Introduction
High mortgage rates. High inflation. Low supply and demand. Buyers have reached a price ceiling. Every time news pops up about the current market climate, an alarm rings in our brains.
“What does this mean for me? What should I do?”
It is essential to understand that the market is a reliable indicator of selling and buying prices across the nation. However, there’s much more to it than market trends. A townhouse in densely populated Boston will behave differently from a cabin in the middle of rural Nevada. So every time you hear something alarming, take it with a grain of salt, and don’t do anything you weren’t planning on doing.
Below, we’ll focus on five general tips everyone can follow to receive the best possible offer for their homes in any market condition.
1 – Price your home competitively
There’s multiple ways to make sure your home is priced competitively, hiring a real estate agent is still the most common. Agents know their specific markets from A-Z and know what properties similar to yours have been selling for. Additionally, they depend solely on selling homes to make a living, so it’ll be in their best interest to price your home accordingly.
Another way to bypass real estate agents is by visiting websites like sell2rent.com, which study your zip code and analyze pictures of your home to give you a commitment-free, estimated offer.
2 – Make everything picture-worthy
We get it, you love your home. You have created a beautiful chaos within it. Sadly, buyers won’t experience the same essence when swiping through pictures of messy kitchens and living rooms. Take the time to clean everything and depersonalize your home (sorry, that family picture won’t raise the home’s value).
After everything is neat and tidy, don’t forget to let the light in. You don’t want all your hard work to be misjudged due to the blinds being closed. You live in a beautiful home, not a bat cave.
3 – Invest in a professional photographer
The stage is set, the blinds are open… oh, don’t take the pictures with that phone camera!
It is true, smartphone cameras have evolved majestically over the years, but most of them still don’t match the quality of a professional camera. On top of that, real estate photographers make a living out of shooting the angles that allow your house to show off its curves. In this digital-first world, it is likely that prospective buyers will encounter pictures of your home before they even know where it’s located or who owns it. Investing in a (good) photographer will make your home stand out.
4 – Don’t forget the exterior of your home
First impressions matter. Before buyers get a taste of your kitchen and living room, they will see the front door, walls, and roof. The exterior is something many homeowners understandably take for granted, you don’t live on your front lawn. Nevertheless, making the necessary repairs and paint jobs to the exterior of your home is just as important as setting up the interior.
If buyers go into your home with a negative attitude, they’ll be less likely to consider purchasing it. Make the outside stand out. This way, buyers will feel the urge to come inside.
5 – The Market will always shift.
No market condition should force you to sell your home. Inevitably some trends denominate the market as a “buyers market” or a “sellers market”. However, that doesn’t mean everyone should sell their homes. If you weren’t thinking of selling in the first place, home prices decreasing shouldn’t cause you to panic into selling.
Use market trends as tools for your decisions. Maybe it is wise for you to hold your home for a couple of months, but using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, you never know what new factor might alter these expert predictions.
