1 minute read
Home Sweet Home
If you’re considering making a move, you’re likely juggling a mix of excitement over your next home and a sense of attachment to your current one. A great way to ease some of those emotions and ensure you’re feeling confident in your decision is to keep three best practices in mind.
First, price your home right. The housing market shifted in 2022 as mortgage rates rose, buyer demand eased, and the number of homes for sale grew. As a seller, you’ll want to recognize things are different now and price your house appropriately based on where the market is today. Greg McBride, Chief Financial Analyst at Bankrate, explains: “Price your home realistically. This isn’t the housing market of April or May, so buyer traffic will be substantially slower, but appropriately priced homes are still selling quickly.” If you price your house too high, you run the risk of deterring buyers.
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Second, keep your emotions in check. Today, homeowners are living in their houses longer. According to the National Association of
Realtors (NAR), since 1985, the average time a homeowner has owned their home has increased from 5 to 10 years. This is several years longer than what used to be the historical norm. The side effect, however, is when you stay in one place for so long, you may get even more emotionally attached to your space. For some homeowners, that makes it even harder to negotiate and separate the emotional value of the house from fair market price.
Third, stage your home properly. While you may love your decor and how you’ve customized your home over the years, not all buyers will feel the same way about your design. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you focus on your home’s first impression, so it appeals to as many buyers as possible. As NAR says: “Staging is the art of preparing a home to appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers in your market.” Buyers want to envision themselves in the space so it truly feels like it could be their own. They need to see themselves inside with their furniture and keepsakes – not your pictures and decorations.
