Real estate transactions involve large amounts of money,
those who are best prepared collect the greatest rewards.
How to Prepare A Home for
Sale; Avoid Surprises and Losses
Professional home inspector offering advice on how to prepare a house for sale
before placement on real estate listings.
On this page:
- What matters most when listing homes for sale
- Addressing problems first
- How can my home inspections help home sellers
- When should pre-sale home inspections be done
Selling a home is far from easy, whether using a real estate agent or not.
It requires skill in pricing, timing, and advertising, and involves an array of tasks,
from talking to prospects and finding qualified buyers, to showing the house and negotiating its sale.
Sellers must also deal with legal forms, title insurance, transfer of ownership,
the seller's disclosure, and many other collateral issues.
Homes for sale appear on the market in 3 main ways: real estate listings with brokers,
homes for sale by owner, and homes for sale with help-you-sell agencies.
Although different, they all make substantial demands on the seller,
who must remain involved in the process and make all major decisions.
What Matters Most When Listing Homes For Sale
Generally, the most important thing in selling real estate is setting the appropriate price.
This will be influenced by your location, the dedication and skill you or your agent possess,
the advertising you do, other real estate listings in the area,
and the number of home buyers interested in that area.
What most home sellers fail to consider is that, once a buyer comes into the scene a new
factor takes on primary importance. The actual physical condition of the house for sale can,
and often will, deter a potential buyer at any time in the sale process
- from the first visit to the final closing of the sale.
Purchase agreements, for good reason, are made pending satisfactory inspection results.
This means that the results of a home inspection can authorize the buyer to withdraw from the purchase agreement.
The results of home inspections can also dramatically affect the sale price.
This is why many contracts get renegotiated after the home inspection.
As a home seller, you may think that you have lived in the house and know that it is fine.
But, you must ask yourself if professional home inspectors will think so too.
Drawing on extensive training and experience home inspectors often reveal surprises.
They look beyond appearances to evaluate the true condition of your house.
If you have a home inspection before you place your home for sale,
you will be aware of any problems that are likely to affect the price.
Once known, you can address them yourself or simply factor them into your overall expectations.
The cost of home inspections is far smaller then the gains to be made if homes are
properly prepared for sale, or the losses to be taken otherwise.
Those with homes for sale by owner need the advice of a home inspector more then anyone else,
yet they are least likely to use home inspection services.
Addressing Problems First
There are many ideas about how to prepare homes for sale.
It's a very popular belief that a little cosmetic fix-up will help,
and this is often the case. However, while cosmetic improvements may initially attract buyers,
competent home inspectors will limit their effectiveness. This is because home inspectors look beyond appearances,
and real problems cannot be hidden behind a fresh coat of paint.
In addition, some sellers are advised to remodel their kitchen or bathroom because
the kitchen sells the house. This has validity as long as nothing
else is wrong with the house. However, if you spend $10,000 to update the kitchen,
and the home inspection reveals a structural problem, you have wasted your money.
The wise approach is to fix problems first and then turn to improvements.
A house without problems will sell easily with or without a new kitchen,
but in a house with problems the new kitchen gets forgotten.
Repair and Maintenance
Homes for sale that have been kept with proper and timely home maintenance
sell soon after placement in the real estate listings. The other home sellers
must catch up with repairs before placing the homes for sale, or loose money.
Professional home inspectors can help in identifying what needs to be repaired
or improved in order of priority and most likely will affect the sale price of the home.
When Should Pre-Sale Home Inspections Be Done
Pre-sale home inspections and the repairs should be done before the house is placed on the market.
As a home seller you need a little time to decide which repairs you will do,
and which you will factor into the sale price. It is not wise to perform repairs while
agents and prospective buyers are coming through the house.
It is not good to perform repairs after the buyer has noted a defect, and even worse
if the disclosure came from their home inspector, not from you.
There are many repairs that properly guided homeowners can do with little expense.
This work done in advance can profoundly affect how much prospective buyers
are willing to pay for your house.
