Selling your home is perhaps one of the major life decisions you’ll have to make for different reasons. It’s a process that involves a lot of caution and considerations from the onset of defining your goals — why you’re actually selling, to choosing the best real estate agent in the market.
The current real estate market is experiencing a short supply of houses, there are way too many buyers with little options to choose.
So, putting your house on the market now couldn’t come at a better time.
With such an increasing demand for houses and a particularly favorable seller’s market, you are likely to attract potential customers quickly at a better price. If that’s not convincing enough for you to put your house up for sale, here are few more factors to consider before selling your home.
1. Clearly Define Your Goals and the Reason for Sale
The decision to sell a home is often influenced by a number of personal factors — from security, job transfer, increased family size, retirement, and more. Understanding those factors in the first place will help you to clearly define your housing goals. And this is what many realtors will expect when you approach them to sell your house.
Goal setting shows that you know what you want and that you’re a satisfied customer. Let the goals be clear and realistic, for instance, if you’re looking to buy a bigger house through loan financing but you can’t secure the loan, it’s advisable that you shouldn’t sell your current house. A good real estate agent can help you come up with realistic housing goals so you can make an informed decision — when selling your home.
Here are some of the factors your realtor will use to determine if selling your home is the best decision to make. The list starts with the ” need to sell” to “want to sell”.
- Job relocation
- Retirement looming
- Increased family size
- Not ideal environment for children
- Location inconvenience
- Financial problem
- Commuting challenges — distance too long or too expensive
- Unfriendly neighbors
- Weather-sick
- Closer to special amenities such gym, hotels, bars or parks
- Upscaling to a dream house
- Better schools for your children
2. Carry Out a Financial Assessment
After setting your housing goals and carefully factoring in your needs and wants — the next step and it’s so important in this process, is to conduct a thorough financial assessment.
First, start by reviewing your budget, which involves what you normally spend in a month — including taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance and repair fees. Then estimate the value of your home to get a better idea of how much you’re looking get from the sale. Here, you’re advised to use the services of an experienced home value estimator who can either be a realtor or professional home appraiser.
An experienced real estate agent is an indispensable asset when it comes to valuing your home. Together you’ll come up with a full financial estimate, which will help you set expectations for your sale.
3. Choosing the Best Local Realtor
Finding the right real estate agent can help sell your home much faster and at a better price. Even if you’re not ready to put up that “For Sale” sign, your next step is to find a good realtor who’s not into making money — though that’s the whole idea of their business, but to help you get the best deal possible by making the right decision.
A good agent will put your interest first and not theirs and the process will more relational than transactional. Working with an experienced realtor ensure that you get your goals right and develop realistic financial and sale expectations.