Are you thinking of selling your house in Gainesville Florida? Or have you already decided to sell your house and are in the process of getting it ready? Either way, here are some tips for selling your house to help make the Gainesville home selling process easier.
TIP #1-1000: Do everything you can to help buyers say yes to your house
The #1 Cardinal Rule to remember, and the only real tip for selling your house, is to do everything you can to help buyers say yes to your house. That’s the same whether you are selling your house in Gainesville Florida or somewhere else.
All other tips for selling your house key off of this Cardinal Rule. When you keep in mind that all tips for selling your house keys off of this Cardinal Rule, you will make your home selling process much easier.
Home selling is very emotional. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that buyers aren’t looking to buy your house. Buyers are looking to buy their house.
Everything you can do to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and to see your house through the buyer’s eyes will help you in the process of selling your home.
From the time you decide to put your house on the Gainesville real estate market, you will be making decisions and taking actions that will affect potential buyers. When you are selling your house, your goal, whenever possible, is to make decisions and take actions that will help buyers say yes to your house.
What kinds of actions can you take to help buyers say yes? Here are just a few:
Depersonalize and declutter your house
Keeping in mind that buyers are looking to buy their house and not your house, do everything you can to help buyers picture themselves living there.
This means boxing up your knick-knacks, tchotchkes, personal photos, etc. The more things that you can put away to depersonalize your home, the better. Consider this your pre-packing. You’re going to have to do it anyway.
Just as important as depersonalizing is decluttering. The more streamlined you can make your house look, the better.
Keep items on your kitchen countertop to a minimum. Clear your fridge of magnets and doo-dads. Take care not to stuff your closets full of all of the things you are stowing away. Buyers look there too. The word of the day is creative hiding. You can never – and I mean never – pre-pack too many things.
As much as you can, try to make your house look like a hotel. Picture in your mind that feeling you get when you first check into a hotel room when everything is neat, clean, streamlined, and instantly relaxes you. That’s the feeling you are aiming for. As much as possible, that’s how you want buyers to feel when they come into your house.
Unnatural and unreasonable way to live? Sure! Helpful to buyers in picturing your house as theirs and giving them another reason to say Yes? You bet!
Declutter your yard
Declutter and spruce up your yard the same way you would for your house.
Curb appeal is extremely important and is just another chance for you to give buyers a reason to say yes.
As much as possible, make your house brochure ready – on the outside as well as the inside.
What is the buyer’s first impression when they pull up to your house? Make sure it’s a good one!
Some helpful hints:
- Put away things that don’t belong.
- Roll up the garden hose.
- Weed the grass.
- Keep the lawn tidy.
- Consider refreshing your mulch.
- Put some plants in pots for a pop of color.
- Trim the bushes.
- Power wash the walkway and driveway.
Don’t forget about the backyard as well!
Clean! Clean! Clean!
This is the time to be obsessive. Buyers see everything – as you most likely do when you are looking at homes. Things that you wouldn’t normally consider cleaning – this is the time to do them. If the thought of going into hyper cleaning mode emotionally exhausts you (as it does me) consider bringing in a cleaning team – they will make your house look spiffy and take down your stress level.
Don’t forget the windows!
Finish decluttering and cleaning before the professional photographer comes in
The first chance that buyers get to say yes to your house is when they see it online. Photos are the first impression buyers have of your house. The better you can make your house look before the photographer comes in, the better your house will show in the photos, and the more likely that buyers will want to come in and see it.
Don’t know if your Realtor plans on hiring a professional photographer? Ask!
Price your house according to the market
I can’t stress this tip for selling your house enough. Pricing your house correctly is your first and most important chance you have to give buyers a reason to say yes to your home.
Make sure to keep in mind that you will most likely get the most showings during the first couple of weeks your house is on the market. If you are thinking you’d like to start high and then come down later if you have no offers, be aware that it’s not likely that many of those potential buyers who could have afforded to buy your house will come back to see your house once you decide to price it to market. That puts you in the position of chasing the market and ending up with less than you would have if you priced your house to the market at the get-go.
Looking at the most recent sales of homes most similar to yours is the best way to come up with a pricing strategy. Your Realtor will provide you with a list of comparable home sales in the area. Make sure you take into consideration what your timeline is for selling your home. The faster you need/want to sell it, the more competitive your pricing should be.
Be aware of pricing brackets. If you price your house too high, there’s a good chance that buyers who could afford to buy your home won’t see it in their online home search, thereby knocking out a portion of your buyer pool and increasing the chances that your home will take longer to sell.
Please say yes to home showings!
Selling a house is a pain. It is inconvenient. It is weird and unnatural to live in your house like you don’t live there. Running around like a loon to get ready for showings, working up a sweat straightening and cleaning and putting things away every time somebody wants to see your home is a huge pain in the fanny, especially when buyers don’t show up for appointments or decide your house is just not the house for them.
But living in this state of inconvenience and misery is what you sign up for when you decide to put your house on the market.
It’s not HGTV.
It’s annoying. It’s tiring. And frankly, there are going to be some days where you’d rather just say no to showings.
Please.Do.Not.Give.Into.That.Impulse.
Sure – there are going to be emergencies and legitimate times when you can’t show the house. That’s totally understandable.
However – refusing showings because you’d rather stay home in your pajamas and do laundry is not one of those times.
Here’s a general rule of thumb: Unless you are bleeding or on fire, say yes to showings.
The more times you can say yes to showings, the more opportunities you open up for buyers to see your house. And the more opportunities you open up for buyers to see your house, the more chances you have to get your house under contract faster.
And the faster you can get your house under contract, the faster you can move on with your life.
Which is why you’re going through all of this fun to begin with!
Following these tips to selling your house will make your life, and the home selling process, easier.
I hope you find this information helpful!
Happy Selling!
