Upgrading to a New Home – Home Selling Tips
Selling your home is one of the biggest challenges a homeowner will face throughout the life of owning a home. Upgrading to a new home (2nd or 3rd time home buyer) is not only an investment of equity but also a thrilling adventure, but you have to get the first home sold first! To do this, you need to be a savvy home seller with the
determination to make selling your home your number-one priority or “job.” There are several ways to avoid hardships and heartaches along the way.
First: You can’t always help what a home buyer is going to do, but there are things you can do to protect yourself as the seller. Be wise and make sure that the person putting an offer on your home can actually afford to buy your home. Make sure they are pre-approved by a lender. Pre-approved, not just pre-qualified. Many people can get pre-qualified based on their answers to a loan application and credit check, but when it comes down to actually examining tax returns and verifying employment, there is a big difference. Turn down any offers of buyers that are unwilling to take this next step.
Second: Examine and inspect your home before your home inspector does. Or, if you feel like you have already made all repairs and improvements to your home before you put it on the market, be efficient about getting the home inspection done as soon as possible. The home inspection is what can make or break a sale, so be proactive and fix what needs fixing and for a great home buyer offer, get the inspection done and be open to the results.
Third: Make sure you don’t “price yourself out of the market” with the sale of your home. What you think it’s worth and what a home buyer thinks it’s worth can be very different. Appraisals are pricey, but if you have a strong discrepancy of what you are asking and where buyers’ offers are coming in, you may want to get an appraisal to boost your chances of getting your asking price. You can even include this information in your listing.
Fourth: Some buyers want to live a rural lifestyle with no rules or restrictions while other buyers prefer to live in a neighborhood with strict HOA rules and guidelines to protect their home investment from losing value. If you live in an HOA protected subdivision, be sure to have the HOA Guidelines available for your potential buyers. You don’t want them to be blindsided halfway through the process when they find out they can’t keep their cabin cruiser boat sitting in the driveway of this home they just purchased. Information like this can avoid these types of deal-breaking dilemmas.
Fifth: If you purchased your home either as a previously owned home or a new home, you should have gotten title insurance. If you didn’t get title insurance, you are going to want to consider getting an abstract of title for your home to reassure your home buyer that your home has a clear title. You will want to make sure that all old mortgages have been cancelled and the you personally have not acquired any liens during the time that you have owned your home.
Using the tips above will help you have a smooth home selling process and allow you to upgrade to your next home purchase. If you are considering buying a new, custom home for your next purchase, Contact Ron Lee Homes today to set up a personal consultation. Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail [email protected].
