Selling your home can really be surprisingly stressful, time-consuming, and emotionally challenging. It can really feel like a huge invasion of your privacy because strangers will come into your home, open your closets and cabinets, and poke around. They will criticize and chip away at your home that has become more to you than just walls and a roof. Then, they will offer you less money than you think your home is worth. It is so stressful, University Hospitals classify selling a home as the third top stressor a family and individual can face in their lifetimes - even more than a significant illness or major surgery. In this unique time, it is very easy to make plenty of mistakes based on emotion. However, with a little knowledge, you can avoid many of these blunders. Read on to discover how to sell your house for the most money in a reasonable time frame all without losing your mind.
Not Getting Emotional
When you decide to sell your home, start thinking of yourself as a salesperson instead of just the homeowner. Detach yourself and look at this completely from a purely financial perspective, this way, you can at least partially distance yourself from the rollercoaster of selling the property.
Force yourself to remember what you were feeling when you were looking for a home... full of stress and emotions... not only at the mountain of financial decisions, but at the new image and lifestyle you were about to step into. Always remember, people are evaluating the lifestyle you are selling. Your job is not only to add the access buyers need to evaluate the property - but to add value to the property where you can so that they can see what a wonderful life it would be to live in this home. This is where cleaning, staging and fresh paint will help. Staging a home can lead to much faster sales and higher home prices, but not everyone needs to hire a professional staging service. Just taking a few steps like cleaning and decluttering the home room by room can have a significant impact on a home's sale and will need to be done before moving regardless of the sale. This kind of investment with your time can really help you create emotional distance because your home will look less familiar.
Hiring a Real Estate Agent
Although real estate agents are paid a commission, it’s probably not a super idea to try to sell your home on your own to try to save money. So... what is the true value of hiring a real estate professional and how can they help reduce the stress of selling a home?
A good agent generally has your best interest at heart. The benefits of having one is not only that they will help you set a fair and competitive selling price for your home; but, they can get your home in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which greatly increasing your odds of finding a buyer in less time. The shorter the sale time - the less stress you will have during this process.
An agent can also help guard you from many empotional points of the sale that may come up. With an agent to effectively interact with buyers and other real estate professionals, you avoid all of those stressful moments during the entire process. Otherwise, it will be face to face with buyers or their agents who will try to relay everything they find negative about the house so they can pay a lower price. It can get very heartbreaking for a person to tout off points that attempt to see that your home is not worth what you are asking for it.
Finally, agents are familiar with all the tons of paperwork involved in real estate transactions and can help make sure the process goes very smoothly.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Keep your emotions in check and stay focused on the business aspect of selling your home and the final prize. Remember, you are selling a lifestyle.
Hiring an agent may cost you in commission, but it can really take a lot of the guesswork and emotional rollercoasters out of selling.
