Selling
Are You Planning on Selling Your Home?
Selling your home can be an exciting yet a stressful time. At times it can feel overwhelming however, here at Michael Gailliot Homes we treat our clients like family and will help you every step of the way.
How Long Will It Take To Sell Your Home?
For 2020, the average time on the market is currently sitting around 60 days. This is just an average and is dependent on your location and other factors.
- Your home’s location – What schools your home is zoned for, neighborhood, and proximity to entertainment all affect how long it takes to sell.
- Your home’s price point – More expensive homes can take longer to sell.
- The season – Late spring is usually your best bet. However, this isn’t true for every home in every market. It’s really about when it’s right for you.
- Nature of your local real estate market – If you live in an area with a booming market, you can typically expect your home to sell much faster than average.
Important Things to Consider Before Selling Your Home
Declutter
It’s important to make your home look clean and ready for potential new owners. Keeping things spacious (clear countertops, shelves, closets) goes a long way when you’re trying to sell your home.
Decor
Make it as neutral as possible, no out of the ordinary colors. Houses that have more neutral color scheme give the buyer ability to work with a blank slate and allows them to imagine how they can decorate the house.
Maintenance
Keep things pristine with a maintenance plan. Taking care of your lawn, changing HVAC air filter and making sure your hot water heater is working effectively are some important aspects to maintaining your home during the selling process.
Home Repairs
Before selling your home, there are things you should do to enhance the appeal of your place and potentially raise its value. If you’ve been putting off painting walls, repairing a leaky faucet, and sprucing up the exterior of your property, now’s the time.
Pre-sale Home Inspection
Getting a pre-sale home inspection allows you to make major repairs ahead of time, removing any possibility of a buyer demanding them later. If the buyer’s home inspector finds issues with the home, such as a damaged roof or bad plumbing, you might have to pay to fix those issues in order to close the deal.
Staging Your House
Once your home is in good working order, it’s time to set the stage and show off its best features. That starts with a deep cleaning.
– Pay a professional to deep clean carpets
– Apply a fresh coat of paint
– Polish everything!
Staging outside the house is important too. Clean your front porch and place nice planters near your entryway. This will ensure that your home is ready for professional photos. It’s crucial to stay organized by keeping your home tidy – pick up all toys and pet stuff. Add extra touches with decorative pillows and keep the counters clear.
Staging should bring out the positives of your home. This will help the potential buyers envision how they can live in the space.
Marketing and Listing Your Home
Our real estate experts are here to help you make the transaction experience smooth and pleasant for you. Our goal here is to find the best new owner for your home with the least amount of inconvenience on your part. Our portfolio and track record will show you the number of homes we marketed and sold for the best price in a short span of time.
Michael Gailliot Homes is equipped with licensed real estate experts with more than 20 years of real estate experience in VA, state of the art leveraging technology that will help you save thousands, exceptional marketing strategies including putting your property on top of local listing services and listing websites with photos all in HDR format, colored and well-prepared brochures and signposts, and many more.
Selling Factor
Our real estate experts will give you a thorough market analysis of your property’s current market value and will communicate with you regularly to keep you updated on the status of your property.
Location, market conditions, list price, and market position are the four major factors that can influence the sale of your home. Michael Gailliot Homes uses innovation, reach, tenacity, creativity, and expertise when listing your home on the market.
Location is a factor that can make or break your home selling. Michael Gailliot Homes is an expert in determining the pulse of VA homebuyers. Regardless of the location of your property, we will gather all the qualities that make it attractive to the homebuyers and focus on it.
The real estate market condition is really unpredictable. You will never know when your home becomes appealing or unappealing based on the trend. With the help of our real estate experts, you can be guaranteed that your home will be sold fast at a higher percentage than the original price. Contact us today and talk about how we can sweeten your pot to make your home more appealing in the eyes of homebuyers.
