Brick By Brick: Selling Your Existing Home

Selling Your Existing Home Thinking of selling your home?

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By Julie Young, House and Home Feature Writer

Courtney Barber of Cressy & Everett offers a few tips and tricks to make sure you’re getting the best offers.

When selling a home, make sure you’ve got an honest and efficient realtor, she explained. “Obviously you want to get your house out there and marketed as best as possible,” she said. “Choose somebody that’s gonna be quick and honest and is going to work for you to get the top dollar for that house.”

For Barber, the immediate next step after choosing a realtor is scheduling a photographer. “We always say take down stuff off the walls, especially personal photos,” she explained. “We’ve seen people get too involved in the pictures on the wall and if they know them and it definitely detracts from the home itself. Especially the kitchen and the bathroom if you could take everything off the counters that would be key. It distracts people if they see a bunch of small appliances or makeup. It just looks cleaner and they can actually look at it. Get more of a feel for what it will look like when they buy it rather than what it looks like when that person owns it with their stuff.”

After that, Barber gets all the details on the home from the owners, the MLS and even tax records, so she can make a proper listing. The sign goes out the week before the listing goes live.

Here’s where it gets complex.

“If you are a lucky one and you get multiple offers on your house, if you get a cash offer, that’s going to be the easiest to go through. The next best would be a conventional loan. There are times when conventional buyers choose to not do inspections and that’s best. The most difficult loans would be FSA, USDA or VA loans. The inspection process is going to be tougher. If you have stuff that needs to be repaired, you’re going to want to go with conventional.”

Once you’ve got a buyer lined up, there are inspections and appraisals that make things all the more complicated.

“Appraisers, they are backed up,” Barber said. “They are very busy right now so sometimes that’s the last thing you are waiting for. If you get an offer that has good financing you’re going to get the appraisal sooner and the whole process will go smoother.”

On average, closing procedures take 30 to 60 days depending on the type of financing and necessary inspections.

With the housing market so tight, Barber explained homes are generally not on the market for more than 10 days, and if they are, they’re aged.

“They’re selling very quick,” she said. “There are some that aren’t and that would depend on the price range. The $100,000 up to $200,000, they’re still selling quickly but if you have over that amount, it might not sell as fast.“

She added a warning of caution for those trying to sell in this market.

“Even though the market is very good for sellers right now, just keep in mind the [competitive market analysis] for your house. You might get lucky and find a buyer who is willing to pay more than it’s worth but in the end, if you get a loan, it has to appraise for the amount.” n