrals for vendors -- handimen, painters, stagers, etc.
When you are interviewing agents, please, please, please make sure that you ask them up front, "How exactly will you be marketing my home and what is your timeline for implementing your marketing plan." You may even want to add this information as an addendum to your listing agreement so that if s/he fails to meet the marketing obligations s/he has promised that you will be able to fire her/him.
Marketing your listing is critical at this point and, at least in my part of the country, it's vital that you have your marketing strategy in place the day the listing hits the market (which means the day it gets entered into the local multiple listing service). Most MLSs have syndication agreements for their data -- it goes out to Realtor.com, agent web sites, and other internet portals, within hours of being entered. If it goes out without high quality photos, you lose a huge proportion of the potential audience that you have for your listing and will never get that back. So make sure you fully understand exactly what your agent will do to advertise your home and when s/he will do it. Also, take a look at the photos BEFORE they go into the computer and make sure you think they adequately represent your house.
At a minimum, I suggest you make sure your agent should have multiple high quality photos in the listing service the day the house hits the market. Personally, I consider showcase listings on realtor.com to be essential, but not every agent pays the annual fee to get these listings (they are the ones with up to 25 photos, extra text description, and a link to a virtual tour [assuming the agent has had a virtual tour created]). Find out whether or not your agent has showcase listings on realtor.com. Then find out what other types of marketing will be done.
Lots of good advice! If you have been in the same home for 15 years I can bet that there is quite literally a TRUCK LOAD of stuff that you do not really need to have around. Go to a store that sells moving boxes (like a Uhaul outlet or OfficeMax) and buy about 4-5 dozens boxes. Fill them. Then call one of those "pod" companies to drop off a unit for you to fill-up. You will easily fill that. You can put all the little treasures from nieces, nephews, grandkids, office parties, linen stores in there.
Really as a former active real estate agent it is SO MUCH easier if you empty out before you even call that I can whole heartedly say that if you KNOW you are going to move just start emptying out the place. (Even if you are on the fence about moving at least put a few dozen boxes into a guest closet.) Any time I walked into a home and the kitchen counter was down to JUST a toaster / coffe maker, the bathroom looked like NO ONE lived there, and the bedroom looked a LUXURY HOTEL ROOM that had just been sanitized I would mentally say "this is a SERIOUS seller". Very different vibe when the place looked like it would take MONTHS to get ready for "Open House"...
Of course you don't want to go to such extremes that you make yourself miserable looking for a toothbrush or something, but you sound pretty level headed: While you COULD live in your current place in Baltimore, you are almost certainly correct that if you get out all your equity that you've built up since 1993 (!) you could have a much more carefree retirement.
You CAN do some casual checking into other "competition" at open houses in your neighborhood -- not a bad way to meet at least some of the other real estate agents that have active listing, objectively assess how you place looks in comparison to others, judge what listing prices are, and other stuff that will help you to ask intelligent questions of potential listing agents.
If you have NEVER spent money on new carpets or other stuff that wears out you ought to budget for such things, but I would NOT spend the money on that sort of thing until / unless I was 100% sure that nothing else would come up to kill a deal. A "prelisting home inspection" is something that would make a lot of sense in your situation. You may be almost immune to a gargage door that is hard to open, a furnace that is well past state of the art, electrical outlets that would scare off a young couple with a new baby, etc. . Once you have decided on a listing agent, you and they can review the inspection report and decide where to spend some "fix up" money and what is better to just leave as a point of negotiation / buyers allowance.
The TV shows are sort of blessing and a curse -- they DO offer creative money saving tips for making a property look fresher /more up-to-date, but the labor they get is FREE and end results are done in 27 minutes -- real life it can take MONTHS to overhaul even a simple kitchen / bath, and it is easy to spend WAY MORE than you can realistically get out.
Right now there are just TOO MANY houses on the market. I have seen places that make me want to RUN OUT crying for the filth and such, and a few doors down a buyer "gets it" when it comes to CONDITION, but their price is just far too high for it to make buyers comfortable. As it sounds like you are clearly in NO RUSH to get listed /sold, it makes an awful lot of sense to do your CLEAN UP, interview your real estate agents, pick one to go with, and even sign an agreement, but as other have suggested, hold off on the "full court marketing effort". IF (when?) there is some action from the new administration to PUMP UP real estate sales you and your chosen agent should be ready to SPRING INTO ACTION with the kind of plan that will impress buyers that your property is PRICED RIGHT and MOVE IN READY. Even with the gloom hanging over real estate, that should put you in great condition to find BUYERS that want to pay a large percentage of your asking price / bid up the place against others. With the right set of factors in your corner that CAN happen and WILL put more money in your pocket toward a comfortable / secure retirement.
Good Luck!
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