Preparing Your House For Sale

One of the most important part of selling your home is preparing it for the sale. Many home owners and real estate agents alike, make the mistake of not putting enough effort and forethought into preparation. Instead they worry about getting it sold quickly and get caught up in the numbers and how much their home is worth.

One very important step in preparation is making sure that the very first thing they see when the pull into your driveway is appealing to the eyes. When I want to sell a house I always make sure to tidy up the lawn first by calling up my local Nashville Lawn Care company and getting all of the hedges trimmed, trees mulched, and the lawn freshly cut.

I also have a company that I can call for any other big tasks like tree and stump removal, or serious landscaping jobs like leveling hills etc… The more visually appealing you can make a home, the faster you will sell it for asking price.

It is very important to pay attention to small details. Are there any issues like damage siding? Does anything need to be pressure washed on the exterior of the house? Are there any unnecessary items that clutter up the lawn or deck? These small nuances can determine how much and how quickly you sell your home.

Let’s go inside. The first question to ask yourself is upon entering my house can my potential buyer easily see themselves moving in? The little things that we tend to overlook, like old plants that are withered, old furniture that look dingy and musky, cluttered living areas with personal belongings, can really put a nail in the deal from the start.

You can’t expect people to imagine how your home would look without the clutter, clean it up, make it look as presentable as possible and remember if it doesn’t look inviting to you, it probably won’t be inviting for a buyer either.

Even if you have the best selling techniques and you know exactly what to say and how to close people into a mutually beneficial deal, the strongest negotiation skills mean nothing if the buyer doesn’t first develop a desire for what you’re selling. Start with proper preparation first and you’ll get the results you want and need.

First Things First When Moving Into a New Home|Top Five Important Steps

your_new_homeSo you’ve taken the leap and have finally moved into your beautiful new home. You feel great but you’re also quite overwhelmed with one question, “What do I do now?” You mad it through all of the prepping for the move and all of the details attached, but now settling into your new home is a whole new step.

We’ve compiled a few important things to do as soon as you move into your new house. These steps are essential and many are overlooked by new home owners resulting in problems and difficulties down the road.

The following list of important things to do are listed because of there level of priority. This is by no means a complete list but it is a good start. Once you’ve taken these essential steps you can rest assured you’ve taken care of the most important part of settling into your new home.

First Things First When Moving into a New Home|Top Five Important Steps

  • Get your utilities running – This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you don’t take action on this step first you could be in the dark with no power/water for a day or two and that’s never a good start to a fresh move. Getting accounts up and running with your local utility companies isn’t always the smoothest process. Be sure to get a head start on this and you should be comfortable, cozy and ready to tackle your next steps.
  • Start unpacking your belongings – Now you’re ready to start the long, tedious process of unpacking your belongings. This is simple, start with your essentials, the things you need for proper hygiene and sustenance like toothbrushes, body wash, food, utensils and cooking ware. Once this is out of the way, you can start with the behemoth of other belongings you have on your list.
  • Hook up all major appliances – Now for the next biggest step to creating a comfortable environment for you and your family. It’s time to hook up your washer, dryer, and fridge. Make sure these hook ups are done right and now you can begin living a healthy, clean and happy life in your new home while tackling your last few most important steps of getting settled into your new home.
  • Clean your house thoroughly – Now it’s time to do some deep cleaning. When you deep clean, you get a good panoramic view of the complexities of your new home. The details matter and when you clean every corner of your home you will find things you would have never come across were it not for the cleaning. A few things to be sure to clean are your floors, attic/basement, air ducts, dryer vent, garage, and kitchen. Some of those areas are overlooked and can cause unwanted problems later on if neglected.
  • Change your address – The last most important step to take once you’ve began settling into your new home is an address change with the united states postal service to ensure you continue receiving all of your important mail. This is a small simple step that takes only a few minutes when done online, but has the potential of causing you a massive headache if neglected.

Those are our top five most important steps to take as soon as you move into your new home. After these essentials are taken care of, you can begin diving into the one hundred and one other things to do and start enjoying your new home and town as you should!

Picking Your Clients Wisely

Whether you’re a real estate investor or an agent It is super important to give every potential client a full assessment to determine whether or not they will be a good fit for you. Just because there may be an opportunity to gain a new client that doesn’t always mean that it will result in a profitable deal.

