You’ve decided to sell your home.  Your home is your castle.  You probably have some of your best memories while living in your home.  Selling your home is an emotional time.  But don’t be emotional when it comes to these 4 areas.  This is where you can really lose a lot of money and time.

First, price your home to sell.  The number one mistake that home sellers make is pricing it too high, hoping that a buyer will think your home is worth as much as you want it to be.  This doesn’t happen, and it certainly won’t in 2012.  You must price your home from an analytical standpoint.  What are the most recent sales of similar homes (size, beds, baths, upgrades) in your area recently?  Those are “comps”, or comparable sales.

Secondly, your home must be in good condition to be sold at fair market value.  This involves updating the home with modern conveniences like granite countertops, new paint inside and outside, vinyl windows, etc.  I could go on and on, here, but you get the point.  You’ve got to compete with remodeled homes that are selling in your area.  Also, staging it properly is important.  Not only do you need to keep your house in “very clean and tidy” condition, but it should look like a model home (furniture well-positioned and appropriately sized for each room.  No king-size bed in a small room!  (Yes, that means you.)

Thirdly, if you are going to list your home with an agent, then hire the best agent in your area.  If you don’t, you increase your risks of the sale not going through, the home not getting offers and not getting marketed properly (see reason #4).

Lastly, marketing is huge.  I can’t tell you how many times I see MLS listings with a few photos of the home (or only 1!).  People shop online, plain and simple, so take lots of photos (the max is usually 20 photos per listing on local MLS listing services).  Home buyers need to be shown what your home has to offer, so clean your house, stage the furniture properly and get it SOLD.

If you don’t want to worry about any of the above, then fill out my contact form.  I don’t list homes (I’m not an agent).  And instead of waiting 4-6 months to sell, we typically close escrow in 2-3 weeks.  I buy homes as-is; no repairs needed, no upgrades necessary, no waiting, no people walking through your home.