The first day of Spring is March 20th. But if there’s no snow on the ground in your neighborhood today, the Spring selling season has already begun – according to this U.S. News article by Teresa Mears.
If you want to sell your home during this year’s spring selling season, now is the time to get moving. Sellers can rest assured that if there’s no snow on the ground, homebuyers are already looking.
Today’s buyers, particularly younger ones, have high expectations. They are looking for a home in excellent condition, with all its best features showcased.
“It’s the HGTV effect,” says Tiffany Hardgrave, owner of Masterpiece Staging and Design in Washington, D.C. “People want to walk in and have everything perfect.”
With these preferences in mind, the most important things you can do are deep clean and declutter, removing big pieces of furniture. Next comes trimming foliage and sprucing up outdoor areas, including planting flowers if it’s not too early.
“As things are turning into spring, it’s time to power-wash the house and repaint the front door,” says Madison Hildebrand, president of The Malibu Life Team and founding partner of Partners Trust Malibu. He also appears as a real estate agent on “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo. “Your color can pop at the front door,” he adds.
In addition to getting the house in top condition, you’ll want to think about your selling strategy. Are you going to use a traditional real estate agent, sell it yourself or use one of the do-it-yourself services that have sprung up in recent years?
You can also consult a staging professional. For $200 to $300, you can consult with an expert who will make recommendations on how to show off your house using the furniture and possessions you already have inside it. Or, for $3,000 to $5,000, you can get a stager to bring in all new furniture and accessories for an empty house. “Invariably, the cost of a stager is much less than the cost of your first price reduction,” Hardgrave says.
Whichever option you choose, you’ll want to make sure your home gets in front of the maximum number of prospective buyers, which means posting it on all the online portals (some are free while others require a fee if you post yourself) and maybe even creating a website. You’ll also want your home on social media, with both you and your agent doing the sharing.
“You want everybody to know you home is for sale because that’s how you get the highest price,” says Sissy Lappin, a veteran real estate broker in Houston, and founder of ListingDoor.com, which provides marketing tools to sell your home without an agent. “People want the information, and they want it in 15 seconds or less.”
