Let’s talk about how to drum up a bidding war on your home. We know that the most common goal when selling your property is to make the most you can, and we love partnering with sellers to make this happen. Let us teach you how to make the most money in the most pain free way possible.
A house is a huge investment over a long period of time for a lot of people, so we want to make sure that you get the most out of this. We've got a lot of experience in multiple offers from both sides of the table. We just want to share a little bit with you about what it is that you, from your stance as a seller, can do to help out the situation and in obtaining multiple offers.
Why would you even want multiple offers?
The goal behind getting multiple offers on your home is the idea that you could create a bidding war, which could potentially make the most amount of money for you, if that's your biggest priority in selling your home.
When a buyer knows that they're the only one putting an offer in, they're going to reserve a little bit. They're going to hold some of their chips. They're not going to lay them all out on the table at the beginning. If they're competing and they really want this house, all chips go out on the table from the beginning, meaning more chips go into your pocket as a seller.
Tip #1: Get a great agent.
The first tip that we have to get multiple offers is going to be no surprise to you... It's to get a great agent. We've already talked through a few episodes ago how to sell your home by yourself, if you would like. But really, the best way to try to get the most out of your house is to get an agent that is extremely knowledgeable and that knows your local market.
In addition to knowing the local market, they must be a very good negotiator and an expert marketer. (We'll go into a little bit about what it means for your agent to be an expert marketer below!)
They also need to know what's going to value and devalue your home in your area, are there schools that are way more popular? Are there freeways that people need to be close to in order to get to work? I also think they should have a good eye for design or at the very least be very knowledgeable on what buyers want and what the current trends are.
Tip #2: Prepare the house to your agent’s recommendations.
Your agent is going to help you prepare your house to get the most attraction. Our advice here is to take the recommendations seriously and don't take it personally.
Also keep in mind that a short term investment now can equal long term gains. If you have ever heard the saying “you have to spend money to make money,” it is true in this particular case. However, that can really vary depending on the state of your house, in the state of your market.
It’s JUST business. The way that you live in your house is going to be different than the way that buyers are looking for when they are coming to buy. So we'll start with a couple of our most common recommendations and things that we've seen over the years:
Neutral paint. A seller I previously worked with had a lovely kind of darker gray all throughout their house that was very on trend when they bought six or seven years ago. Well, if you're keeping up with current design trends, things are going more away from gray and way more to the whites. While this is beautiful for the way that you've lived in it, let's make it more neutral and it feels instantly more modern because they painted it white.
Repairs and cleanings. I.e. If you have a hole in your roof, it's time to get that repaired. (No surprise there.) A really deep clean on your grout or your carpet. Maybe even a sheetrock repair!
Updating finishes. Maybe you had butterfly knobs on your kitchen cabinets… That's not going to have mass appeal, so we might have you switch that up and really make a change there. I've also just told somebody to take a child lock off their front door because for them it's obvious it's for little kids to not escape the house. But to a buyer, they may think this neighborhood is unsafe. That indicates to them you needed an additional lock up top.
Decluttering. This is so worth the time. We always go through and room by room, help our clients understand what it means to be clutter. I had one seller that really summarized the process well for me. They said, “so if basically if it wouldn't be in a model home, I shouldn't have it on my shelf.” Additionally, if all of your closets are absolutely stuffed, that indicates to the buyers is that there is not enough storage in this home. They're seeing you just bursting at the seams in this home and they want to feel like it's nice and spacious and they're going to have enough storage.
Staging. We know that so many people love having their framed family photo huge right above the fireplace. Well, all that does to a buyer is scream this family lives here. Right? And they really struggle to picture themselves in the home. The same thing can be true with a lot of taxidermy, a lot of people that can be offensive or uncomfortable for them. So we may ask if you have a lot of that, to take that down. As for selling an empty home, it is a small investment to make to pay a staging company to put some furniture in the house just to get it sold.
Fragrance. You may think that this smells wonderful, but smells can be extremely divisive. And so we want to make sure that it is as neutral as possible. If your home is already pretty neutral smelling, we're going to keep it exactly as it is. But if you have a more distinct smell, a candle or even those plug in wallflowers, we may ask you to kind of dial it back and keep it neutral.
Tip #3: Execute a robust marketing plan.
If we are planning to get multiple offers, the marketing is so incredibly important and the timing of the marketing is equally as important. For example, if we're going to get multiple offers, we're probably going to market on a Thursday or Friday and the house will only be shown through that weekend. And then we're done. We've set a deadline. We've let a lot of people through, a lot of people have made offers and we’ve done so to hit the market on day one and have multiple offers by day two. There are so many things that we do like photos and all different sorts of media for the home. Not only is that because this is the first impression that 99% of people are going to see, they're going to see the home listed online somewhere. And the photos are the first thing that they're going to see. If we have additional media pieces, i.e. 3D tours, other items of that sort, it increases the algorithm on those sites. And our listing is going to be shown more than the others.
Tip #4: Price it appropriately.
Statistics show that if you price it too high consistently, people end up getting less for their house and they end up staying on the market longer. There is a reason that when people ask us, “oh, is this home priced correctly?” when they're looking to buy that, we go out and pull the comps. Every single agent has a different strategy and there are pros and cons to all of that. Make sure that you're looking at the numbers in the area. There should be really detailed comps coming from your agent on why they're pricing it the way they want to price it.
You need to be on the same page. Also, be aware that not everything on Zillow is the same in real life. Just know that the Zestimate sometimes estimates are accurate and a lot of times they're not. So trust your agent and lean on their guidance and expertise.
“Do you want to sell your house or do you want to just list your house?“
Everyone is searching based on filters. If their cap is $500,000 and you were you've priced your house at $510,000. Well, if it's truly worth $500,000 or less, you've missed the pool of buyers that are actually interested in your home. Everyone else is looking at houses that they can get more for their money at $510,000. And so you just want to make sure that you're looking at what's currently on the market.
Once that seller realizes they're not selling and reduces their price to $500,000, now they've got “days on market.” What is a buyer going to say when they walk into a house that's been on the market for 30 days, but everything else looks fine?..... “What's wrong with it? Wrong with this house? Why is it still here? Why is nobody buying it? There must be something I'm not seeing. Let's move on.”
Tip #5: Say “yes” to ALL showings.
We need to say yes to all showings, if possible. We don't want to turn buyers away. We get you've got a baby and they've got a nap schedule and they've got to go to bedtime. But, especially if the goal is only to be a few days on the market, we really need to work with as little restrictions as possible.
Try to be gone the first weekend, especially if you have little children. It helps to keep the house clean and ready for people to come through because the majority of buyers that you're going to get, are going to come through on that first weekend.
In Conclusion:
There is a lot that you can do as a seller to partner with your agent in making sure that your house gets the most attention and looks its best to get you the most money or whatever you want to get from your house and from the next buyer.
If you're interested in our help with selling your home reach out to us at the CastilloGroup.net. We can also help you find great agents anywhere across the country.
Happy selling!
Brianna & Keelie