Getting your Home Ready to Sell

We are definitely in a Seller's Market, defined by three months or less of houses to sell. When you remove the Pending Listings (132) from the most recent stats and the Home Sales (76) from the Active Listings (293), we have very little inventory to show prospective home buyers.

Active listings, typically fall into two camps: 1) on market today and under contract quickly or 2) properties that linger, waiting for a price drop or a condition change. 

I just learned this new term for properties with high days on market (DOM) or worst – high cumulative days on market (CDOM) and for properties that do not sell during their contract term, they should be called "market rejected."

Why? In a Seller's market, properties not selling in 90-120 days – the length of time for an offer and offer process to be completed – are clearly not resonating with buyers.

For most properties it may be one or more of the following reasons:
1) Not price-positioned properly for the current market.
2) House is not selling-ready.
3) House has been under contract, deal collasped and is now back on market. However, the perception lingers that the property is somehow flawed.

If you are planning on selling your home, first step is getting your home in ready condition. A big part of this is knowing exactly what shape your home is in. We always advocate having your home inspected before listing. This will cost $350-$400, but this one step could save you thousands of dollars during the contract period.

Pre-listing inspection helps you:

1) to correct any flaws that will be important to any buyer, from safety items such as earthquake straps on your hot water heater, installing C02 detectors or getting deferred maintenance completed.

When was the last time you cleaned your gutters or changed the filter in your HVAC? 

2) to price your home properly as you now know what needs to be corrected either before listing or by openly acknowledging what work should be done by the new owner. Armed with this information, you can price your home properly for the Walla Walla market.

In addition, this pre-inspection process will save you both time and the dreaded post-buyer inspection re-negotiation of price with fewer walk-away contingencies.

Care to know what else I offer above and beyond the typical 4 P's? If you don't know the standard four P's every ordinary agent will give you, drop me a note.

Posted on August 4, 2016 at 11:23 am  
Michele Rennie | Posted in Uncategorized