Top Home Selling Blogs From 2017
Best Home Selling Blogs From 2017 – Advice For Selling A House
Are you going to be selling your home in the near future? If so, you’ve come to the right place!
Over the past several years we’ve highlighted the best real estate blogs of the year in one article. Instead of doing one MEGA post, this year we’re publishing a series of “best of” blog articles, split into several different categories.
Last Tuesday, we published the best home buying blogs of 2017. This week we’re highlighting the very best home selling blogs from this year!
Below you’re going to find brief recaps of the best home selling blogs from the past 12 months from some of the best real estate bloggers in the world! You’ll find information pertaining on selling a home with pets to improving your winter curb appeal.
All of these articles can be extremely helpful when the time comes to sell your home! If you find any of these articles helpful, please consider sharing them and also this recap of the best home selling blogs from 2017!
Tips For Selling A Condo
If you’re the owner of a condo and you’re thinking about selling it, you need to first realize there are some major differences between selling a single family residence and a condominium.
In this article from Rochester Real Estate Blog, you’re going to be find the best tips for selling a condo! Insider condo selling tips such as hiring a REALTOR with experience selling condominiums and knowing how to prepare your condo for sale are just a couple of the important topics discussed in this article.
If you’re unsure about how to sell your condo, this article is a must read! By following these helpful tips for selling a condo, you’ll greatly improve the chances your experience is successful and profitable as well.
An Expert Listing Agents Thoughts On Zillow’s Estimates
I reached out to Bill Gassett, a Real Estate agent in Southborough Mass who has been selling homes for over thirty years, to get some of his best advice. Bill provided me with some great insight on a topic many real estate agents can appreciate – Zillow estimates! Here is what Bill had to say.
“Thanks again for the opportunity Kyle to share my expertise with those who follow your blog. As you know Zillow estimates of home value have become the bane of so many real estate agents. One of my best home selling tips of course is to price your home correctly from day one! Unfortunately, many sellers look at the Zillow estimate and place stock in it! We all want to believe our homes are worth more than what the neighbor sold theirs for. Sometimes Zillow will validate what sellers believe their home should be worth.
Algorithms are not accurate. If only valuing property was that easy. Buyers and sellers wouldn’t need to do anything but look at Zillow. That my friends is foolish. Zillow places these Zestimates of value on millions of homes across the country. Guess how many Zillow actually visits? If you guessed none you would be correct! You could drop $50,000 in improvements in your home tomorrow and Zillow wouldn’t know you did a thing.
Zillow’s estimates of value rely heavily on information that may not even be correct. For example, the town data is often incorrect yet Zillow uses this information. Assessed values are also highly influential in their algorithm as well. Most people with any kind of understanding of market values realizes that there is very little correlation with assessed value and market value.
When selling your home you should always do one of two things. Either hire an appraiser to evaluate your market value or hire a skilled local real estate agent. It is important to check the agent’s qualifications of pricing accurately. Many agents list homes and have numerous price reductions before their properties get sold. This is not what you want. Homes listed correctly from day one fetch more money than those who have been reduced.”
Advice For Selling A House – Top Home Selling Blogs From 2017
Curb Appeal In The Winter
There is a wonderful video provided by Luke Skar that explains to home sellers the value of improving curb appeal in the winter. In this video, Luke uses a story to explore some of the ways that a buyer can focus their efforts in order to make their home more appealing to buyers.
We all know that the winter months can be dark and dreary. With shorter days and the threat of a gray dreary sky, it is no wonder so many people feel gloomy and depressed. That is why it is important for home sellers to make their property look bright, colorful and inviting. Luke points out that the quickest way to do this is to work on the front entrance along with the walkways, driveways and gate.
By cleaning up and adding color to the front entrance, the home will instantly have a more inviting appearance. Cleaning up the driveway by removing leaves or snow will give the home a feel that the owner is serious about taking care of the property.
The next major point is to clear away any low hanging branches and trim the bushes. Removing the branches will give potential buyers a better view of the home from the road. Trimming the bushes, especially in the winter, will make the place look tidy and neat compared to other homes on the market.
The final point Luke makes in the video is going through the home and deep cleaning all the rooms. Extra attention should be given to the floors, baseboards, and windows. Sparkly windows and clean baseboards have been shown to impress buyers and make them feel comfortable about buying the home.
With these tips from Luke, potential sellers can improve the look of their home and hopefully attract a buyer much sooner than they originally thought possible.
The 3 Critical P’s When Selling Your Home
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with information and advice from all directions as to the things you need to do when selling your home. You read an article that details the 27 Must-Do Items. Selling your home is not rocket science. Do the fundamentals and do them well and your home should do really well too.
In this article from Seattle real estate agent, Conor MacEvilly, he shrinks down those bloated to-do lists to a smaller, more manageable list of just 3 items. Yes, there are just 3 critical P’s when selling your home: pricing, preparation and photography.
Everything else is just cherries on top! Even better, your Realtor will take care of two of them for you. However, just because it’s only 3 items doesn’t mean you won’t be working your tail off getting the home ready for market.
Preparation covers a lot of different activates including decluttering your home, working on the landscaping and that all important curb appeal, painting touch ups or full paint jobs or putting in new carpets if needed.
Also, your home might need to be professionally staged if it will be vacant while on the market. The more time you give yourself for the preparation stage of the process the less sleepless night you will have. Start planning a minimum of 6 months ahead.
