Down in Chandler and Gilbert where I focus on, there’s a lot of new construction going on In fact, some of the areas booming. As a seller, you’re competing against the new construction and you want to put features in your home, if your home’s 5 or 10 years old or even older, that are going to compare to what’s being built in today’s date. I definitely like to give direction. I give references of 2 or 3 trades people who can do the needed repairs or renovations for you. I help get your home ready to sell. The most important thing is just prepare your house for sale the right way. Never just put it on the market if you want to sell fast for top dollar, you need to be very well prepared.
Ken: Brenton, I know you worked with a lot of sellers. What are some of the challenges that people looking to sell their home experience?
Brenton: The biggest challenge they have is taking the time to simply get their home in order; to get their home ready. A seller needs to start thinking of their house as not a home but an investment. I tell people not to take anything personally that I tell them about their home. I’m going to come through and I’m going to suggest this and that but it’s solely for the final end purpose of getting them the most money for their home.
Sellers often need to detach themselves from any personal feelings about how they have their home setup. I recommend things like de-cluttering the home, taking a lot of personal items out, organizing closets, things like that. Of course it’s important to make the curb appeal look great; update the front landscaping, put colored flowers in, trim the trees and the shrubs and the grass and just get your home ready.
I go into a lot of properties and people are like, “Yeah, we need to sell our home now. Let’s do it,” but the condition that it’s in isn’t suitable for commanding top dollar. Everybody’s busy, everybody’s working, everybody has a family, but there are little things that can be done, from just paint touch up to cleaning.
Cleaning is a huge thing. Something like odors in the home distract a buyer when they’re considering a purchase. I give a seller a list of items to do before we get their home on the market. I think the challenge is finding the time to complete the items on the list. So, I also offer cleaning services. I also offer a handyman that can come in and do all this stuff to get your home ready if you don’t have the time. It’s matter of spending a few hundred dollars to get your home up to par where the windows are shining and sparkling clean.
When we come in and we take professional high definition photographs, everything’s in order. Everything looks great. We’re not taking high definition photographs of dirty windows and dirty floors. I would say the number one challenge is just getting the house cleaned up and getting it ready to sell.
Ken: There are so many things to consider like that. There’s more stuff in that list that you just gave than I would’ve even thought of. With so much to consider, is there a big mistake you see a lot of sellers making when they’re looking to sell their home?
Brenton: Yeah, everyone loves their home. We all feel our home is the best home in the world. I feel the same way about my home, but when you’re coming out to sell your property, you’ve got to look at it from the other side of the fence; as a buyer. Your home is in a competition with all other homes for sale in your area.
You really have to accept that fact, and not take the highway that most sellers do, “Oh, my house is the best. It’s going to sell for the top dollar in the neighborhood just the way it is.” Overpricing a home is a very biggest mistake that sellers make. Sellers tend to want to go that way right out the gate. It’s my job to provide the statistics, analyze the recent sales, and comparables. My job is to let sellers know what number their house needs to be priced at to get it sold quickly for top dollar.
Just pricing your home 10% to 15% above the market value could shrink your buyer’s pool down to a very, very small number. If you price your house at the right market value, you’re going to be getting 60% of the buyers in the market looking at your house. If you overprice your home, you could shrink that number down to just 10%. You just want to make sure you price it right.
It’s a combination of realizing that your home is an investment and not the best home in the world. I help sellers understand where they need to price it to be competitive. I am not the agent that says yes I can sell it for that price just to get your business and waste your time. I sell homes, I make sellers happy and get referrals because my clients like me.
Ken: With all these things considered, are there some other things a homeowner thinks they’re supposed to do to get a high price but can actually hurt their chances?
Brenton: I always like to say the combination of pricing your house right needs to also come in conjunction with having your house always ready to be shown and having it very accessible. There are a lot of sellers that have their busy schedules and they might not want potential buyers to come in their home except by appointment only, or except certain times of the week or day or weekends only. Now, you have to understand the buyers have a schedule too and usually when a buyer can get into a home, it could be at a time that’s not convenient for the seller. I’m not talking coming in at 8:00 at night or later but I’m just saying, have the accessibility of your home open and available.
