Tips for Home Sellers in 2022
Experts are forecasting that 2022 will be another year of the housing market favoring sellers over buyers. In an article for the Washington Post, Ilyce Glink and Samuel Tamkin shared some advice for anyone considering selling their property this year. They believe sellers in most communities will have a relatively easy time during the first half of the year, but caution that it may be tougher as we move toward 2023, depending on how fast interest rates rise. If you’re selling this year, keep these tips in mind for an easier, speedier sale.
1. Price your home correctly.
- If the past few years have proven anything, it’s that buyers will pay almost anything to get a home. Bidding wars were common. They may be less so in your community, so pay attention to the numbers your agent brings to the table.
- Pricing your home competitively may generate a number of offers in excess of the list price. What you want is to generate interest and showings, and a pie-in-the-sky price won’t do that, even with the lack of homes for sale.
2. Make your home stand out online.
- There may not be a crowd of homes for sale, but you want yours noticed for all the right reasons. Anyone looking in your neighborhood will see that your home is for sale. But they’re probably pretty seasoned buyers at this point, and they’ll quickly be able to tell if your home is a possibility.
- Do what you can to make your home look as clean and polished as possible: Strip it of all personal effects and artwork, clear out half the furniture, repaint the walls white, buff the floors, and put up neutral bed coverings. Give your home a deep cleaning, re-grout dirty tiles and replace carpet as needed. Replace old fixtures with modern LED lights. Open the window shades and clean the windows.
- Charming exteriors will get noticed faster, and if prospective sellers do a drive-by showing, your home must dazzle them into stopping to take a closer look. To that end, repair anything that’s broken. Repaint where needed. Consider planting colorful flowers and edge your lawn. Decide if your front door and walkway could use sprucing up with a coat of paint or a more complete refresh.
3. Decide in advance what is the minimum acceptable sales price, then stick to it.
- One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is letting greed get the best of them. Either they set the list price too high and then have to go through painful rounds of list price reductions, or once an offer comes in they fight tooth and nail for every last dollar instead of negotiating to get the deal done.
- The best thing you can do is decide what is the minimum price you’d be willing to accept. Write that number down, and when the first offer rolls in look at that piece of paper and see how it compares to the offer. If you’re at or above your minimum acceptable price, you’re in good shape. Everything else is gravy.
- We believe that the best real estate deals happen when everyone walks away happy. As a seller in 2022, resolve to move on from your home, grateful for the time you’ve spent there and the buyer who will care for your home going forward.
Visit https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/26/three-tips-home-sellers-2022 to see the full article.
