Listing Your Home? Follow These 5 “P’s” for a Successful Sale
Selling your home can seem like a daunting task, even if it seems like homes are selling themselves these days. “Do you need to remodel that bathroom, paint that bedroom, or replace that carpet?” Certainly the baseline level and quality of a home is a great starting point to a successful sale, but here are the 5 top items that I’ve found help sellers be as successful as possible in the market. I’ll describe these through the most recent sale that I’ve had with a listing in central Loveland
Pre Listing Plan:
In wildland firefighting, we used to have a saying that “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” and I’ve found that jumping into selling your home without a plan almost always turns into a exercise in putting out fires and scrambling. Just taking the time to sit down with a professional to outline what your objectives are in a sale will help you determine the best way to list and sell your home to meet your goals. You might want to sell something as fast as possible, or in other circumstances you may need to stay in the home after the sale. A knowledgable broker will be able to guide you into a plan that suits your needs both financially, and also for your lifestyle.
As I sat down with my most recent sellers at 939 Nyssa Dr in Loveland, they still had not found their replacement home. We paid attention to the time of year, and rushing into a sale right away would not only have them listing their home in the middle of the holidays, but would also put added stress in quickly getting the home ready for sale, navigating showings, and not having their replacement home identified. We determined that in their circumstances, it made sense to purchase their replacement home first, move out, and then focus on the next step in the sales process, the preparation.
2. Preparation:
After going over the high level plan on how to accomplish a specific outcome in selling a home, its time to get into the nitty gritty of getting that home ready for the market. Can you list a home with no preparation? Absolutely….but it may come at a cost down the line of minimized showings, lower offers, or other non-desirable outcomes. In general, most people don’t take care of each and every small detail in their home while they are living there leaving nicks, scratches, uncleaned appliances, etc that should all be addressed prior to being listed. At a bare minimum, preparing the home for sale usually involves a good deep cleaning and tidying up, but most homes will benefit from a little bit more.
The most frequent items that I see that can help in a sale (besides cleaning and decluttering) are paint and flooring, and of these, paint is the easiest to do for a homeowner. Sometimes this might mean really getting after it painting some bedrooms, while other times it is as simple as touching up areas of paint that have seen some wear. Fresh carpeting is also a big value add to a home, for not that much money. Not only does it give a nicer visual appeal to a property, the smell of newer carpet is similar psychologically to that of the “new car smell”. PRO TIP: If there is not a ton of carpet to replace, one trick to pay for the carpet is to get a box store credit card (these usually have a 0% interest payment) and purchase and pay for the carpeting through that credit card. You can then sell the home with new flooring, and immediately pay off the credit card bill with the proceeds.
In the instance of 939 Nyssa, we decided that while new carpeting would be ideal, we could get by with a deep clean and a carpet shampoo, as we realized that they new buyers would likely change the carpet and the demand in the market would likely look past the older carpet. The sellers also had a professional cleaner come in and clean the home after they had moved out, leaving a clean slate for the next step in the process, presentation.
3. Presentation:
939 Nyssa Dr when it last sold in 2013….no professional photography
Think of the process that you went through when you went to your high-school prom or wedding day. You probably didn’t just get your hair done, take a shower, and put on your everyday-wear clothes to head out for the big occasion? If you did, good on ya, that’s awesome, but most people would take the extra steps to rent or buy a nice outfit, be it a suit, tux, prom/wedding dress, etc. You wanted to hit the event looking as nice as possible, and its highly likely that you also were prepping for some sort of photos to be taken.
939 Nyssa Dr when listed in 2022 - Which picture are you more likely to click on?
In a similar way, it seems fool-hearty to just snap a few iphone photos of your house and put it on the market, especially if you just took the time and effort to do the steps in step 2. The best listings on the market, the get the highest terms, conditions, and price, don’t skimp on this third step. In the best case scenario, you are spending a little extra funds on staging (most 30 day staging costs are between $1500-$2500) which could pay huge dividends on the backend. At a bare minimum, at least consult with a stager as many stagers will provide a “to-do” checklist in using your own furniture, photos, etc to make your house more presentable. Once staged, professional photos are a HUGE value add, and in most scenarios, your real estate professional will pay for these as part of their process. I like to get at least 25 photos, a 3d interactive tour, and a video tour as the goal in the presentation mode is to present your home in the best possible way with the most possible visual information that can be provided to a potential buyer.
