The Best Advice
W
hen considering a real estate transaction, sellers have much to consider. Who’s the best broker to sell your home? When is the best time to put a home on the market? How important is putting a sign on a property? Where should a property be advertised? The list of important questions is long.
Here is our best advice: What isn’t debatable is which are the most important steps to take in order to realize the best sale possible. With decades of experience and well over a half billion dollars in closed transactions in the Santa Fe market, we have the knowledge and experience to guide you in this. Put your house in order (literally): Put your property in the best possible condition. If you have any deferred maintenance, get it done. If you need help determining what maintenance is necessary, hire a qualified home inspector. His inspection report will provide a punch list that will identify and help prioritize what maintenance is most critical. We can help you with this important process. Staging your home for the best possible presentation: Preparing your home for the market includes not only dealing with repairs and maintenance, but setting it up to show well. Staging can be very valuable to a seller in this regard. Staging can run the gamut from completely furnishing a vacant house to working with the furnishings present. Can staging improve how well your property looks to prospective buyers? More often than not, the answer is yes, and the seller should evaluate this critical option thoroughly with his broker. Determining the most effective asking price: What will assure the best possible sale? The right pricing tops the list. Setting the right price on day one is crucial. In the first days after a home
is placed on the market, buyers expect to pay more. In today’s market, the longer it takes to sell a home, the lower an offer is likely to be. Priced accurately, there should be prompt attention for your property. A price that is too high won’t generate the same reaction. Even for those properties in the greatest demand, the asking price matters. It matters a lot. Setting the most effective asking price is based upon evaluation of the current and relevant data on sold properties and active listings that are competitive to yours. It is critical to include homes that are currently under contract in this analysis to provide a perspective on what is currently most attractive to buyers in the market. A key determinant of value is the general condition of the market. What do the experts say about the direction of the market? What is the supply & demand situation now? Is the local economy strong and solid? Any “storm clouds” on the horizon, possibly changing the local market or economy in some significant way? Owners who focus on having the best sale possible are looking realistically at current and relevant data and assessing the condition of the market. Those who are looking at their costs or are focused on their desired sale price are setting up roadblocks to the best possible sale. What isn’t important when determining the most effective asking price is what you paid for your property, what you paid recently for repairs or maintenance, or what you want to “net” from the sale. neillyon.com
Letting the world know your home is available: Look carefully at the marketing plan proposed by the broker(s) you are considering. What are the guiding principles behind the design and execution of their marketing approach? What resources do they have to effectively expose and show your property? What is their capacity to promote your property to the world in an effective manner? Santa Fe home buyers come from many different areas. We know exactly from where, because we carefully track this information. We know which states generate the most buyers and which states generate the buyers of the more expensive properties. Even though a relatively small percentage of Santa Fe buyers come from outside the US, we execute a global marketing and advertising strategy that reaches everyone interested in Santa Fe homes, regardless of where they are. Our global reach provides easy access to complete and compelling information about the homes we have available. Capitalizing on each showing: Don’t overlook the importance of your broker attending each showing to present your home to prospective buyers in its best possible light. Make sure your home gets the advocacy it deserves, to convey all the important facts about the home thoroughly and accurately.