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f you are looking to sell your home you want to know the secret to success. The truth is, there is no secret. There’s no secret formula, no special sauce, and no magic wand that will help you sell fast and for top dollar. Selling a home, or any product for that matter, comes down to three things: product, price, and exposure. These are the three keys to success. If you take away any one element, you will drastically reduce your chances of a sold sign on your lawn.
Product
No one expects a house to be perfect. That being said, you really want to put your best foot forward as you only get one shot at a first impression. Make yourself a list. If something is worth fixing, fix it. If something is not worth fixing but needs addressing, you can adjust it in the price and make sure the buyer is aware. People appreciate honesty. Another big part of having your home show ready is staging. Staging can be as simple as deep cleaning the entire house, decluttering each room, removing any personal items like photos and paying attention to curb appeal.
Price
You will usually have a number in your mind of what you think your property is worth. To truly determine market value, a professional appraisal is always a smart idea – afterall, knowledge is power in the selling process. There are also a couple of things you can do yourself to initially help to narrow down a price range. There are four things that are important to homeowners when buying a home; location, age, size and special features. If you can rate your home from 1-10 on each item you will get a maximum score of 40. That score will allow you to more easily compare homes listed in your area against the same system. In Ontario, homeowners also have access to SOLD data in their area through www.aboutmyproperty.ca. Understanding your bottom line is also very important. That way, you can account for such things like buffer room for negotiation, a buyer’s agent, or if you need to adjust your pricing along the way.
Exposure
Just like the fundamentals of basketball have always been the same, the fundamentals of marketing a property still hold true today. It was the alley-oop (an assisted slam dunk) that really changed the game forever. The game changer, or the “alley-oop” of real estate, is the Internet. Long gone are the days of going into a real estate office and searching through a big book of homes for sale. With unprecedented access to data right at their fingertips, people are now starting their new home search online. There are still a large percentage of buyers that drive or walk around their desired neighbourhoods and look for signage. Bottom line – to sell your house in 2015, at the very least, you need an eye-catching sign on your lawn that connects a buyer to more information online.
Whether you choose to sell your home alone, use a traditional agent, or decide to sell with the assistance of a high tech, high touch, company like PropertyGuys.com, these three marketing fundamentals working together in harmony will greatly increase your ability to sell in any market.
