Sell A House - Idaho Falls, Rigby & Rexburg
Sell a House quickly for top dollar.
If you're like most Americans, selling your home is one of the most important financial transactions you will be a part of. This single fact makes it very important that you learn what selling your house means to you in terms of time, financial commitment, and effort. But before we go further, let's be honest. With the advent of internet sites like Zillow Homes and hundreds of other websites that help you advertise your real estate, it looks easy on the surface. Simply write a description of your home, upload a few pictures, and name your price. It's that easy. Right? Well not really. Here's why.
What most homeowners don't see is that below the advertising level of home sales, there are nearly one hundred tasks that need to be completed to successfully close on a home. Some of these tasks are critical to protecting you and your property from loss. East Idaho Property and Idaho Agents Real Estate specialize in finding buyers fast AND taking your home from contract to close. We do ALL of the hard stuff so you don't have to.
We Find Buyers Fast
We spend a lot of time keeping helping our buyers find what they're looking for. So when we list real estate in Rexburg, Island Park, Idaho Falls, Rigby or some other location, we often already have a hand full of buyers to show the property to. In addition, we spend a lot of time developing relationships with other real estate agents who also have buyers that they are looking for. We also watch social media very closely and spend a great deal of time communicating with buyers about the homes we have available. In addition to all of these efforts, we also do what we consider the basics which include: finding buyers through the MLS, finding buyers through syndicated listing services such as Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, House2Home and more. While we're looking for buyers, here are a few things you should become very familiar with as we market and manage your next real estate transaction.
We Get The Price Right
We get the price right and sell for the best price the market will allow. Here's what you need to know.
Even a well kept home that is clean, organized and smells good will not sell if it is overpriced. It's important to price a home based on real criteria which may include what price other homes in the area have sold for, the lot size, the quality of the finish work, and what upgrades you have that other homes of similar quality do not.
Remember, the home buyers that come to your home have
probably looked at hundreds of homes
online before they ever step foot in any home.
Most home buyers today know what they are looking for and they have a pretty good idea what the price range should be for any given house. Initially overpricing a home for sale is a common mistake in America, and Idaho Falls, Rigby, and Rexburg property owners are no exception. So, ff you get this one right from the beginning, you are light years ahead of the other home sellers you will be competing with. We'll make sure that happens.
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We Prepare Your Home For Sale
Stage Your Home And Make It Memorable
You have a beautiful home with years of memories within it's walls. Your home is ready to sell. But is it? Over the years we have learned that if you want to sell your home, and you want to get a good price for it in a reasonable amount of time, there are a few things that you should do to prepare before you invite buyers in for a look. First, and foremost, your home should be clean and organized. When a home buyer comes in, your home should look well kept and should smell pleasant. You've probably gone to a model home before and smelled the wonderful Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies. Well, there is a reason for that. People like to smell something pleasant in their future home! They don't want to smell Rover or last week's laundry. So the first thing you should do to prepare your home is clean it up, organize, put it away out of sight, and freshen it up so that people have a good feeling when they walk through the door. And it doesn't hurt to do some easy repairs either. This can be done with a seller's home inspection. It's a few hundred dollars that are well spent. Remember that when potential home buyers walk in, you want them to easily imagine that they are living there. There are many more home staging tips we will give you to prepare your house physically.
Know What You HAVE To Sell For
Before you list your home with us, have a discussion with your lender. Call them and ask the following questions.
- Is there a penalty for selling my house and paying of the loan before a specific period has passed?
- What is my pay off amount for the current month?
- Do you show that I'm current in all my obligations to you?
These are important questions because they help you evaluate where you stand financially once your house has closed. You should clearly understand what seller expenses you will have. We can help you calculate your closing costs by asking a few specific questions. Once the numbers are calculated, you can compare your selling price and your overall costs, to estimate how much money you will get, or will need to pay, at closing to complete the transaction.
There are other factors that we can talk to you about as you prepare to list and market your home with us that many home sellers miss.
