When you begin the process of selling your home, it’s necessary to understand the importance of marketing your home. Just like any business selling a product or service, you need to market your home as a product people want to buy. Failure to do this can elongate the amount of time your home is on the market.
The first step to properly marketing your home is to know your audience. What type of neighborhood do you live in? If it is a younger neighborhood, market to young families in coffee shops, local restaurants and popular social networking websites. If you live in an older neighborhood, you may want to continue to advertise in local newspapers and Sunday inserts. Once you correctly identify your market, it is so important to keep this message consistent throughout your home selling process. Steer your home viewings and community showings in alignment with your market. By understanding who will likely buy your home you can effectively target that specific market and sell your home faster. Marketing your home is a surefire way to sell it quickly for the price you deserve.
Location is often the most important deciding factor when a homebuyer chooses to purchase a home. Location determines how safe you feel, how convenient your tasks will be, and how quickly you can get to the places you need to. Location should be a factor, but should it be everything?
If you have school age children, location is very important. If you want your children to go to a certain school, they often have to live within the district. In this case, location is of the utmost importance. On the other hand, if you are a single person and live alone, location may be the most important factor for you because you want to come home to a neighborhood where you feel safe. To this end, location is also very important. However, if you’ve always wanted to live in a certain location, but can’t necessarily afford it, you may wish to consider adjusting your desires for a more affordable home. Simply put, location should be a deciding factor within reason. Speak with a qualified real estate agent to find the best location for you.
Raising the value of your home is important whether you intend to sell it, or will stay it in for years to come. By investing some time, and a little bit of money, you can easily appreciate the value of your home, and other homes in your neighborhood.
Maintain the lawn around your home. Dead spots and other unsightly areas in your lawn can depreciate the value substantially. Care for your lawn, mow it when needed, and plant more grass where there are dead spots. Update the lighting in your home, so that it is efficient and safe. Unsafe lighting is a sure way to depreciate the value of any home. Perhaps one of the most important ways to appreciate the value of your home is to maintain the outer paint and siding. By keeping your home’s outer appearance up to date, you are not only raising the value of your home, but other homes in the neighborhood. On the contrary, not caring for the outer areas of your home creates an eye sore that may deter potential homebuyers from your home, and surrounding homes. Take time to care for your home, and your potential buyers, and neighbors, will thank you.
As the person selling your home, you’ve got stress too! Deciding to move, and sell your home are both huge decisions to make for you and your family. It’s important to make sure you are making a good educated decision so you know what a realistic price is for your neighborhood as well as what you will make to invest in your next home. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons as a home seller to be sure you are making the best decisions possible.
Pros of selling your home are the added income from the sale, and a possible upgrade for you and your family. If you are working with a lender who has gotten you a great mortgage rate on your next home, this is also incentive for selling your current home. Cons may include the fact that you aren’t sure what you will do once you sell your home. If you’ve lived there a long time, it may be difficult to say goodbye to your home, because of all the memories you’ve made there. No matter what decision you make, sit down and seriously weigh out all your options to get rid of stress and be sure you’re making the best decision for you.
Location, location, location. This adage is especially true when purchasing your home. If you find a great house, make sure the neighborhood it’s located in is one that you can truly call home for many years. If your dream house is not located where you feel comfortable, your house will never become your home.
If you have a family, find a quiet neighborhood with lots of children for yours to play with. Usually, family neighborhoods are located by great schools, too. If you are a musician, and are often up late at night writing music and playing songs, then avoid quiet, elderly neighborhoods and find something more suitable. If you are a young couple that enjoys late nights out on the town, then a downtown condominium will surely make you happy. Lastly, if you’re new to town and don’t know many people, try to find a home near a park, or community center where you’ll likely meet young couples like yourselves. Consider your lifestyle when finding a new home, and weigh it against the type of neighborhoods you’re searching in. Find the home, and neighborhood, of your dreams.
We talk a lot about avoiding stress when you’re trying to sell your home, but what about when you’re looking for a home. Chances are, you have specific requirements and a stringent budget, and finding a home within these restraints is a definite challenge. It’s important to be open to different possibilities when you’re searching for a home.
