How to Make the Decision to Sell

Selling or Buying a home can be one of the biggest financial transactions in a person’s life. It may require years of planning and saving to obtain the home of your dreams. The process involves not only searching for a home but deciding what you want and need from a home as well.

Having an experienced professional Realtor like Bonnie Coast, can help turn the challenges into opportunities. She will help you analyze your goals as well as reasons and motives for selling your home, and help you to reach those goals. You may find it more important to obtain the full asking price than having a quick sale. Or you may have time to wait for the right buyer to come along. What ever the case Bonnie Coast will use her expertise and negotiating skills to produce the results you desire.

Emotion vs. Reason

When you talk with professional real estate agents you will hear them refer to your property being sold as a house. When you are buying property it will be referred to as a home. This is because buying property is often an emotional decision. When selling you need to keep the emotions out of the deal. That is why a professional realtor will refer to the property in a non-emotional manner.

When you set your mind to think of you house as a piece of property that is a marketable commodity. You want buyers to see your house as their home. When you do this you prevent possible situations that may cause your property to take a long time to sell.

De-personalize the House

Remember the goal is to have potential buyers view your property as their home. If you have all your family photos on the wall, the visitors may have trouble visualizing themselves at home. If they see your collections, trophies, and knick-knacks all over it gives the impression of having your brand on the house. When you box them up and store them, the potential buyers can imagine their items in the home. It would be in your best interest to store the items in a storage unit and not on the property to avoid the cluttered look.

Before listing the house, it best to remove as much clutter, and extra furnishings, not leave things cluttered with a bunch of boxes. This will prepare your house for sale, and help the buyers visualize this house as their home.

Know Why You are Selling

When you determine why you are selling it is easier for you to plan a course of action and achieve your goals.

If your situation requires you to sell as quickly as possible, then getting the highest price will not be your first priority. Of course you still may get the highest possible price, but if you need to close quickly you may be willing to accept a lower offer with a quick closing date, verses entering ongoing negotiations that could delay closing.

You will also need to determine what will be lowest offer you will accept. This can help save time when it comes to considering offers that are below your bottom line. Remember to factor in all terms of an offer to verify if it is above or below your acceptable limits.

When you figure out you reasons and limits talk them over with Bonnie Coast and she will help you to set your goals realistically, and show you how to realize them.

I am not sure if I am ready to sell at this time

Bonnie Coast will sit down with you to help you determine if selling your home is the right thing for you. Waiting to sell your home may be a costly mistake. If you find a new home that you love but still have to sell the old one you may loose the bid because of the time it may take to sell your old home. You may end up with two mortgages and a vacant structure. Interest rates are another factor to consider, they may rise or the economy may slow down. If you are planning on purchasing a new home, construction cost may rise. If your home no longer meets your family’s needs or desires than you should go ahead and sell.

When is the Best Time to Sell Your Home?

Almost everyone will have a theory as to when is the best time to sell your house. Some will tell you there are certain months that are better than others and other people will tell you to base your decision on the economy.

The fact of the matter is that when your current home no longer meets your needs, it is the best time to sell. You should buy a new home when your family’s needs or lifestyles change. Base you decision on things like a new job, better schools for the children or additions or losses to the family size. If you're not buying and selling strategically or for investment, the best time to sell is really when you feel your existing home will not meet your future needs.

The economy can be a factor in the decision as well. If your mortgage has a high interest rate and the interest rates drop you may be able to afford a more expensive home for close to the same amount in house payments. This is especially true if you have accumulated equity in the current house and it is a buyers’ market.

Should You Buy Your New Home First? or Sell Your Old Home First?

You do not want to end up finding your dream home and get stuck carrying two mortgages because you have not sold the current house. You also do not want to have conflicting closing dates either; you could end up living out of your suit cases for a short period of time.

The best way to avoid these hazards is to do a little homework. Determine your family’s needs and desires in a home. Evaluate your budget to asses your spending capability.

Bonnie Coast as your Coldwell Banker agent will advise you to start to search for a new home as soon as you put your current home on the market.

If you find a home and have not sold your current one, than you can make the sale of you existing home a contingency of your offer on the new home. This contingency will allow you to withdraw your offer if the current home is not sold with in a determined amount of time. You should be aware that this contingency may make your offer less attractive if the seller needs to close on the home quickly.

If you are counting on the money from the sale of your existing home to purchase a home, you may have trouble meeting the financial obligations for closing on the new home if you have not closed on the old one.

If you have an offer on your current home before you find another than you can add a contingency to the agreement, stating that terms of the sale are agreed upon, but contingent of the purchase of a new home with in a predetermined amount of time.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have closed on the existing home but have not found another yet do not panic. With the proceeds of the sale you will have greater negotiating power.

Remember Bonnie Coast will be available to guide and advise you through out the entire process.