Whatever your motivations for selling, you will want to secure the best price for your property and experience few to no delays. Here are some tips to sell your home fast in Hartford County, CT.
- Find an agent
When selling your home in any market, it’s important to enlist the services of a listing agent who can guide you through the process. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2019 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, agent-assisted listings sold for an average of $280,000 compared to just $200,000 for For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings.
Working with an agent not only allows you to potentially sell your home for a higher price, it also frees up your time – your Realtor will take care of the finer details of staging, pricing, and marketing your home so that you can focus on work, family, and relocation.
- Set clear goals
Why are you selling your home? Establishing your motivations as a seller early on in the process can help inform your strategy for pricing, marketing, and negotiating the sale. This will also help you determine what you hope to achieve from the process.
If you have personal motivations for selling, such as a divorce, death in the family, health crisis, or work relocation, then it might be in your best interest to close the sale quickly, which may require you to make several concessions to the buyer.
But if the sale is purely about business – say, you are flipping the property or hoping to make a profit from home appreciation and high demand – then you can afford to wait for the best possible offer.
Each sale is different – talk to your agent about your real estate goals to come up with the right strategy.
- Get ready for the sale
Depending on your goals and the overall condition of the property, you may have to wait months or years to get ready for the sale. For example, if you want to fetch a higher price for the property, you may need to male various repairs and improvements first. And if you’ve had the property for a while, you may need to update the décor as well.
Then there’s the work of decluttering and depersonalizing the space – both of which may take a while depending on how much stuff you’ve acquired over the years.
- Stage your home
22% of listing agents observed a 1% to 5% increase in dollar value in offers compared to similar properties while 17% noted 6% to 10% dollar value increase.
Moreover, 28% observed slight decreases in the time on the market for staged properties.
Needless to say, home staging can increase your chances of selling the property faster and more profit. Your agent will help you stage your home.
There are many ways to do this – from renting furniture and artwork to simply decluttering and removing your personal effects from the property, the sky’s the limit for home staging.
- Price your home accurately
Pricing your home is a delicate art – price is too high, and you may not get serious offers; price it too low, and you risk missing out on a profit. So how do you find the middle ground for pricing?
To price your home correctly, you must look for comparable properties and recent sales in the neighborhood. This will help you determine how much buyers are willing to pay for a similar home in the area. Your agent will give you an estimated price range using recent market data.
It’s common practice for agents to set the asking price slightly higher than the property’s fair market value (FMV) to give buyers enough leeway to negotiate lower without slashing profits. However, this pricing strategy may not work in every scenario. Your agent will advise you accordingly.
- Market your home
Once your home is ready to sell, you’ll have to market it extensively to attract offers. It’s worth investing in high quality marketing collateral such as professional photos, drone videography, 3D tours, and real estate copy to make your listing as appealing as possible.
Your agent will promote the property using the MLS, social media, official website, and their professional network of buyers and sellers.
They can also schedule open houses, private viewings, and virtual tours to show the property and persuade buyers to make an offer.
- Vet offers
If your marketing strategy is effective and your home is priced accurately, the offers should start pouring in a matter of days or weeks depending on the temperature of the housing market. Once you start receiving offers, you’ll have the option to accept, reject, or counter these offers.
You may also choose to engage just one buyer before entertaining other offers, or vet several offers all at once. Your agent will give feedback during this stage of the selling process – but the final decision rests in your hands.
Ready to sell? The Danais Gordon Realty Group is here for you. You can message me, Kathy Danais, at 860.214.1295 and 860.214.1295 and KathyDanais(at)gmail(dotted)com, Lisa Gordon, at 860.805.7722 and LGordonRealtor(at)gmail(dotted)com. With 15 years of experience in buying and selling Connecticut real estate, we can help you secure the best offer for your home.