So, you’ve decided you want to sell your Charlottesville Home and now you want to start the process. Where do you begin?
The first step in selling Charlottesville Real Estate, believe it or not, is not to call a Realtor. The first step should be to evaluate the current market conditions. It is best for you to do this without others influencing your evaluation.
Current Market
Are we in a Buyer’s market or Seller’s market? At the writing of this post the answer seems obvious, but I can tell you from experience that it is not always the case.
Many times the market is much more balanced, equal buyers and sellers, and, in fact, the current buyer pool is increasing and the inventory pool is more balanced than this time last year.
Evaluate your Charlottesville Home
The next step is an unemotional evaluation of your home. I often tell sellers to look at their home through the eyes of a buyer. At this point, if you have an agent, you will want your agent to bring you to see inventory that is competing with your home. Do not, I repeat, do not just rely on MLS photos or stats. First hand viewing of homes is critical and really will only take a few hours.
About Real Estate Photos
A note about MLS photos and why you cannot rely on them. Many agents, our firm included, will use a professional photographer, and their job is to make the home look as appealing as possible to get buyers to visit the property. Some Photographers will use a wide-angle, or fish-eye, lens. I have even seen some photos that are color enhanced. Once, I even saw where a power line somehow vanished from behind a home in a photo. I feel that these last two examples are wrong and misleading to the public.
Stage Your Charlottesville Home
Next, you want to Stage Your Home. We have written about Staging your Charlottesville Home in great detail and the main point is to be sure that your home is presented BETTER than the competition. Yes, it is a competition.
Price Your Charlottesville Home
Finally, Price of Your Home. Again, we have written about Pricing your Charlottesville Home and the main idea is to price very competitively. If you’ve over-price you will not sell your home. If you visited the competition you should have a better sense of where to price your home competitively.
If you follow these steps, Selling your Charlottesville Real Estate will not be as big an effort as you first imagined.
One Final Note
If you bypass or try to shortcut the above steps you are just shortcutting yourself. Let us know if we can be of any assistance.
