5 Things to Do Before You List Your Home to Sell

5 Things to Do Before You List Your Home to Sell

By: Kristin M. MacRae, Professional Organizer, Owner, Organizing In RI, LLC
Visit: http://www.organizinginri.com/

If you are getting ready to sell your home, this is a must read! Just thinking about packing up everything you own will send you into a tailspin. Selling your home can be an overwhelming and stressful process, but it doesn’t have to be if you plan and prepare ahead of time.

Before you get your home ready to sell,

1.            Make a plan and organize your thoughts.  Sit and take a moment with a pad and pen to write down your thoughts. Moving is a process and like any other process, you have to break your project down into small manageable tasks.  The minute you start to think about the entire process on a whole, you will get overwhelmed and shut down. Start making a list of everything you need to do.  Don’t worry about the order of which you are jotting things down. Just unload your mind and then categorize later.  It will feel good to put everything onto paper.

2.            Gather a team.  Start making a list of all the people you need to recruit to make your move a smooth transition. Do you need a moving company, boxes, packing material, markers and tape? Do you need to bring in a cleaning crew when you are done packing?   If the process is too overwhelming, enlist a professional organizer who can help you keep this all together and even help you pack to make your move seamless.

3.            Declutter. Sell, toss, or keep.  Make your piles. Take inventory of everything you own. Yes, everything!  Moving is one of the times where you actually have to go through every item in your home. Now is the time to declutter. Don’t take anything with you to your new home that you know you will not be using.  It will be a waste of time for you to pack items you will never use again. The transition of moving will go much smoother if just take with you the items you need.

4.            Manage your paper. Now is the time to get control of all the paper clutter in your home. Develop a filing system so you just aren’t throwing piles of disorganized paper into boxes. Trust me, if you throw papers into a box, you will never go through them once you move into your new home. The boxes will end up getting tossed in the basement or attic. The project will be too overwhelming and it will never get done. Control the paper clutter now.

5.            Pack.  Downsize.This process will only become overwhelming if you allow it to be. Do you really need everything you own? When was the last time you used these items. Pack what you can before you move. If it’s holiday décor and it’s not the holiday season, go through these items, label and pack them up now. Anything else you can pack and take care of, do it now. It’s one less thing you have to worry about. Don’t forget to pack in an organized fashion. Don’t just throw random items into boxes. Categorize and itemize your boxes. Once you get to your new home you can unpack and set up your organized systems, making the transition a breeze

You have enough to worry about when selling your home. Think about alleviating the stress of going through everything you own by planning and preparing ahead of time.  Put an organized plan into motion!

For Professional Assistance Contact Kristin MacRae

How much is my Rhode Island home worth?

Click above or call Emilio DiSpirito with The DiSpirito Team 401-359-2338

Get MA and RI real estate advice and tune into The Round Table - Real Estate Simplified on Newsradio 920 each Sunday at 10 am! OR listen to podcasts here! 

Content Featured on: The Round Table "Real Estate Simplified" with Emilio DiSpirito, Realtor/Team Leader of The DiSpirito Team with Prudential Gammons Realty

5 Crucial Tips to a Successful Home Sale

5 Crucial Tips to a Successful Home Sale

BY: EMILIO DISPIRITO, TEAM LEADER OF THE DISPIRITO TEAM 

When selling a home, you may be faced with so many questions, obstacles and all around confusion!! Not only are you moving your house, but if you are moving to entirely new town, you are moving your routines, your activities and your way of life as you know it!! This is why, I felt it would be helpful to provide you with a list of 5 crucial tips to a successful home sale that you should focus on when getting prepared to sell your property.

If you missed it, we spoke about it on air, on The Round Table on Newsradio 920 Sunday January 18th, 2015 and you can listen to the segment here! http://www.920whjj.com/TheRoundTableRadio Jan 18 2015

1.) The cardinal rule of selling your home - Hire a SUPER agent!! 