List price is a factor that you have control over as the owner. With Michael Gailliot Homes, we will make sure that your home stays competitive in the market. Our real estate agents will perform a comparative market analysis to help you determine the current market value of your property. This will also help you decide on the price that you want your home to be listed.
Here at Michael Gailliot Homes, we are skilled in creating an effective and comprehensive marketing strategy to showcase your home and make it sell fast. The goal is to captivate homebuyers so they can seal the deal with you. Contact our real estate experts for a FREE consultation on how we can market your home.
Using a Realtor When Selling Your Home
Setting the Price
Your realtor can give you up-to-date information on what is happening in your local marketplace, as well as the price, financing, terms, and condition of competing properties. Real estate agents can also recommend repairs or any cosmetic work that your house may still need.
Marketing Your Property
Marketing exposes your property to the public and other listing agents through cooperative marketing networks, open houses, and more. A good realtor will also know when, where, and how to advertise your home. The National Association of Realtors studies show that 82 percent of real estate sales result from agent contacts from previous clients, referrals, friends, family and personal contacts.
Security
Listing agents will generally prescreen and accompany qualified prospects through your property. This takes away the worry of having random people coming through your home.
Price Negotiations Take Skill
Your listing agent can help you evaluate every buyer’s proposal without compromising your marketing position. This initial agreement is only the beginning of a process of appraisals, inspections, and financing. Your listing agent can help you write a legally binding, win-win agreement that will be more likely to make it through the process.
Between the initial sales agreement and the closing, questions may come up. For example, there are unexpected repairs that require the buyer to obtain financing, or a cloud in the title is discovered. The required paperwork alone is overwhelming for most sellers. Your listing agent is the best person to objectively help you resolve these issues and move the transaction to closing.
Exposure to Legal Risks
Making sure the legal paperwork for a home sale is filled out correctly by a professional is important. Sellers can be held responsible for fraud, negligence, or breach of contract if they do not disclose properly. This is one of the most important aspects – also known as the seller’s disclosures. Listing agents can make mistakes, too, but they have professional errors and omissions insurance to protect themselves and give the buyer recourse. The buyer may not need to pursue the seller for damages.
FAQs
When should I sell my home?
Technically you can sell your home at any time of the year, however, there are some months and seasons when selling is faster, more profitable and easier. Spring and Summer are usually the busiest months and the most successful when it comes to home sales. Sales do slow down during the winter months but sometimes this can be an advantage as there is less competition.
How do you figure out the value of my house?
Typically a comparative market analysis is used by realtors to figure out the value of the house.
More than likely the report generated will include the following:
- Closest homes in similarity that have sold in close proximity to the property.
- Similar homes are currently under contract but haven’t closed yet.
- Competing properties that are currently for sale in the general price point
The most important data is what has sold. The least important is what is currently for sale. The price for these homes can change at a moment’s notice.
How long does it take to sell a house?
The average time it takes to sell a home in VA is approximately 93 days. Some of the key factors impacting this timeline include the local market conditions, buyer demand, rising home values, etc. The best month is around September with 46 days and January being the slowest with around 90 days. It’s important to note that this shouldn’t be the sole factor when deciding if you should sell your home or not as there are many factors that can influence the number of days it takes to sell your home.
What is the difference between a list price and a sale price?
A list price is how much the seller is listing the home for, or what is also known as the “asking price.” The sale price is the amount the home actually sells for.
How to increase home value?
The most popular ways to increase your home value before selling it include upgrades to the bathroom and kitchen. Changing out handles and fixtures, putting in low-flow toilets, upgrading countertops, installing new appliances, painting the walls, etc. These are a few of the many changes that will make sizable differences in the value of your home.
Is staging really important?
Homes that are staged have been shown to sell 88% faster and average 20% more in selling prices than homes that are just left as is. The reason it works is that, of course, it gives buyers a “stage” onto which they can play out their home-owning fantasies and envision themselves living in your home.