OK first things first, what is your motivation for selling your home? This is a very important question that will determine the direction of the all the decisions made from this point on. Are you being transferred by your work? Do you want to move up in the size of your home or, would you like to downsize your home? Are you know an Empty Nestor? Can you not handle the payments on your home because of an economic situation at home or work? As you will notice after this question, it will become apparent as to why this question is so important.
Now for discussion sake we are going to assume that you have to sell your home because of a work transfer.
Now you can opt to go the rest of the way alone and try the For Sale By Owner route, but beware of alot of pitfalls out there. I am not going to sit here and tell you that you cannot either there are flat fee brokerages out there that will put your home in the MLS service (that you have to do as a minimum you will see why later). They may even give you a sign to put out. If you decide to go that route to "save money" then just be aware that you need to go ahead and decide how much you are going to pay the buyers agent that comes up if his clients want to see your home. One small note on that as a buyers agent I look forward to dealing with FSBO's I have over twenty years of experience in negotiating international and domestic contracts for millions of dollars. So yes I will sit down face to face with you and negotiate.
On the other hand you need to choose a good Realtor to sell your home. This means interviewing several. We are applying for the position of handling one of your families largest investments. Do you want to trust that to your spouse's best friends sister? You need to ask some pointed questions during the interview also. For example; what is your marketing plan for my home?, how will you find a buyer for my home?, how are you going to communicate with me and how often?, are you going to have open houses? where are you going to advertise my home on the Internet? what are your average days on market for the homes you sell?
Believe me it is a tough decision. I will give you an example. I create an individual marketing plan for every home that I sell. That plan specifically targets the market for the buyers that are going to be looking for that type, size, and price home. I put your home on over 25 websites. My national company will put it on approximately twelve depending on the home. I in turn will create websites and push it up to another twelve to fifteen sites depending on the home and the buyers I am looking for. They maybe from the local area they maybe international depending on the home. I will communicate with you however you prefer on a weekly basis. I can email you a progress report, call and update you personally, or simply mail you a progress report to let you know how many times you home has been viewed on the Internet, how many agents have viewed it, how many buyers have marked it as a favorite, I will tell you how often it has been shown and give you the comments from the buyers agent and the buyer. My average days on market this year is right now well under 60 days.
Now that you have chosen an agent in Greensboro, NC to sell your home we need to get it ready to sell.
First of all declutter. You may not notice it because you live in your home but, your agent should let you know some tips to getting ready for buyers. You will need to maybe remove some furniture if the room is too full. You want the buyer to feel like the rooms are as large as possible. You may need to take some pictures down off the walls and shelves. Same reason while your family is precious to you (as mine is to me) the new buyers need to see wall space so they can envision their pictures and belongings in the home. I would tell you that if you have alot of knick knacks or a wonderful collection of items you might want go ahead and pack them up. You do not want someone accidentally knocking one off a table or shelf and breaking something that your great grandmother passed down to you, or something that your baby boy made in his first grade. Then just keep it clean we are making a showcase here to really show off your home. Maybe a steam cleaning of the carpet and furniture is in order. We want a very clean home for them to see. If you have pets we are going to need to prearrange for them to be put up when there are showings schedule. Not that your pets would ever harm anyone but, think maybe your prospective buyers are allergic or they have had a bad experience in their past and they would fear your pet. Now the outside. We need a wonderful inviting entrance to their new home. Keep the yard mowed and immaculate. Maybe put out some fresh flowers depending on the season. The first impression sometimes can make or break a sale. I have had buyers pull up to the home and not even get out of the car.
Now that your home is ready have you agent get the pictures of it for the listing. I use only a professional photographer for my homes. Frank is the best I feel and he can make your home look wonderful! The idea behind this is not to be deceptive. My job is to get them in the door. Now with well over 80% of all buyers beginning their home search on the Internet those pictures are going to bring them to your doorstep.
Now in Greensboro, NC to sell a home your agent needs to put it in the Triad area MLS system. This will in turn make your home available on Listingbook.com. This is a website we use here in the Triad that links directly to the MLS. So that every buyer looking on that website can see every single home in the MLS service. Do you remember me saying that it was important if you were a FSBO to get into the MLS? Now you know why.
Now just let me do my job and sell your home. Hopefully you will be staying in wonderful Greensboro, NC but, even if you are moving to another part of the Triad say High Point or Winston Salem, NC then you will still be in the Heart of North Carolina.
