6 Factors That Will Impact the Sale of Your Home.

If you are thinking of selling your home this year you should understand how these 6 factors will have an impact on the sale of your home.

Location

Location is the single biggest factor in real estate. When you are thinking about selling your home the desirability of the location will play a huge role in the pricing strategy and the overall demand. While you can not change the location of your home, it is important to highlight all the benefits of where your home is located.

It is a good idea for you to make a list of things about the location that you enjoy. Maybe there is a local park that is really good for a family with young children, or there might be small local restaurant that isn’t really well known but serves the best fajitas. As part of the process of getting ready to list you home it is important to highlight anything that is positive about the location to help make it more desirable to a potential buyer.

Type & Style

The type and style of your home will appeal to different types of buyers. We aren't talking about interior design here, more the building style of your home.

Different types of homes, such as town homes vs detached homes, will affect the desirability of your home by potential buyers. In addition, different styles of homes, such as a bungalow, two story, or side split, will all appeal to buyers with different needs.

Another style element that will impact the sale of your home is the layout of the house. An open concept home is what many buyers are looking for these days.

Each type and style of home will have different pricing dynamics and will appeal to different buyers in the market. It is important to remember that your home will not appeal to every buyer, and that is alright. We just need your home to appeal to the buyers looking for your type of home.

Competition

Prospective buyers are going to compare your home to other listings in and around your neighbourhood. Buyers will determine value based on properties that are currently available or have recently sold in the area.

You can not control what other properties will be on the market when you place your home for sale. As your real estate advisor, I know what properties are currently listed and the landscape of the competitive marketplace so that we can establish a strategy to position your home as more desirable then others that are currently available.

If you are considering selling your home and would like to know more about the competition in the marketplace, I'd love to put together a market analysis for you, so you can see where your home would fit in the market today.

Condition

You’ve heard the saying you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The condition of your home will make an impression on buyers and will help determine the price you can ask for your home and the desirability of your home when compared to other properties available on the market.

There are a few things that will go a long way when thinking about condition, the first is that the home has been kept in good shape and items such as the roof, furnace, and air conditioning have been kept in good working order and have been updated as needed over the life of the home.

Next is to ensure that small repairs are made prior to putting your home on the market. Small things like a loose door handle or a missing piece of baseboard trim are not major repairs but a potential buyer might see these as indications of other underlying issues with the home.

It is extremely important to give your home a deep clean inside and out prior to putting it on the market. Making sure the home is clean for showings, gardens are kept weeded with fresh mulch and the grass is cut will go a long way to making a good first impression on potential buyers as they approach your house for the first time.

Price

Price is the most significant tool that a seller has to affect the time it will take for their home to sell.  Pricing a home too high will turn potential buyers away and will cause your home to sit on the market and become a “stale” listing in the eyes of many buyers. The unfortunate reality is that many times when a property is priced too high the sellers end up taking a below market offer for their home after many months waiting for the right buyer to come along.

When working with clients to establish the right listing price it is important to consider, your motivation and circumstances, the price that similar homes (based on location, style and condition) have sold for recently and what similar homes are currently available on the market, as your competition.  Based on these factors I will recommend a price that will position the home favourably in the marketplace and when combined with a well planed marketing strategy will bring the largest number of qualified buyers to your home.

Marketing

Marketing is what we can do to separate your home from the other homes on the market and ensure that it is exposed to the largest number of qualified home buyers as possible. The process of marketing your home begins with staging and ensuring that the condition of the home will appeal to the largest number of buyers.

The next step is to capture you home looking it’s best with high quality professional photos and video of your home. Since almost all home buyers begin their search on line it is imperative that you have great looking photos and video of your home so that buyers will be interested enough to schedule and in person viewing of your home.

Once we have captured your home looking it’s best it's time to expose it to the widest number of potential buyers. This will combine on line listing sources, such as MLS, realtor.ca, various other real estate websites as well as advertising through social media, and traditional forms of advertising such as direct mail, door knocking, agent tours and open houses.  There is no one size fits all marketing plan but the idea here is to get your home in front of the largest number of people that might be interested in buying it.

The process of selling your home can be stressful but understanding how these factors will affect the sale of your home will provide some insight into what we are trying to achieve in this process. My goal is to net you the most amount of money in the least amount of time. If you have been thinking of selling your home and would like to discuss how these factors will impact the sale of your home, I would love the opportunity to get together with you to see how I can help you achieve your real estate goals.