How To Prep and Sell Your Home for Top Dollar

Our goal is to exceed our client’s real estate goals while providing a hassle free transaction. In order to do so, we must align the seller’s goals with realistic expectations of the current market. From here, we can establish a strategy that positions the home for a top dollar sale.

The first step is deciding if you are ready to sell your home. Selling a home is a big commitment and if there are any hesitations or reservations, it will make the process difficult. Deciding that you’re ready is the single most important initial step to make.

Prep Home For Sale

1. Provide a detailed Personalized Plan. This includes time frames, expectations, costs (Transaction fees and a budget for any potential renovations if decided on.)
2. Renovations and Upgrades may be decided on to optimize the value of your home. This is where a ROI (Return on Investment) analysis to break down the costs, timing, and rewards will be analyzed to determine if it’s a play to consider.
3. Provide a Personalized Detailed List to prepare home for sale with recommendations.
   • List includes items like: Declutter, Repaint Walls, Landscaping, Replace Old Appliances, Deep Cleaning, etc.
   • In the Personalized Plan, we will determine if any upgrades/renovations are in your best interest and how we can cost effectively increase the value of your home. Increase the value with the least amount spent.
4. After Prepping the home, we stage it to sell! This helps buyers visualize the usage of space and helps buyers make a decision quicker. Hiring a professional staging company can be costly so there are alternatives. The most likely option is to stage the home yourself, especially if you are occupying the property. Here are a few tips to stage a property to sell.
   • Get rid of Clutter! Decluttering will make the space seem a lot bigger than if it were to have clutter.
   • Replace old yellow lights, with bright new lights.
   • De-personalize the home. Put family photos away. Buyers want to envision themselves in the home. Family photos can create a disconnect to a buyer.
   • Keep it simple. Add minimal, neutral decor which will open the space and makes it easy for buyers to envision their own preferences.
   • Upgrade Curb Appeal. Clean up the landscaping. Remove weeds and any unnecessary items in yard. Add cute plants/flowers if possible.
5. Optional: Conducting a Pre-Listing Inspection. Hiring an inspector will allow you to see if there are any problems that will come up during the sale. Knowing this, you may want to fix significant issues for a smooth transaction.

Marketing

1. Pricing Strategy: Pricing your home to sell is crucial for a top dollar sale. We do this by figuring out the value of your home and pricing it 5%-10% below that value.
   • It may be scary but this will instantly get you the maximum amount of exposure. Buyers will be motivated to schedule a showing and are more likely to submit an offer if they feel like they are getting good value for the home. Once they realize that there are multiple offers on the home, their competitive nature kicks in and a bidding war begins.
2. Professional Photography
3. Exclusive 10 Day Marketing Blitz: 27 Step Proactive Approach to Get Your Home Sold. Here are some key steps
   1. Social Media Marketing - Targeted ads in the direct area and optimize to find potential buyers.
   2. Neighborhood Calls - Call 50-100 People everyday to find potential buyers.
   3. Direct Mail Postcards - Just Listed Postcards to notify neighbors and to find potential buyers.
   4. Market to our network of over 1000+ people in the South Bay to find potential buyers.
   5. …& More

A top dollar sale is a result of a cohesion of prepping, marketing, and a good pricing strategy. A real estate agent who can tie all of these together while having the transactional knowledge to negotiate with buyer’s agents will help you result in a top dollar sale.

If you have any questions, or are thinking of selling but not sure where to start… Contact Kai 310-648-0996 and we will be happy to answer questions and guide you through the process.

Know someone who’s thinking about selling? Feel free to pass along this info to help them understand what should be expected of from a listing agent.