Republished from allenbrake.com
Anyone who has ever tended a garden, worked on a farm or taken a basic science class would tell you it’s crazy to expect to be able to plant a seed one day and harvest the next. As it goes with seeds, so it goes with a home you’d like to sell.
We’re in the depths of winter here in St. Louis, and contrary to what many past clients of The Allen Brake Team thought when they came to us in March or April looking for a spring sale of their home, right now is the time to start tilling the soil to put yourself in the best position for what promises to be a hot sellers market..
The Allen Brake Team prides itself on its efficiency in helping people go from “I want to sell my home” to “I just sold my home!” as quickly as possible. That said, the experience isn’t one that a would-be seller can complete in a matter of days or even a few weeks. To successfully sell your home and see the biggest return on your investment, it’s a good idea to start early and lay a successful foundation on which to build your sale.
That starts with finding the best realtor to sell your home. Luckily, we’ve got a great resource to help you choose. “Five Easy Questions to Help You Select the Right Realtor” talks about the best way to interview those you’re considering to represent you in what truly is a complex financial transaction. By asking your candidates these five questions, you’ll be able to separate those who merely dabble in real estate from those who are invested full-time and have the ability to handle a crowd of clients without anything about your transaction getting lost in the shuffle.
Once you’ve selected a real estate team, the real action begins. The best teams will have a professional home-staging expert come in to look at your home and give recommendations on how to use your existing furniture and decor to make your home stand out from the crowd.
While all of that is going on, there often are some repair projects to tackle to make your home more attractive to buyers. A good real estate team will have a list of preferred contractors for you to work with and will help you coordinate the jobs, should the scope of the project be beyond your talents as a do-it-yourselfer.
From there, a truly great real estate team will have a professional photographer come to your home to take best-in-the-business pictures of your home, inside and out. These photos will end up on all the websites potential buyers look when they’re searching for the home of their dreams. The difference between a Realtor taking the photos with her phone and a professional photographer handling the job with industry-leading equipment is often the difference between a quick sale and one that takes sometimes a lot longer.
Then there’s the matter of actually getting your home listed. You’ll be asked to complete a seller’s disclosure, and it might take some time to track down the information you need to do it accurately. On top of that, your real estate team will be working to enter all of your home’s information into the database that then shoots it out to all the amazing searchable sites like allenbrake.com and makes it visible to other Realtors looking to help prospective buyers. In addition, the best real estate teams have a professional marketing team working with them – people who know what it takes to put your home in front of the most potential buyers. Coming up with a professional marketing plan for your home can take some time.
Once your home is listed – even in this current market in which the average home isn’t available for long – it will take some time to host an open house, welcome other potential buyers for private showings and then compile the offers from which you can choose. But just because you reach an agreement to sell your home to a particular buyer doesn’t mean your journey is coming to an end. There’s often a month-long period between the time when you accept an offer to the day you sign the paperwork to make the transaction official. During that time, the buyer will have a home inspector visit the property and look for any issues that might need to be addressed prior to closing. If the inspector finds something of significance, you might be asked to complete the work before the big day. A great real estate team will do the coordination for any work for you, but it still takes time for your team to find the best available person to do the job most efficiently.
But don’t worry! Though this might sound like a lot and produce more than a little stress just reading it, if you have a quality real estate team on your side, they’ll help you remain calm and give you confidence by making you the smartest person in the housing market so you can make wise choices on the road to closing day.
Yes, there are a lot of steps between the decision to sell your home and that day when you sign it over to your buyer, but the best real estate teams make the entire experience just that – an experience, not a process. Calmly and confidently, they’ll help guide you through each step and make the experience one you’ll be happy to tell your friends and family about.
So if you’re thinking about selling this spring – and there are many good reasons for that, including a hot sellers market right now – plant the seeds today. Call The Allen Brake Team at (314) 375-3030, email info@allenbrake.com or visit us at allenbrake.com to take advantage of our Live Chat feature today!
The Allen Brake Team
Allenbrake.com
info@allenbrake.com
(314) 375-3030