The DOs of Selling A Home

There are many reasons why a home can be put up for sale, among them: changing employer, to be closer to children, to upsize or to downsize, and many others. No matter the reason, the same steps apply for a successful sale of a home. Before selling a home, be sure to start with a plan on the many aspects of the sale, which are: a) take care that the home is presentable for showing; that is, painting and doing obvious repairs, sprucing up curb appeal, decluttering the inside of the home by removing personal items and paintings or photographs from walls, doing so allows buyers to take in a fresh perspective to envision the space as their home; b) have a firm moving date, though that could be a tentative date, signals a motivation to sell; c) seek the service of a licensed Realtor to assure due diligence of sellers’ responsibilities; a Realtor can help with: understanding the nuances of disclosure of material facts on the property to fully inform buyers’ expectations, understanding contingencies that may arise in the contract, advising on when to seek advice from legal or tax or financial professionals; d) schedule with buyer moving date the turning over of utility services; e) hire a mover that will deliver on desired services, like, temporary storage, timely delivery.

If these steps are taken, the sale of the home will proceed smoothly without anxious interruption of lifestyle, we often hear how stressful the process of selling a home can be, well, this happens only because the sale was left to chance with an attitude that “What am I paying a Realtor for?” A Realtor is no more than a guide in the transaction who, at times, depending on special circumstances, recommends the expertise of a legal or a financial professional, also, is capable of marketing of the property because of in depth knowledge of area real estate market activities and market values of neighboring homes. However, the seller should be proactive in the sale by giving weight to the Realtor’s advice on market conditions if the home is to attract buyer offers within the time frame of the area absorption rate. Absorption, by definition, represents the month supply of homes for sales in a target market. The rate of absorption, assuming no additional listing or withdrawal, is the number of sales per month that would lower the current listing inventory to none. The higher the rate the faster the inventory months of sales for that market, the lower the rate the slower the inventory months of sales in that market and prices will drop. The lower price will attract more buyers but fewer seller, the absorption rate will rise due to a low inventory therefore sellers should rise their prices.

Favorable markets; either for the buyer or for the seller are best understood then in terms of the months of inventory of existing homes at the end of the month as shown in the table:

Market Months of inventory Price Rate

Buyer 11 or more drop slower

Seller 0 to 5 rise faster

Equilibrium 6 to 10 fair level

It goes without saying, then, the important role that the Realtor has in the seller’s planning of the sale, studies have shown that following these steps can add significant gains in the closing price. Net proceeds from sales with Realtors have shown gains of twenty per cent and above compared to for sale by owner (FSBO).

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