Agents sometimes get calls that go something like this:
CALLER: “Oh … I’m glad I caught you. I want to sell my house and need to have it on the market by this weekend.”
AGENT: “Great! I’m so glad you want me to help you with your home sale. Are you aware that it’s Thursday…Thursday afternoon?”
CALLER: “Yeah. Sorry for the late notice. I meant to call you this morning.”
Okay. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, many sellers are not aware of the significant lead time needed to do a good job at getting a house onto the market.
Let me stress on the words “good job.” We absolutely CAN get a house on the market very quickly when that is what a Seller wants, but you’ll achieve a much better result when there is time to plan and prepare.
Why? Well, it’s similar to what professional athletes experience. Most of their success on game day comes from how they’ve prepared for the game during the week.
Likewise, most of our success at getting top dollar for your place and finding a good Buyer comes from what we do before your property even goes on the market.
Pricing, staging, photography, creation of marketing materials … all of these things affect the end result. And, it takes some time to do them well.
In addition, give some thought to what you are doing when your house sells. Do you want to buy another place here in town? Are you relocating out of state? Moving to a monastery?
Assuming that you want to acquire another property, we need to get you pre-approved for a loan and figure out what the market is doing in the area where you want to be.
The bottom line: Call early. Even if your move is not going to be until later this year, it is best for us to talk about your plans as early as possible.
It will help us get you a better price for the place you are selling and to snag a better deal on the place you want to buy.
