The real estate market all but belonged to sellers in recent years. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers scrambled to land homes in markets with scarce housing stock, and sellers enjoyed bidding wars and all-cash offers on their properties. Then, as the pandemic waned, inflation shot up, pushing mortgage rates to the mid-6% to 7%+ range. Now, buyers are facing the double whammy of high home prices and mortgage rates. As a result, some are sitting the market out, leaving some sellers—and their homes—on the sidelines, too.
While sellers might feel like they’ve lost their hold on the real estate steering wheel, the reality is that many elements of the selling process are still firmly within a homeowner’s control, including making necessary repairs, cleaning or decluttering, taking great photos to showcase their property and entice buyers to visit and imagine calling it home. What else can sellers do to get their property to fly off the listing pages? Quite a bit. Read on to find out.
- You can control the pricing of your home
While it’s safe to say that all sellers want to list for top dollar, to actually land a high sale price, sellers need to take a critical look at their homes first. Sellers can control the price they’re offering their property for sale but just because the neighbor’s home up the street sold at the beginning of this year for top dollar right away does not mean yours will do the same. Understanding current market conditions will save sellers from pricing their home too high. When that happens, a property often lingers on the market and becomes stale. Usually at that point, the only recourse is to drop the price to what the home should have been listed at in the first place.
- You can control negotiations
Depending on the local market, sellers might get offers above or below the list price. But this doesn’t mean you have to accept anything without negotiating with the buyers first. Sellers can choose their flexibility when it comes to negotiations with regard to offers that they receive. Offers may be lower than what they would have expected to get a year or two ago. Though a buyer might offer a lower price for your home, as a seller, you can negotiate many aspects of a home sale beyond a simple dollar amount. For instance, an important negotiation lever is the closing timeline. For example, if you need more time to move, you can negotiate a longer closing timeline.
- You can control the timing of the sale
Another decision home sellers get to control is when to list. Generally, by choosing to list your property during peak seasons such as spring or summer, when buyer activity is typically higher, you will attract more interest and potentially land better offers on your home. In most markets, sellers will enjoy the highest prices in history when they sell. Additionally, if a seller feels pressure to sell their home but prefers to wait for a better market to buy, they can.
- You can control what repairs you do
As a seller, you can also decide what repairs you will or won’t do on your home. Sellers would do well to know their house inside and out and be prepared to reject demands for repairs that aren’t necessary. If a buyer comes to the table with a generous offer but huge demands for covering repair costs the seller thinks are bogus, sellers should be cautious. If the home inspection discovers needed repairs, you can save yourself the headache of doing them by knocking down the asking price. Beyond big repairs, sellers can control the small upgrades to their home that will help them land a higher selling price. We always recommend that sellers do, at least, some prep for sale, whether that is paint, upgrading appliances, or freshening up the landscaping. By repairing glaring issues like water stains on the ceiling or mold in the basement, you’ll add some curb appeal and avoid issues during escrow.
Ultimately, it’s best to focus on what you can control (and be open to a Plan B for what you can’t). That’s one of the many reasons why it’s important to have a great real estate team on your side…we help you cut through the noise so that you can pay attention to what matters most to you.