Fall is a great time to sell your home. Summer is winding down. Buyers are sending the kids back to school and getting back to the business of finding a house. You need to be ready to hit the ground running right after Labor Day. When all the other sellers (your competition) are enjoying one last trip to the lake, you need to get your home ready to sell this fall by addressing five key issues.
1. Outside
Keep the lawn mowed and the leaves picked up. At the very least, remove all those fall leaves from the front walk to welcome Buyers.
2. De-clutter
You’ve seen all the television shows and know what to do. It’s hard; I know. But if you want your home to sell, you need to let people see it. Remove at least 50% of your knick-knacks.
3. Do a smell test
We don’t notice smells in our own houses because we are there all the time. Your house should not smell like anything; it should be neutral. The cat litter box is obvious but many houses smell overwhelmingly of air freshener, which is just as big of a turn off. Invite a blunt friend or relative over and tell them you need them to be honest so you can sell your home.
4. Re-visit the price
Talk to your Agent. Lower the price at least $5,000, if your home is $150K or less. A more expensive home should drop $10-25K for a price reduction to be effective. You want that new price to hit right after Labor Day. When everyone else is unpacking from the long weekend camping trip, you will already have a big jump on your competition.
5. Keep re-visiting the price
What few people realize is that you only have until Thanksgiving to get an offer and then everything slows way down for the holidays until mid-January. The 1st rule of real estate is location, location, location but the 1st ruling of selling real estate is price overcomes all obstacles. Meaning: be aggressive on the price if you want to sell your house this fall. Don’t believe me? I had a one bedroom condo to sell but it wasn’t getting any showings. Thanksgiving was fast approaching and I knew I had to move quickly. I dropped the price three times, $5,000 every two weeks. No showings after the 1st drop, no showings after the second drop but after the third drop – boom! 14 showings in two days with three offers! We closed 4 days before Thanksgiving.
Fall is a great time to sell a home. If you follow the steps above, you can sell yours this fall, too.