Things to Remember When Selling Your Home

House selling is usually a yo-yo experience for the home seller but there are many ways that the impact and difficulty of placing your home on the market can be lessened if some preliminary steps are taken first.

Most important is that your home be shown to its best advantage. How can this be done? Curb appeal will be crucial because that is the first thing prospective buyers see when they arrive at your home. Has the grass been cut? Is the yard clean and tidy? Have last year's leaves been raked from the lawn? Have shrubberies and trees encroached on the house? If so, these should be trimmed back. If the house is in obvious need of paint, now is a good time to do it. The alternative is to price the home accordingly to reflect the need for obviously needed maintenance. Does the roof need to be replaced? Will you replace it or price your home accordingly?

Inside, it will be necessary to keep the house as clean and tidy as possible. Dirty underwear lying on the bathroom or bedroom floor will discourage buyers. Are toilets and tubs clean? A dirty ring around the bathtub will not appeal to anyone. Are counters relatively free of unnecessary things, including the remains of your last meal. Are there cat or dog odors? Is there pet hair, debris and toys covering the carpet? Does the house smell fresh? An odor cleaner or fragrant plug-ins may remedy the problem. Are the beds made? These things, if not done, could indicate to the prospective buyers that there may be other problems with the house other than the obvious untidiness and lack of cleanliness. A little effort in these areas can increase the potential worth of your home and will possibly attract more buyers.

Determining the selling price of your home is an important consideration. Your realtor will bring you information on homes that are comparable to yours that are listed and those that have sold in your area. Listen to him/her. He knows the value, and the market, better than you do. Most homeowners will feel that their home is worth much more than everyone else's but buyers may not think so.

Another thing that is important to remember is not to follow the buyers around telling them about the many wonderful features of your home. They may think you are trying too hard to sell it. Leave the job of selling to the realtors. Also, buyers feel more comfortable looking around when the owner isn't following them. An over-eager vender could easily scare away a prospective purchaser.

Through the showings, your realtor will probably get feed-back from other realtors who have shown your home. This feed-back may give you an indication of what you can do to make your home more appealing to future purchasers. Some things that cannot be changed are: you live too close to hydro lines, there is too much traffic on your street, or your back yard isn't private enough.

When an offer comes in your realtor will likely show you similar properties and what their sale prices were to see whether the amount offered is in the ballpark or if it's too low. In most cases, if your home is realistically priced for its location, size and maintenance, then the offer hopefully will be close to asking price. But at the least, an offer can be the beginning of negotiations.

Last, having a realtor that you can trust will make the listing and offer process of selling your home a much easier and more pleasant experience.