Knowing the market and the details of the deal and what you stand to gain or lose, is a very important step in acquiring a new client because these things need to be sorted out well before the deal is finalized. When this crucial step is missed, things can potentially pop up in the future that will surprise either party and cause problems.

One of my previous clients told me how he was searching for house painters in hendersonville (a small town in Tennessee). He came across a few painting contractors who seemed a little too eager to take his money and not showing enough interest in his specific needs. Nevertheless, he decided to hire one of the contractors and soon after realized he had made a mistake.

The contractor ended up telling him that he would not be able to finish the job within the previously agreed upon time! Why? Because he didn’t listen closely enough to the details of the deal and found out that there would be a good deal more work involved then he had first assumed.

This is just one of many examples of what can easily happen if you don’t take the time to slow down and find out how you can best be of assistance to your potential client.

Below is a list of things to keep in mind when you’re in conversations with a potential customer.

  1. What is the main outcome/result your prospect is looking for?
  2. Is your prospect willing to compromise what he/she wants out of the deal?
  3. Does your prospect seem demanding or are they a respectful communicator?
  4. Can you properly assist your prospect, should they become a client, in everything they need out of the deal?
  5. Does the prospect/deal have the potential to become more of a headache for you than a benefit?

These factors are life savers when it comes to choosing your clients. The sooner you can weed out the stressful, problematic deals and clients, the sooner you can gain real mutually beneficial deals and relationships with customers that are a great match for you and your real estate skills!

Selling Real Estate Using Your Words

Selling is a lot about using the right words to engage your clients and pique their interest and belief in what you have to offer. Most people have heard the saying, communication is 55% body language, 38% tonality, and only 7% words.

But just because the actual words you use are only a small part of the subconscious message you send to others while communicating, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to the specific words you are using.

Words are powerful and when you are using them correctly, to sell your clients on why they should do business with you, you will see massive results and a great increase in listings and sales.

The most important thing to understand about selling is to be assumptive, use assumptive words like “when you list with me”, “when we move forward with this deal”, “when you buy this house”, “As we do business together”. Even though your client has not yet closed on the deal.

This one tip is powerful and should be practiced and combined with good posture and tonality. Be confident, and passionate when presenting to your prospective clients. Assume they will answer your call, assume they will want to hear from you, assume that they will buy, assume they will love your services.

Creating this habit of using positive words will not only improve the energy you give off in your presentations but allow you to effectively change your own thoughts and your own belief which is the most important thing to get right before you ever approach your prospects in the first place.

Watch this video below for some expert advice on selling real estate using these same positive words:

Selling your own  home? Here are 5 tips for selling your home on your own

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you put these tips into action. Now go out there and sell some houses, and remember….always assume the sale!

Selling Your Old Home

So now it’s time to move on to better things. You enjoyed it while it lasted, but now it’s time to sell your old house and move into to a nicer upgrade for you and your family.

Well before you put the home on the market and list with some random realtor you found on craigslist, you may want to incorporate a few guidelines for selling your home that will prove very helpful in the long run.

Look, in the end it’s all about selling your home fast and getting more than or equal to what it’s worth. Well unfortunately sometimes that’s not as easy as it sounds. With fluctuations in the market and many different variables to take into consideration, many times it can take a lot of  planning to make selling your house a quick simple process.

Here are a few steps you can take, to help you sell your house fast and ensure you don’t end up losing your shirt on a bad deal:

  • When selling a house one of the most important things to have in place is the proper marketing to get your house in front of the right buyers. if you can’t do the marketing yourself, find someone who can. Someone with experience who proposes the right plan for your selling your home.
  • The next most important step to selling your house fast is to price it right. It may or may not be worth the same price it was worth when you bought it. You must price your home to sell it in today’s market.
  • The next thing to do is step up the curb appeal of your home. Does it look inviting and attractive from the outside? Little things like well trimmed bushes and proper landscaping, have a great effect on the curb appeal.
  • The next thing that has an impact on how attractive your home is, is quite obviously the inside presentation. Remove any clutter that crowds the space in the house. Also make sure the furniture is situated nicely.
  • The last thing you can do is offer incentives that help make your offer even more attractive both for the buyer and for the real estate agent. You can offer a bigger closing bonus for the agent and help with the closing cost for the buyer.

These are a few tips and strategies that don’t cost much money and can greatly help you sell your house faster. Watch the video below for more details on these tips.