So you’ve decided to sell your house? 

Maybe relocating for a new job. Or planning to be a digital nomad like modern entrepreneurs? Whatever the reason, you’ve both good news and bad news. 

The good news is that the real estate market is booming. Buyers are desperately searching for new homes. 

According to Forbes, 2021 will witness more home sales than any other year since 2006. 

This means selling your home will be easier this year, but just a tad bit. 

Here’s why?

Growing demand means increased competition. Your traditional ways of property selling cannot do justice to your home. That’s the bad news. 

But you can still come out turning tables. Here’s how?

5 Ways To Save Your Hard Earned Money Whilst Trying To Sell Your Home

You need to put a little effort here. Map the key areas where you are most susceptible to losing money in a property transaction. This is your first opportunity to save money. 

• Keeping your emotional hook attached to your house
• Trying to sell your property without real estate agents
• Falling prey to unqualified buyers
• Staying underprepared for house tours
• Setting unrealistic pricing expectations 

So the big question here is how do you combat all these challenges? Having an optimal strategy can hack your property selling process easier. 

1. It all starts with an evaluation 

Research is the fuel of all successful property selling. Homeowners are prone to undercut or overestimate the price of their property.

What follows is frustration and a long turnaround time for property selling. If you are commuting to a new place, your deadline can suffer heavily from this.

Having a rounded perspective of all the market players can save all of these hassles for you. Primarily, there are three angles to consider while you start doing a market recce.

1. Property evaluation: Financial assessment of your property is an essential first step toward competitive pricing. This is usually measured by the total asset value – depreciation value. It will give you a clear understanding of the maximum your property can bid for. 
2. Competitor evaluation: Evaluating your property in isolation is one thing, and creating a comparative study is another. If you have to have the edge over the others, you need to consider how other homeowners are pricing themselves. This will allow you to rethink if you can pull a few strings of leverage on your property.
3. Buyer Evaluation: Understanding how much your potential buyers are willing to pay can skyrocket your property sales. Does your ideal buyer have the capacity to afford what you are asking for? Does your property’s value-for-money proposition look promising enough to your buyers? All these questions can bring valuable insight while tailoring your sales strategy. 

2. Customer analysis is your key to property selling

Your house is not yours anymore. It’s your customers now. So when you think of selling your house, you need to think of your customer’s preferences, not yours. 

The customer is king, after all. And pleasing this king is super essential for you if you have to streamline your property selling and get the best value back of it.

Staying informed about the attributes that a potential buyer is most interested in gives you a competitive edge.

What’s more?

Chances are, you will sell your property faster than you think. As a homeowner who is commuting to another place, you cannot ignore this factor.

A customer avatar can be of great help here. It’ll ensure you stand closer to your ideal buyer’s shoes and look at your property detached from any emotional attachments. Only then can you truly assess your property?

What’s desirable, what is missing, what needs prioritization, and most of all, what you can leave for your final buyer to do themselves.  

Pro Tip: This step can significantly affect how much you save at the end of selling. 

3. Develop a pricing strategy 

Having laid down a pricing strategy is how you secure your maximum returns from your property. 

Here’s what you can do.

• Set a realistic price:  It is natural for you to think highly of your property. But, for your customer to do so, there is a long way to go. You need to close the deal first. A study by Homelight found overpricing to be the top mistake of home sellers. Start bidding a little lower on the price value instead. This will only increase the bidding on your property, ultimately giving you a higher value than the market.
• Set an asking price: Negotiation on the customer’s end is nothing new in the real estate market. Chances are, you might have to stick to your buyer’s rules here. But you can always play smart. Keep room for your profit even after negotiation.

Pro Tip: To beat the negotiation drill, distribute the negotiation percentage into two channels – the lower-listing stage and the asking price stage.  

• Winter months are a hard sell: The vacations and festive seasons make buyers scarce. Thus it may not be your best shot to sell your property. 

Pro Tip: However, when the buyers are scarce, so are our sellers. This may be an advantage to you in some contexts. 

4. Collaborate with experts

With the real estate industry booming, having second thoughts about hiring a real estate agent is natural.

After all, property listing sites like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor, and Foreclosure have made sure your property exposure grows exponentially. 

The best part? 

You save a lot of money. But here’s the glitch. In the quest to save, you tend to lose far more.

An experienced real estate agent provides far more value than just selling your property at the highest price point. But if you are still unsure, here’s what they can do for you.

• Lower risks of unqualified buyers: There are high chances that you get interested in sealing a deal with a buyer whose deal looks the best. But stay alert. This is a booby trap. An agent can ensure the authenticity of all your potential buyers. 
• Increase chances of fast selling: Your partnering agent is an experienced negotiator. They can tap into the psychological appeal of your interested buyer and speed up the selling process. 
• Legally squared: Keeping in alignment with the law and all recent updates can be daunting for an amateur seller but not for a seasoned agent. This means you can stay relieved about the legal nature of your property transactions.  

Why should you opt for one now even more? 

With the demand growing higher each day, agents provide hefty discounts on their service charges.

Pro Tip:  Always have a clear understanding of the fee structure and competent real estate agents before settling for yours. It will only give you leverage on how much assistance you get during your whole journey. 

• Is your property in good shape? All of the efforts you put into researching your property costs, competitors, and best collaborators can go in vain if your product isn’t up to the mark. To ensure you get a return, here’s what you should take care of. 
• It’s time to declutter: Visual clutter is the biggest demotivator of your overall house experience. You need to remove all kinds of unpleasant items like trash boxes, large unused boxes, plastics, and debris boxes from sight. Make essential fixes like pipelines, foundations, and sewage systems, if needed. 
• Improve your curb appeal: Everything is an image; an image is everything. Your property’s first look had your customers decide subconsciously whether they are into your house or not. This means you have to maintain your house inside out. If you have a lawn, take time to mow it. Create a small walking road with pebbles. It is the small, low-cost investments that will add up to give you huge returns. 
• Illuminate your space: There is nothing perhaps a good amount of light can’t make look heavenly. A damp, dark place is not what your customers would like to live in. So, invest in good lighting. 

What’s more, along with a brighter space, it creates an illusion of a bigger one. 

5. Take your property staging seriously

You might have heard the saying, the first impression is the last one. Your customers can form this impression within the very first 3 seconds. For getting the best out of staging, here’s what you can do. 

1. Invest in high-quality photos: High-quality photos are essential for warming leads to closing the deal finally. 
2. Invest in staging software:  Staging is essential for your property selling. Your customer needs to visualize their future homes. Staging an end property product will allow your customers to engage with your property emotionally, increasing your sales chances.  

Choosing the best software for interior design in the market can be challenging. But keeping an eye on your needs can guide your path. 

Ending thoughts

Selling your house can be stressful. More, when you are on a deadline. But you can always make it look easy if you are open to new strategies. Keep particular focus on first appearances and photos of your property. Your buyers will one day be the homeowners of your place. 

So whatever updates you make to your property, above all, ensure it feels like home.