Throughout my career, I’ve sold hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to sell homes for maximum profit. I’ve honed strategies that apply in any market and I know the mistakes you should try to avoid.
So, how do you best position your property for sale? Let’s explore the key questions you and your real estate professional need to ask.
What is the Nature of the Current Market?
The current real estate market conditions will determine a lot of your strategy. It’s important to understand what is going on with home prices, average days on market, buyer demand, mortgage rates and so much more. We’ve been in a strong seller’s market in Los Angeles for the past couple years, but things are starting to level out again. A home seller needs to study the trends and develop a positioning strategy that will be most effective in that market.
Who is Your Buyer?
I always think a great technique is to develop several buyer profiles. You should understand the type of buyers who will be most interested in your home and have the budget to purchase it. This enables you to be more targeted when it comes to staging, marketing and promotion. Knowing your audience will give you a huge advantage. Of course, you want to attract as many potential buyers as possible to increase your odds of getting good offers. However, you still want to attract the right type of buyers who will be serious about buying your house—not just a bunch of “tire-kickers.” This is done through more targeted marketing efforts.
What is Your Home’s Value?
Pricing is absolutely critical when selling your home. You have to be careful not to underprice and weaken your negotiating position. At the same time, you should overprice and turn away potential buyers. You are always looking for the ideal “sweet spot” that will bring in more buyers and result in multiple competitive offers. Here are the pros and cons of different pricing approaches:
- Higher Pricing—You will be pushing the market with a higher pricing approach. This may limit your reach and decrease the amount of potential buyers, but may pan out with a max-profit sale if you are patient or if the market dictates a high price point.
- Real Market Value Pricing—You can price right at market value. This will attract more buyers than higher pricing and could produce a multiple-offer bidding war, but most likely will result in you getting something around the fair market price.
- Lower Pricing—This is a strategy to appeal to as many buyers as possible and hopefully generate more offers. Set the price at the lower end of your acceptable price range and you may end up getting above asking because of increased buyer interest.
Ultimately, the market determines the final selling price. Not you. Not me. It’s just important to think about your pricing strategy when listing your home.
Is Your Home Accessible?
The last recommendation I have is to make your home as accessible as possible. It should always be show-ready and it shouldn’t be too hard for buyers and agents to schedule showings. Better accessibility means more people get to see the property and that’s a good thing when trying to sell your home for top dollar!
These are a few tips and strategies I recommend for any home seller. It starts with understanding the current market conditions and then you can use these proven marketing and pricing techniques to best position your property for sale.
Check out my full YouTube video on this topic below:
If you are looking to sell your house in the Los Angeles or San Gabriel Valley areas, contact The Durkovic Group today for a no-obligation listing consultation. Let us share some of our industry secrets with you and help you get the most out of your home sale.