|
Selling a home can sometimes be a long, stressful, and costly process.
Like anything, though, equipping yourself with the right tools and
the right knowledge can eliminate a great number of the potential
negative aspects of the process – and get you the maximum
return on your investment.
Your
Team:
The
importance of having the right allies in the selling process cannot
be overstated. Having an expert on your side, not only to assist
you in making decisions and getting your home marketed, but also
simply in terms of having an advocate in the process, is the single
most important step you can take to reduce your stress.
The first step in selling any home should be to arrange to get a
Comparative Market Analysis for your home from a reputable Estate
Agent (please contact us for a free
market related valuation). Many sellers take this step, but what
they do with the information they receive is not always in their
best interest.
Often Sellers request valuations from various agents, and the natural
tendency is for a seller to hire the estate agent who produces the
highest number. This is often a mistake. Competing estate
agents sometimes inflate these numbers in order to ‘buy’
your listing, intending to later drop their price. If one
CMA is significantly higher than the others, be suspicious of how
that number was reached.
More important to this process is getting an idea of these estate
agents' backgrounds, expertise, motivation, and simply their personalities
– you may be working closely with this agent for many weeks,
so it is important that it be someone you trust.
Your Goals:
Goal #1: Make lots of money. Most sellers fail to move beyond goal
#1, and that can cause some problems. Another important goal that
should be recognized is the attempt to minimize stress. Will getting
an extra percentage or two for your home be worth the inconvenience
of having it on the market for an extra few months?
Your priorities are your own, of course, but sometimes sellers underestimate
the stress that having their home on the market for an extended
period can generate. Constant showings, constant interruptions,
and concerns about selling your home before buying its replacement
are not minor concerns – each can have a major impact on your
life.
Sit down and discuss just where you place the most importance in
the selling process. If profit is your only priority, perhaps you
can afford to be firmer in your asking price. Most sellers who have
had their home on the market for an extended period of time, though,
would agree that the few extra Rands (of which there is no guarantee)
were not worth it in the end.
If the price of your home is too high, this could cause several
things: 1) It Limits buyers. Potential buyers may not view your
home because it appears to be out of their buying range. If the
listing price is too high, you'll miss out on a percentage of buyers
looking in the price range where your home should have been. This
is the flaw in thinking that you'll always have the opportunity
to accept a lower offer. Chances are the offers won't even come
in, because the buyers who would be most interested in your home
have been scared off by the price and aren't even taking the time
to look. By the time the price is corrected, you've already lost
exposure to a large group of potential buyers who have most likely
bought another home that was priced right. 2) Limits showings. Other
estate agents may be more reluctant to view your home. 3) Used as
leverage. Other agents may use this home to drive the sale of other
homes that are better-priced. 4) Extended stay on the market. When
a home is on the market too long, it may be perceived as defective.
Buyers may wonder, "what's wrong," or "why hasn't this sold?" 5)
Lower price. An overpriced home, still on the market beyond the
average selling time, could lead to a lower selling price. To sell
it, you will have to reduce the price - sometimes several times.
In the end, you'll probably get less than if it had been properly
priced in the first place.
Your
Trust:
The correlative to assembling a strong team is putting your trust
in that team.
Few people would second-guess their heart surgeon and insist they
could do a better job themselves, or question whether their lawyer’s
knowledge of the law is more extensive than their own, but when
it comes to selling a home, many homeowners find it difficult to
fully put their faith in the knowledge of their estate agent.
For example, despite the fact that studies show that less than 1%
of homes are sold through open houses, many homeowners insist their
estate agent hold one every week. Indeed, if a for sale sign and
an open house were all it took to sell a home, there wouldn’t
be many estate agents at all!
If you’ve put the right team in place, put your trust in that
team. We, as professional estate agents,have access to many highly-advanced
marketing strategies that you may not even realize are being utilized.
It is our job as estate agents to bring qualified buyers to the
table – and keep in mind that we do not get paid at all if
your house doesn’t sell! In most markets, the combination
of the right representative and the right marketing price will result
in a sold home. If you recognize this early on, it becomes much
easier to take a step back from the process, let your professional
representative market your home, and minimize your stress.
Don’t hesitate to speak up if you think that things are not
progressing as they should, but likewise, don’t hesitate to
sit back and be comfortable in the knowledge that the sale of your
home is being handled professionally and effectively.
Lydia
and Andre Vorster - your professional Durbanville estate agents
If you want to sell or buy property in Durbanville, please contact
us for all your property related enquiries.
|
