Selling Your Home in a Hot Residential Market: What Prep Work Should Still be Done?

“Are you thinking about selling your home? Maybe you thought you’d be in your home for a long time to come. Perhaps you thought your grandchildren would play on the same swingset your kids played on . . .”

Home sells for $100,000 over the asking price.

Home sells without ever hitting the market.

Home receives 56 offers in 30 seconds.

OK, maybe not 56 in 30 seconds, but it doesn’t stray too far from all we have been hearing: there is a significant dearth of available homes for sale. Any of these headlines could be written about any number of markets in the country, but our market here in North Jersey seems to be one of the hottest of them all.

Are you thinking about selling your home?

It’s a little bit of a scary prospect. Maybe you thought you’d be in your home for a long time to come. Perhaps you thought your grandchildren would play on the same swingset your kids played on, and sleep in their bedrooms when they came for long weekend visits. 

But every day, reading about the shortage of inventory for homes in your area gets you wondering if this is a really smart time to sell. 

Hmmm.

I spoke to a few home-selling experts in BIG (Believe, Inspire, Grow), a networking group for women entrepreneurs I belong to for some of their professional guidance.

Specifically, I wanted to know if my clients are thinking about selling, how much streamlining of their “stuff” and home prep is required to get the house to move, and if they did decide to move what would make them be an attractive buyer to the current owners of their next home. 

Sell Your Home “As Is” or Fix Up: A Real Estate Agent’s Perspective

Lucy Thompson, of Keller Williams Realty in Summit, NJ says that while it is still a seller’s market, the amount of work done to prepare a home for resale directly impacts the selling price.

“It boils down to what is more important to the seller — the maximum price achievable by pulling out all the stops or the average price achievable by leaving buyers to use their imaginations,” she says.

“There is a direct correlation between the prep work done and the rewards,” Thompson said. “Sure, you can leave everything ‘as is’ and look ‘average’ on the market and still find multiple buyers and perhaps achieve over list, or you can go all out and declutter, clean out, touch up painting where needed, spruce up older parts of the house, and fix red flag items before photographs are taken and showings start and, as a result, achieve astounding results, leaving no money on the table at closing.”

Regardless of what you may have heard, it is always a beauty contest and a price war, and you don't want the buyer to start asking for credits or work to be done when they feel they are already paying way more than they expected, Thompson said.

“It is nearly always better to invest time and money up front and get ready for listing rather than leaving things to chance and neglecting, at your peril, things that make buyers wonder what else is going on ‘behind the facade’,” she said.

Getting Mortgage Ready: Tips from a Specialist

What if you are on the flip side of the sale? You have your house all ready to market  and need to find a new place to call home. What can you do to make yourself look the most viable to an active home seller?

Cathy Maloney of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage in Chatham, NJ also suggests taking the time to do some “prep work,” although it is a different kind. 

She suggests that buyers not only secure a preapproval letter from a mortgage lender, but an actual mortgage commitment to make them as strong as a cash buyer. 

“All you will need is a sales contract and an appraisal to close because you can show the seller that you have your financing all set and approved and underwritten and you’re as strong as a cash buyer,” she says. “Instead of showing your bank statement that says you have $1 million, you can show a mortgage commitment that says the same, which will help people choose you.” 

So there you have it. It’s always better to do all of your prep work and not allow “chance” to figure into the equation.

Give me a call if I can help you tackle the decluttering process, whether you are getting your home ready to take advantage of this market, or just want to live more comfortably in your home. Either way, I can help you achieve A Simpler Life Now.