How To Sell Your Home For The Most Money
by Homepie | Published February 8, 2022 | 5 Minutes
In order to sell your home yourself and get the most money that you can for it, you first need to understand key things, such as the current housing market and trends in your area. You also need to be aware of the right methods of selling your home that will work for you. There is a simple formula that if you follow, you will be successful.
Understanding The Local Market
When you have a “buyer’s market”, there are more sellers than buyers, which means sellers lower their home prices in order to compete with each other. When it’s a “seller’s market”, there are more buyers and fewer homes available, which means sellers raise their prices. It’s simple supply and demand. A seller’s market is the best time for selling your home.
One way to determine what the market type is to look at similar homes to yours that are up for sale, and see how long they stay on the market. If you see that homes are going fast, it means the demand for housing is high. Another key thing to look at is how quickly home appreciation values are rising, which can be a signal that buyers are spending more on homes.
Sell At The Right Time
Just like the seasons, housing sales will wax and wane. The busiest season for buying a home starts in spring and into the warmer months. Winter is usually a slower time because the weather is colder and not many people want to be moving home before the holidays. Finding the right time to sell your home yourself is about more than the seasons though. You should sell your home when it has enough home equity to pay off your current mortgage loan, as well as offset any selling and moving costs.
Choose The Right Asking Price
This is an area that many sellers make a mistake with. Overpricing your home can mean that it takes much longer to sell and you will end up having to drop the price. Seeing a home on the market that seems to be declining in price continuously can be a red flag to buyers because they start wondering if there is an issue with the home. It also impacts your ability to negotiate and can impact you financially if it takes too long to sell. You are far better off pricing your home right from the beginning. If you choose to sell your home yourself on Homepie.com, we do offer pricing assistance in many of our marketing packages, and we also have pricing report as a stand-alone product.
Be Realistic About The Costs Of Selling
Most sellers only take into account the 5% to 6% that is normally paid in commission fees. There are other costs though, such as closing costs, repairs and maintenance, the cost of moving, and any seller concessions. This can bring the percentage up to 10% in overall selling costs. You need to be sure that you consider the costs of preparing the home and staging it, maintenance and repairs, negotiations on the sales price, commissions, closing costs, seller concessions, and moving expenses. You can save a substantial amount in commissions if you choose to sell your own home on Homepie.
Decide How You Want To Sell
How you choose to sell your home is another big consideration. You can use a real estate agent or sell your home yourself using a for-sale-by-owner listing. If you choose to sell your home yourself, you will be taking on the jobs that a real estate agent does, but you will not have to pay that extra commission.
Another option is to sell your home on a home selling marketplace like Homepie.com. Homepie allows you to communicate directly with buyers online. Whether you choose to use a free listing with the free offer and negotiation tool, their MLS marketing package, or their virtual agent service. Homepie has a solution for all your home selling needs.
Make The Right Renovations
Not all home renovations add value to your home. So, if you are going to make any, choose the ones that do, such as having a finished basement, kitchen upgrade, putting in wood floors, or remodeling a bathroom. Be careful with your spending here though, because with many improvements you make will not recoup all of what you spent.
Choose The Best Offer, Not The Highest
When it comes to choosing an offer for your home, the highest isn’t always the best. It’s not always easy to compare unless you know what each of the common contingencies mean and how important they are. If you were to compare a cash buyer offering $500,000 with a 14 day closing, to a buyer getting loan but offering $505,000 and asking for a 30 day closing, you would want to ask yourself; Am I okay with waiting 2 extra weeks for closing and taking on the risk of buyer financing issues for the potential gain of $5000? Maybe it’s worth it, or maybe it’s not.