If you have a family, and need a certain amount of bedrooms, that’s one thing. However, if you find a great home in a wonderful neighborhood, but it doesn’t have an in-ground pool, perhaps leave that dream alone and address it in a few years. It’s easy to get stressed out, and frustrated when you’ve looked at several homes, and none meet your expectations, or requirements. However, remind yourself that good things come to those who wait, and the more homes you look at, the better chance you have of finding your dream property; looking at many homes is great research and experience. Accept that finding a great home will take time, but once you move in, the rewards are priceless.
I have been in contact with several buyers over the last few weeks that have complained to me that they can’t find a house worth buying. After visiting with both couples I quickly realized that they are bargain hunting in very specific areas of town that don’t have a lot of bargains! One of the biggest misconceptions in real estate is that what you hear on the news, even local news, is how it is in every neighborhood and that is just not how real estate works; it’s neighborhood by neighborhood.
You can have a neighborhood that is loosing its value right next to one that is actually gaining in value. If you are not aware of that fact, you may thing you can waltz into the rising neighborhood and purchase a house at a bargain as if you were shopping in the adjacent neighborhood and you won’t find a house that’s worth buying at the price you are willing to pay because they aren’t there.
Believe it or not, there are neighborhoods just like that in and around the Nashville, TN area including Hendersonville, Goodlettsville and Franklin. If you are out there trying to figure it our on your own; good luck. If you are smart, you will engage a Realtor who can help you find the gems or level with you that you are looking for them in the wrong places!
Now that I have your attention, I would like you to know that you can sell your home today by following a couple of tried and true rules of real estate; price it right and show it well. By making sure you have the home priced to sell almost any house will sell quickly. If you show the home in its best light, you won’t have to under price your home to sell it either.
Most people make one, if not two, big mistakes; they put their house on the market based on what THEY THINK its worth and they show it the way THEY THINK it should be shown. Notice that I have highlighted “THEY THINK” because selling your house has nothing to do with what the seller thinks its worth or what the seller thinks it should look like. People who sell their homes quickly do so because they or their Realtor have done the research to find out what the buyers are looking for and what the market will bare in the neighborhood they live. Without this important information the sellers are shooting in the dark and if they hit something, it’s pure luck. Let’s get serious and sell your home the right way with the right information.
One of the greatest things about the internet is you have the ability to get to know your Realtor without ever picking up a phone or even leaving your home or office. You can check out what they know and how they work; testimonials on their website; how they can help buyers and sellers as well as who they refer for insurance, mortgages, home staging, cleaning, landscaping and many other services you might need.
You can also get a feel of the neighborhoods the Realtor works in to make sure they have experience in the areas you are most interested in as well as a possible Market Snapshot that can bring that neighborhood right to your email with no hassles. Just a few years ago none of this was available like it is today. I say embrace the technology and have a look around; find someone who you believe will have your best interest at heart and contact them by phone, email or through their website contact form. Realtors have put themselves out there to help educate and help you and we need to know that we are doing our jobs. We need you to participate in the real estate experience with us and we know you will be rewarded with a great experience when you do.
For people who listen to the national news only, when it comes to real estate, they are not getting the real picture in their local neighborhood good or bad. This is because there are places around the country that are really hurting so much more than others. One that immediately comes to mind is Detroit, MI. Due to unemployment and the deterioration of the auto industry over the last few years, housing prices have dropped dramatically. In comparison, the Nashville, Tennessee area is in much better shape.
However, even in the Nashville area you will need to drill down to your neighborhood. One of the best ways to do that is to sign up for the free MLS Market Place Snapshot. You will get an up to date report for houses on the market and houses sold so you can follow the trends in the neighborhoods you are interested in buying a home or in your current neighborhood so you can get a good idea of what homes are selling for. This tool is one of the best ways for you to get good solid information in the comfort of your own home. Yes it does have my information on it and that is for your convenience when you are ready to talk to me about buying or selling your next home.