Know What You CAN Sell For
There is no specific price that you CAN sell your home for. However, market conditions and the condition of your home and landscaping are going to produce a price range that you will need to stay in to make the sale. One of the most important tools you can take advantage of in determining price is a comparative market analysis. This analysis takes into account the square footage of the home, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, the age and condition of the home, the style, neighborhood, and acreage to name some of the most common factors. Then it compares other similar homes and what they have sold for. This comparison will give you a price range. Choosing a price within this range is referred to as pricing at market value.
Time On Market Matters
Think of your home as a new product that is about to be released. People like new things. There is an excitement that surrounds the release of any new product, and that holds true with your home. You want to make sure that your home is priced right in the first two weeks of marketing it because the number of people looking at it is much higher than in the weeks that follow. Price it too high during this time and momentum is lost. Price it too low and you sell for less than you could have OR people don't come to look because they perceive that something is wrong. Getting the price right from the get-go is important so you need to get your price in the sweet spot on the price time continuum. As you can see from the chart to the right after week four interest drops dramatically and marketing becomes more expensive as a result.
The Price Time Continuum
This is the most important concept you will need to understand about pricing your home. There is a correlation between the price you set and how fast your home sells. As the asking price moves toward the high end of the market value pyramid, the time it takes to sell increases and it will normally take longer to sell. This is because you attract a lower percentage of buyers.
As the asking price moves closer to the lower end of the market value pyramid, you can expect the home to sell faster. Some sellers are looking for a quick sale, so they will price their home toward the lower end of market value. Other sellers are looking for maximum equity out of their home, or they need to get a certain amount out of the house to cover existing loans and expenses. They are motivated to wait longer for the possibility of a higher return on their investment.
The Bottom Line: The MARKET sets the price of your home. You set the time it will take to sell by where you choose your asking price on the pyramid.
There is one other factor that can dramatically affect how fast your home sells. Compensation to real estate agents or other referral sources. Compensation is outlined in contracts.
Contracts That The Lead To Offers
You probably already know that a contract is an agreement between two people who promise to do something in exchange for something else. In real estate, a written contract is important because it helps reduce misunderstandings and costly assumptions. It should also clearly outline what compensation the seller's agent and buyer's agent should receive for listing, marketing, managing, or selling a property. Compensation directly affects who is motivated to sell your home or bring a buyer to your home to see it. If compensation is too low for the selling agent or buyer's agent, the home may not get the attention it deserves because there are other homeowners willing to compensate real estate professionals more for the time and effort they put in to create a completed sale. When we list and market a home, we highly recommend you base compensation on current market trends in eastern Idaho to stay competitive and keep buyer's agents motivated to show and sell your home.
Contract To Close
Contract to close is by far the most misunderstood part of a real estate transaction. Ironically it is the most time consuming and requires the most experience. Without a real estate agent, navigating the contract to close process can be overwhelming for someone that hasn't done it before.
What is contract to close? It is the process required to get a contract on a property to the closing table, most often at one of our preferred title companies. Selling a home requires contracts. Real estate contracts have many provisions in them. They also clearly state the obligations and responsibilities of each party. Your contract may include home inspections, septic system inspections, well inspections, initial title commitments, lender requirements, lead-based paint compliance and inspections, deadlines for earnest money, deadlines for signatures, addenda, loan-specific conditions on the home, and more. It is easy to miss a step, a deadline, or an obligation that can have financial repercussions. This is the very reason why many for-sale-by-owner home sellers contact us once they find a buyer. Something as simple as qualifying a buyer prior to executing a contract can save a transaction before it gets too far in the process.
The bottom line is that posting a home for sale is only the first of many steps in selling a home. And it is usually the easiest part. We do so many transactions that we have seen most of the costly errors and omissions that people make. This knowledge gives us the ability to professionally manage each transaction to completion. There are many other steps when you sell your house. Understanding these concepts will get you well on your way to success as we work together to make it happen!
We are ready to market and manage the sale of your home. We are so confident in our ability, we will do the up front work and create a comparative market analysis for you free of charge, and do a free site visit to give you our professional opinion on a listing price. Don't wait. Find out now.