If you had to sell your house today, are you ready?

Have you been thinking about selling your home and moving up to one that better suits your needs? Many people think about preparing their home for sale and find the task overwhelming. At the other end of the spectrum are people who think that their home is ready and want to put it on the market without doing anything to it. Truth is, most homes are somewhere between these two extremes. How do you make your home stand out from all the others?

Part of the service I offer is helping homeowners determine what should be done to a home before going on the market to make it attractive to more prospective purchasers. If your home is unique and you love it that way, think about what a prospective purchaser would think about it. The more people it appeals to, the higher your marketability. There will be a number of homes on the market and you want to place your home at the top of the list of those available.

If your home has deferred maintenance, plan on getting it all done before your home hits the market. Purchasers don’t want to hear that you’ll get it fixed before they close. If it needs work when they view the home, it moves down on the list of potential homes.

Make your home shine! Call me today for help in preparing your home to sell.

What should you not do in a Buyer's Market.

I was reading an article in a trade journal telling real estate agents how to survive in a buyer's market. The interesting thing is that the article was directed at seller's agents only, as though there is no one representing the buyer. One of their main suggestions was to find out the buyer's motivation for buying and use it against them. The other was to relearn negotiating skills. What a concept. When representing buyers, I have always known that buyers should never disclose their motivation to the seller's agent and I have always known that negotiating aggressively is the best way to get a deal done. Other agents apparently didn't use these skills and now are realizing that they need professional skills in order to do what they are paid to do. So which would you rather have? An agent who represents the other party or someone who is going to represent you, exclusively, throughout the entire process, and who already knows how best how to negotiate for and represent you. Seems like an easy choice. When I represent a buyer or a seller, I make sure that I represent one party at a time.

Negotiating skills are extremely important in this market. It is not in the best interest of a buyer to call the seller's agent because that agent can't advocate directly for the buyer. Call someone who promises to represent your interests. Call me.