• You may want to stay away from part time agents. It's impossible to effectively service buyers for your home or accommodate buyer agents.  Furthermore, the often times lack the experience a professional full time agent brings to the table. There are over 180 steps in the real estate process of listing and selling a home, many of which are delicate and time sensitive.
• Find out how many homes have they listed and sold in the past year? If its less than 12... 1 per month, you may want to continue looking for someone with better credentials. 
• How well do they know the market? 
• Do they have support? A full time admin to help with the behind the scenes work like marketing and getting your home out there! 
• Do they pay to advertise their listings? If so where? Buyers come in from all areas. 
• For example, we advertise our listings on billboards, radio, internet, magazines, newspapers, post cards, signage, open houses, etc.
• Most importantly, what are their clients saying!? We don't go out to eat anymore without reading restaurant reviews!! Why not do that kind of homework when entrusting someone to sell your home!? You can use 3rd party sites to see reviews for agents you are considering. Here is an example of my teams Zillow profile and client testimonials: http://www.zillow.com/profile/theDiSpiritoTeam/Reviews/

2.) Keep your motivation for selling your home between you and your agent!

• When a buyer understands that its February 20th and you need to start your new consulting job in San Diego California on March 1st and can't afford to pay two mortgages for an extended period of time, you better believe a low offer is probably going to be coming in! 

3.) Set reasonable expectations for yourself when it comes to pricing! Do your homework in addition to your agents! 

• Check listings in your neighborhood and see what homes are selling for in your area. 
• When homes in your neighborhood are all alike in size and are listed and selling at $320,000 for example, you should not expect $390,000. Situations may vary, so your agent can confirm this.
• NOTE: Keep and eye on "high and low bidders" these are agents who suggest a higher than market value to hopefully secure the listing while low bidders are more concerned about volume and pushing homes fast than an overall quality transaction.. it's easy to sell a Mercedes that is priced less than the competition! Be mindful.. an agent that knows the market will have supporting data for you. 
• Pickup a free copy of Homes Magazine at your local Stop and Shop, cafe or store. See what other homes are listed at in your town. These may be your competition! 
• Understand that, when your home is priced too high, you are setting yourself up for failure and your home will become "stale" to buyers. "Something must be wrong with that home", they will say. 
• National Association of Realtors released their statistics from 2014 that state homes priced too high that sit on the market for 17 weeks sell at 93% of list price, vs. homes that are priced at market value and sold under 2 weeks sold for 100% of list price! That is $7,000 additional per $100,000 in your pocket! Price wisely!!

4.) Clean, declutter and stage! 

• Clutter will distract buyers attention away from your home and space
• Messy homes overwhelm potential buyers and cause buyers to see "all the flaws"!
• Depersonalize your home. Often times when buyers walk in and see dozens of photos of you and your family, they have a hard time imagining themselves in your house. 
• Odors are deal killers!! Pets, trash, smoke, etc. Make sure to keep floors cleaned and rugs vacuumed. Many people have animals and can understand that they are hard to keep up on ;).
• If the home is vacant or outdated, hire a professional stager. The cost is very low compared to the return on investment. Only about 10% of people can envision themselves in a home without furniture. We use RISE Interiors which cover RI and MA. 

5.) Order a home inspection before your home goes live! 

• Home inspector can give you a typed, detailed report of items that may need immediate attention. We found Mike Auger with Auger Enterprises to be the best value for inspections in RI and surrounding MA. 
• Handle the pressing items like faulty wiring, leaky plumbing, outdated heating system, etc. if you can afford to. This will give the buyers less reason to bark at your pricing. 
• Cosmetic fixes go a mile! Chipped paint, lack of hand railings and other safety hazards will disqualify your home for many popular financing options like FHA, VA and USDA mortgages. Not to mention your home will show better! 

For more information, please call Emilio DiSpirito at 401-359-2338 or tune in each Sunday as Emilio & Zach Levesque with Maverick Funding share expert and inside information while they interview the top short sale experts, CPA's, financial planners, bankruptcy attorneys, credit specialists, title companies, loan modification experts, stagers, inspectors, estate planers and many more!

"Real Estate Simplified!"

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Check out Staging for the Senses, 7 Ways to Increase Your Homes Value and Mortgage Matters with all time low mortgage rates! And The Lighting Round!!  http://www.920whjj.com/media/podcast-the-round-table-TheRoundTable/the-round-table-12515-25749092/