Selling Advice
Your home is more than an architectural structure. Often, it’s an extension of who you are – your personality, style and values. That’s why selling it can be an emotional experience. But it can also be exciting and rewarding. This section provides some simple home selling tips that can help lead you to a successful, timely sale.
Once you’ve made up your mind to sell your home, you need to do your “homework” – and Century 21 Coastal Realtors is a great place to start! Getting a signed contract is a great accomplishment, but that’s only half the journey. The typical home sale today involves more than 20 steps after the initial contract is accepted to complete the transaction.
A real estate professional can provide the experience and local knowledge to guide you through the entire process, and selling your home within the ideal time frame and at the most effective price point. As the representative of your best interests, your CENTURY 21® Agent has state-of-the-art marketing resources to showcase your home’s best assets, and help you determine what improvements will make the biggest difference.
Much of what needs to be done before the closing is the responsibility of appraisers, loan processors, attorneys, and inspectors. Your CENTURY 21 Agent’s role also includes coordinating those responsibilities, helping to ensure that others do their jobs promptly and correctly.
Many steps between contract ratification and closing involve the cooperation of both buyer and seller, and attentive real estate professionals on both sides of the transaction will troubleshoot and keep everyone on track.
Create a marketing plan
Much of an agent’s work is quiet, behind the scenes – and important. Promoting your home involves several outreach efforts, including scheduling, marketing and hosting open houses, following up with open house visitors, having conversations with ad respondents, and posting photos and virtual tours on the web. Being your guide and confidant is part of the process as well.
Selling can entail a variety of marketing strategies, and your agent will develop a plan especially for your home, which will help set it apart in your local marketplace and attract buyers. Once listed, it’s likely that the home will be quickly entered into the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), displayed on our website and distributed to over 500 national and local real estate websites, where most buyers begin their search for a new home.
TIP: A marketing plan will help sell a home at the best price possible in the shortest amount of time. Find out how a CENTURY 21® Agent can help.
Adding value to your home
The Top 10: Tips to Add Value to Your Home
1. Clean, organize, and neutralize your space: Unclutter your house to make it look bigger and cleaner. Buyers need to be able to envision their own belongings in the home; so, avoid using bright colors and too many personal effects.
2. Keep Your Lawn Green: Get your lawn in shape. A patchy lawn takes away from the home’s overall appearance. Your local hardware store has supplies to re-seed those unhealthy areas.
3. Add insulation to save energy: The most inexpensive way to increase your home’s energy is to add insulation, which can reduce heating and cooling costs by more than 25%.
4. Update kitchen appliances: The kitchen is often the room that buyers gravitate towards first, and an updated kitchen can help sell your home. You don’t have to remodel your kitchen to give it a new look. Updating your appliances to the current standard and replacing cabinet doors and hardware can make a big impact at a relatively low cost.
5. Update bathroom fixtures: A little change can go a long way when it comes to the look of your bathroom. Updating simple fixtures such as your sink and faucet can give any outdated bathroom style.
6. Build a fence: If you’re trying to sell a house, the appearance of a fence adds value to the home overall. Buyers with children or pets will appreciate the privacy and security of an enclosed backyard.
7. Repair the gutter: Ensuring that your gutter is clean is crucial in protecting your home against water damage.
8. Light up the outside: An easy and inexpensive way to increase your home’s outdoor space is to add lighting. It makes it more appealing and safer.
9. Store and organize: Ample storage space is a plus, especially when it comes to garages and closets. Efficient closet structures can help keep your clothes organized and can save space.
10. Polish off the basement: Rather than adding an additional room, it is more cost-efficient to remodel your basement. This adds value and usable space.
