First-time Sellers Face A Different World
Memo to first-time sellers: This is not your father’s housing market.
Sellers are facing new realties that include paying at the closing table, providing extras to sweeten the deal and spending more time and cash making the home camera-ready.
For first-time sellers who have never been through the process, it’s a different world – one where the value of the house isn’t measured in the profit made on the sale but by the enjoyment the owners had living in the home.
- 1. Price it realistically from the start. How you price your home is important.
- 2. Be prepared to lose some money. Want to sit with a house that won’t move? Insist on getting the appraised value, the tax assessor’s estimate or whatever you paid a few years ago.
“It seems like there’s no relationship between your assessed value, taxable value and the actual market value of our house,” says Pat Vredevoogd Combs, past president of the National Association of Realtors. “There doesn’t seem to be any correlation.”
Beware of agents who promise big profits. Call a Muljat agent who uses comps, we study the sale prices, not asking prices.
- 3. Muljat Group North will promote your property. Have you noticed our new sign riders? Were targeting those who live on their smartphones. We access the networks your buyers are tapping to find their next home. One big trend: QR, or “quick response,” bar codes that allow smartphone users to access property information elecronically.
- 4. Throw in extras. Sometimes when your moving, some items are difficult to move, like washer-dryer sets, wall-mounted, flat-screen TV, it just may help sweeten the pot.
- 5. Clear the clutter. Spend time cleaning and organizing prior to putting your home on the market. Decluttering is good, But don’t put all your personal stuff away. Just don’t neutralize it so that it’s sterile.
Source: Diana Dratch of Bankrate.com
MULJAT GROUP NORTH | 505 Front Street | Lynden WA | 360.354.4242 | muljatgroupnorth.com