Here are a few examples of how different 939 Nyssa was presented from 2013 to 2022. You’ll notice that there was not any crazy kitchen remodel, paint changes, or fresh carpeting, but having professionals stage and photograph the home made such a huge difference on how it shows both online, and in person.
4.Pricing:
Traditional real estate wisdom would say to price higher than you want to get to allow yourself room to move down to settle at an acceptable price. Many sellers in this market assume that they can throw a high price at the wall because “Everything is selling” and “The homes are flying off of the shelf”. There may be a bit of truth to both of these comments, but they look at the tree instead of the forest itself. Ultimately, the market will dictate what a home will sell for, and by pricing too high, you run the risk of missing the market for your particular home, and all of the benefits that you can receive from multiple offers. On the flip side, if you price in the “sweet spot” for a particular home and market, you will likely receive multiple offers that will drive the price to and above market value, while also giving you favorable terms regarding inspections, and especially appraisals. PRO TIP: When reviewing over list price offers, many buyers are persuaded by the purchase price, but ignore any provisions on what would happen if the home doesn’t appraise for that amount. An savvy agent will be able to secure you not only the best price, but the best provisions on buyers bringing extra funds to the closing table to offset any differences between the appraised value and the contract price.
5. Preview:
If you’ve ever watched the discovery channel, you may have come across “Shark Week”. For the past couple of years, the real estate market has been a perpetual shark week, especially when it comes to listings. Agents are circling around the newer listings looking to act fast to secure something for their clients. Think of a preview or “coming soon” period as “chumming the waters” in the real estate market. Current regulations allow a homeowner to list their property online as “Coming Soon” for up to 7 days, and in my experience, this is the perfect way to maximize the exposure of your home online to ensure that you get the most amount of showings and market activity once you open up the gates and allow those sharks to start to hunt.
Notice the stats on the zillow listing from 939 Nyssa: 3 days on zillow with 3,265 views and 146 potential buyers saved this home!
The best results in “coming soon” happen when a home is fully marketed for sale with staging, professional photography, 3d tour, and video tour. Why? Potential buyers are always looking for an edge in the market, and when a home is listed as “coming soon” it engages that same anticipation feeling that every kid feels as they wait for Christmas morning. When homes are listed as “coming soon” with just one photo of the exterior and promise of more photos to come, they are missing out on an opportunity to entice a buyer. First impressions matter, and the goal is to get a buyer to save your home, call their agent, and set up a showing when it goes live, not to try to remember which home they were waiting to see more photos of. Having a 3d tour and video walkthrough are the next level of a preview listing, as they allow a buyer to virtually tour the home long before they ever step foot in the property, increasing your chances of willing buyers stepping through the door.
Results:
This is what really matters, otherwise I wouldn’t’ be coaching you on following these tips. So what were the results on this process with 939 Nyssa? Here is how this listing played out:
During Coming Soon:
Online Views: 3,655 in 4 days
Online Saves: 202 Saves
Agent Showings Scheduled For When Active: 19 showings scheduled for the day it went active
Sight Unseen Offers: 2 sight unseen offers well above list price
Stats While Active:
Overall Showings: 46 showings over 3 full days
Offers: 11 total offers all at list price or above
Average Offer Price: $531,000
# of offers with “As-Is” Inspections: 9 out of 11
# of offers with appraisal shortage coverage: 7 out of 11
My clients were able to collect all of their offers, make an informed decision on the contract that will put the ahead in net profit, with the least amount of hassles throughout the process. They were also able to select a competitive backup offer on their property in case anything went wrong with the first offer. If you have questions about how the process works, or want to explore what might be needed on your home to get it ready to market, reach out anytime!
