Home sellers hope for a stress-free sales process; they list their house, find a qualified buyer, then close just a few weeks later. In reality, the home selling process is far more complicated. Add the fact that you don’t sell a home today as you did ten years ago. The process of selling a home in Greenville and getting top dollar has changed so much in the last decade.
Knowing what to expect when selling your home in Greenville is key to navigating the days ahead. If you plan on selling a home now or in the next few months, use this ten-step guide to selling your home in Greenville.
Choose the Right Time to Sell
Spring is typically thought of as the best time to sell your home in Greenville as this is when homes are sold the fastest. Taking into account the seasonal trend in the Greenville real estate market can help you choose the right time to sell. However, other factors such as personal reasons, financial conditions, and market conditions should also weigh into your decision.
If you are not in a rush to sell your Greenville home, it may be worth it to wait for a few months to list your home. If you choose to list in the slower season or if the market condition is not in your favor, keep in mind that your home may still sell, but it may take more time on the market than you’d like it to. Weigh the pros and cons of the time of year as you prepare to list your Greenville home.
Homes tend to sell faster in the spring and summer months. The typical Greenville home took 23 days on the market in April 2022. Take a look at the graphic below showing historical days on the market of homes until sale by month.
Decide How To List Your Greenville Home
After you’ve decided it’s time to sell your Greenville home, the next step is to determine how you plan to list your property. You can go FSBO (For Sale By Owner) or you can list it with a Greenville real estate agent.
Selling a home by owner is tempting but it is also a big risk to take especially for the first-time home sellers. You’ll be responsible for your own marketing, putting your listing on the Multiple Listing Service or MLS, you’ll be showing your house, negotiating the sale with the buyer’s agent, and you’ll be doing all the paperwork.
Working with a real estate agent can often actually get your home sold. A real estate agent can help you handle all of the paperwork from start to finish. A good Greenville realtor will protect your interests and resolve any problems that may arise, ensuring a stress-free home selling process, and they’ll market your home for no additional cost.
Deciding to sell your home on your own at first and then later hiring a Greenville realtor may not prove helpful, either. The more time your home spends on the market, the less likely it is to sell overall.
If you choose to list your home with a Greenville agent, hire one who knows the market well. Our team has listing specialists who have years of experience selling homes in the greater Greenville area. Here’s a quick link to Why list with the J. Michael Manley Team to get to know more about why we are one of the top Greenville realtors in the Upstate.
Price Your Greenville Home Right
It doesn’t matter if you have the most beautiful house in your neighborhood or if the current Greenville real estate market is competitive, you should not overprice your home. Overpricing your Greenville home can cut your pool of potential buyers in half. The goal is to sell your home on the market, so pricing it right from the get-go is important. If you’re working with a Greenville realtor, they will help you look at the comparable sales in the area to get some sense of what’s moving on the market.
Read more: Why pricing your home is important
Consider Getting A Home Inspection
Getting a home inspection before listing your Greenville home is something of an investment. Not every home seller takes this step, but it can be a good way to ensure the home selling process is hassle-free. A home inspection will help you understand what potential problems you may have like structural or mechanical issues before listing your home for sale.
Many home sellers wait for buyers to get a home inspection and often sit on edge waiting for the results. If you have your Greenville home for sale pre-inspected, that puts you a few steps ahead of the buyer and allows you to tackle the repairs along with any potential prep work. You won’t need to drop your price if a major problem was found after the buyer conducted their own inspection because you have already set your selling price accordingly if you decide not to fix the issues. On the other hand, when you decide to make repairs or upgrades, you can ask buyers for more money.
Read more: Benefits of getting a home inspection before listing your home
Improve Your Home
When you make the decision to sell your home, it can be tricky to know which changes would make your home sell more quickly or boost the sale price.
Your priorities will depend on your plans to sell your home. If you’re trying to sell your home soon for the highest possible price, your home improvement priorities are likely somewhat different than if you’re planning to stay for a few years. Maximize the amount you’re going to spend updating your home by knowing what improvements buyers value the most.
Here are 10 home improvements that not only increase the value of your home but also boost your home’s curb appeal.
Prepare Your Home For Sale
Decluttering is one of the things that you will need to do before a sale. An organized home has a better chance of selling than a home with clutter. Declutter so the buyers can see your house and not your clutter. The more space you’re able to show the more you’ll be able to sell.
Depersonalize your home by removing personal items such as photos, souvenirs, religious items, certificates, and other personal artifacts. This will help buyers to visualize themselves in your house. Personal items only serve to distract buyers. You don’t want them looking at your photos, they should be focusing on the details of your home.
Improve your home’s curb appeal. If your home for sale lacks curb appeal, it will not entice buyers to see your property. You have to make a good impression to catch the buyer’s attention. A few aesthetic upgrades and some touch up can give your home for sale a better first impression and can also bring a better price.
Hire A Professional Real Estate Photographer
Because home buyers will most likely see your listing online. It is wise to hire a real estate photographer to take photos of your home. Between a point and shoot photos and professional HDR photos, the first will pale in comparison to the latter. The listing presented in the best possible light will have more traffic and more buyer interest. If you want to sell your home quickly, hiring a professional photographer is a must.
If you are selling FSBO, marketing your home can cost some money but the budget you put to present your home with professional photos will not go to waste because it will give your marketing an edge and will give more traffic to your listing.
If you are listing with a Greenville realtor, you normally don’t have to worry about this cost because most agents include photography in the listing package, but it is best to check if the agent is using professional photos in his/her other listings.
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HDR Professional Photo
List Your Greenville Home
After you prepare your home for sale and your home looks great, it’s time to put your house on the market. If you’re working with a Greenville realtor, this step will be a relatively simple one as your listing agent will handle all of the listing details, put your property on the Greenville Multiple Listings Service, and do all the marketing so your listing will be presented to a network of agents and pool of buyers. If you’ve chosen to list it FSBO, you may have quite a bit of work to do to ensure you’ve adequately promoted your home for sale.
Prepare Your Home For Showings
Certainly, you want your home to look at its best when showing it to potential buyers. After all, the “showing” will be the determining factor whether or not somebody wants to buy your home. You’ll want your home clean all the time, remove any clutter, and make sure your home is ready at every possible moment for a showing. Give the buyer no reason to look at another property. Stage and accentuate your home’s positive attributes.
Accepting Offers, Negotiating, And Closing
If your home is priced and marketed correctly, offers should start to roll in. Your Greenville real estate agent will help you evaluate each offer and approach each one as an opportunity to negotiate.
As a seller, it is only natural to want to succeed and get the most from the transaction but
you must keep in mind that negotiation involves giving and taking. The negotiation must come up with an agreement that represents a fair balance of interests. Your Greenville realtor can help you respond to each offer and decide what might be suitable to meet your needs.
Both you and the homebuyer have closing costs. If you use a Greenville realtor, you will be paying your real estate agent a commission, usually around 5 percent to 6 percent of your home’s sale price. Additionally, there are other closing costs to be paid if those were negotiated early on. Your Greenville real estate agent should provide you with a complete list of costs you’ll be responsible for at the closing table.
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Source: GGAH
