The housing market in Seattle, Washington has been just as fast-paced and high-priced as everywhere else in the country. With record low inventory and high demand, housing prices are set to remain high during 2022. If you are considering cashing in on the record high housing prices by selling your home you’ll need to prepare. Selling your home can be a difficult process but you’ll have a good chance of selling quickly for a great price by using these home selling tips.
Hire a Top Real Estate Agent
You may be tempted to sell your home on your own to forgo the commission cost of working with a real estate agent. But if you are looking to get the best price for your home, you may want to reconsider. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of For Sale by Owner homes was $260,000 while agent-involved home sales averaged $318,000. Along with fetching a better home sale price, real estate agents speed up the home buying and selling process. With proven strategies and insider expert knowledge, a real estate agent can market your home effectively, set the appropriate sales price, and prioritize necessary updates and repairs. There are also basic real estate activities that an agent can handle to lessen the stress that comes along with selling a home. Real estate agents can handle the advertising and showing of your home. They can also prepare contracts, oversee attorney reviews, negotiate offers, review disclosures, review loan paperwork, arrange title searches, and facilitate the signing of closing documents.
To hire a real estate agent, you should begin with a basic search of local agents. You can also ask friends, family, and colleagues for recommendations. Next, do a bit of research. Check the agent’s website, their past sales, years of experience, etc. When you have narrowed your search down you should set up a meeting with a few agents to find the one that best meets your needs.
Prepare Your Home’s Interior
In order to sell your home quickly and at a great price, you need to declutter and clean your home’s interior. Begin by removing excess clothes, bedding, towels, papers, magazines, and other items that have built up over the years. Decluttering can be a long process but it can increase your home’s resale value by almost $2,600. While you are decluttering you should remove overly personalized items from around your home. You may love your collection of seashells from all your trips to the ocean, but if they are taking up space around your home they will look like clutter to a home buyer. Aside from removing excess items, you should reorganize the remaining items especially those in cabinets and other large storage areas that are attached to your home. Keeping these areas free of clutter will make them look larger and increase your home’s marketability.
When you have decluttered you can deep clean your interior. This means scrubbing all of the far-away corners and backs of cabinets that you have neglected over the years. Deep clean the appliances, sinks, bathtub, toilets, lamps, and ceiling fans with a multi-purpose cleaner and rag. When you have cleaned these items you can move on to the floors that will either need to be steam cleaned if it is carpet or mopped if it is a hard floor. Deep cleaning involves quite a bit of elbow grease and is not a favorite project among homeowners, but it is beneficial to your home’s selling potential and the resale price.
Spruce Up the Exterior
Cleaning the exterior of your home is much the same as cleaning the interior. You must first declutter the outside before you can clean. To declutter remove leftover branches, leaves, sticks, and debris from your yard and around your house. Next, throw away or donate extra outdoor furniture and accessories that you no longer need or that are old. When your exterior is decluttered you should begin cleaning by power washing your home. This will remove dirt, grime, mold, and mildew from your home’s exterior. Be cautious around your home’s windows and trim as these areas are more prone to cracking and chipping. In some areas, it may be best to use warm soapy water and a soft cloth for cleaning. You should power wash your driveway, walkway, and front porch as well.
Stage Your Home
There is never a time when the saying less is more is truer than when staging a home. The less furniture you add to a room, the larger and more appealing it is to potential home buyers. Homes that are staged typically sell faster than unstaged homes by an average of 3 to 5 days and can increase a property’s sale price. Staging your home is all about creating an inviting feeling that allows potential buyers to envision themselves living in the home. The most important rooms to stage are the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. When you stage your rooms, first choose the focal point of the room. Next, create an area that points toward the focal point. For instance, if you are staging your living room, you can choose your television set at the focal point with your couch and accent chairs slightly angled toward the television. Keep furniture to a minimum and choose pieces that are neutral and not oversized. Accent the room with a few small throw pillows, an ottoman, and accent lamps as well as a limited amount of decor on the shelves and walls.
Boost Your Curb Appeal
Nothing draws potential buyers in as quickly as beautiful curb appeal. In fact, a nicely maintained exterior can bring in an additional 1%-5% more of your home’s value to the final sales price. In order to catch the attention of potential buyers, you should begin by fertilizing your lawn, removing weeds, and tending to bare or thinning patches of grass with grass seed. A well-cared-for lawn is by far the most important exterior project if you want to attract buyers. When your grass is growing and the bare spots are covered you should trim your lawn, keeping your grass to a height of approximately three inches. In addition to a beautiful lawn, you should add a small landscaped area that contains small bushes, easy to care for flowers, and mulch. This combination of landscaping has been shown to increase a home’s marketability and a home’s final sales price. Choose an area that gets the most sun preferably around your front porch or walkway. Next, add several small bushes and two to three different types of perennial flowers that are native to your area. When your flowers and bushes are planted, cover the area around them and the entirety of the landscaped area with a fresh layer of mulch. Adding the final touch of fresh mulch will finish off the area and add close to $1,800 to your home’s value.
Selling your Seattle home doesn’t need to be difficult especially when you have a top real estate agent guiding you in the process. Follow your real estate agent’s advice, use a few of the tips listed above, and you’ll be able to sell your home quickly and at a great price.
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