All your hard work preparing your home will go to waste if your agent doesn’t set the price of your home correctly. Getting the pricing right is CRITICAL! Price it too high and you might sit on the market. Price it too low and you might end up leaving a bunch of money on the table.
The final P is for professional photography. Ninety percent of buyers start their home search online and your home has only a few seconds to hook their attentions. Photos of your home taken by a professional photographer, specifically a real estate photographer is really important. Great photos will sell your home. Cheap agent iPhone photos will lose you money, Make sure you hire a Realtor who hires a photographer.
Focus on the 3 P’s when selling your home and you will reap the benefits at closing.
Selling A Home Where Pets Live
Sharon Paxson has written an article about selling a home with pets and having a pet can be detrimental to selling a home. Dogs, cats, and birds can leave behind a mess which can potentially turn off a buyer. Sharon explains that just because the homeowner loves their pet, not everyone does, and some buyers are fearful of animals which can be detrimental when trying to sell your home.
Pets can also become territorial during showings, as it is a disruption to their daily life as well.
Sharon offers recommendations on what to do to prepare to sell your home with pets including a deep cleaning of the home, replace HVAC filters, repair cosmetic defects which may have been caused by having pets. It is also important to deep clean or replace the carpet. Be aware that having pets can leave behind odors, so having the home as clean as possible will reduce that, and diffusing a very neutral essential oil may help purify the air.
Other recommendations including picking up dog or cat bowls and water bowls. Minimize signs that a pet exists in the house, so removing photos of them also. Remove other pet items may include their bedding, crates, bowls, toys, water bowls, and litter box. If you have a bird, then keep the cage clean and the floor swept under the cage.
Don’t forget the outside of the home too if you have pets. clean up the dog yard outside and that there are no remnants from a dog using the outdoors as a bathroom. If you have lawn, and it is damaged or burned from a dog, then have your landscaper re-seed. And be sure to completely clean up after a pet outside, because you would not want a buyer to “step” on something that was missed!
For showings and presentation of the home, it is ideal to take the pets out of the house, if they cannot stay with a relative or friend, then take them for a walk.
Lastly, think about your pet and you want to make the experience as stress free as possible for the pet too, because it is their home too!
Killer Home Selling Blogs – Best Advice For Selling A House
Elevating Your Luxury Home For Sale
While luxury homes have a tendency to shine on their own due to their features and look that does not mean a luxury home does not need to be made ready for luxury homebuyers. Generally unless a home is a one of a kind build (the only castle in the area) there will be other luxury homes for sale that could easily serve as an alternative for the home listed for sale.
As a result if the luxury home you are selling does not shine in front of the competition there is an uphill battle for the homeowner to attract the attention of luxury homebuyers who will be very discerning with their money. Fewer buyers means a lesser chance of getting an offer that gets the home sold.
Greater Cincinnati Luxury Real Estate Agent Paul Sian provides some excellent insights as to how luxury homeowners can really make their home stand out against other similar homes on the market.
The first point Paul makes note of is that pricing is critical when it comes to selling a home. If a home is overpriced the marketing mix used to sell a house does not make one bit of difference. Pretty much every homebuyer knows their budget and knows how to get the best value for their dollar. Even in the event that a homebuyer thinks a luxury house is worth more than it really is and makes an offer based on that mistaken belief when the home appraisal comes in the reality check will result in the homebuyer realizing they are overpaying. So by having the right price set from the get go there is less time wasted on everything else.
Once the pricing has been properly dialed in that is where the luxury homeowner can take a few extra steps to make sure the home shows as a better value compared to other similar homes. One of the best ways to show that extra value is by having a pre-listing home inspection and repairing any issues discovered during the home inspection. By having all repairs done ahead of time the home then truly becomes move in ready for any buyer, which is what is preferred in today’s market. With price and condition properly addressed many luxury homebuyers will be ready to put their best offer forward.
Be sure to check out the article for more tips on how to elevate your luxury home for sale.
Let Your Home Sell Itself
This article from Wendy Weir gives some great tips (26 to be exact), on how to let your home sell itself and get top dollar! At the end of the day, homeowners don’t determine what their homes are worth, home buyers do.
Everything starts in the Kitchen! Since the kitchen is the most popular room in a home, pay special attention to how it looks to buyers. If your budget allows, it is wise to make investments to the kitchen. Then apply the process for the rest of your living areas.
Repairs are investments that should be (have to be) made prior to putting your house on the market. Unless you are willing to price it at rock bottom. However, be very careful not to go overboard, because some renovations or additions may not provide a buyer a return on their investment.
The three most common questions about items that may, or may not, add to a home’s value are; what’s a view worth, will a pool add value to my home and which renovations will boost my homes value the most.
Overwhelmingly, most home buyers want a modern, updated kitchen. However, anything you do to a home that helps save on energy bills will be popular with buyers. This includes replacing old windows with high-efficiency versions, replacing utility-hogging appliances and adding to the home’s insulation. For example, new windows can lower your home’s energy bills by 7 to 15 percent.
You’ve renovated, repaired, cleaned, decluttered and staged…now you’re ready to put your home up for sale and rake in the offers! Yes, that’s a ‘lovely’ for sale sign in your front yard and those full-color fliers are attractive. But it takes a lot more to sell a home than an MLS listing, a sign and a lock box.
Potential buyers can, and do, begin their home search from the comfort of their living rooms or offices. Studies show that the photos of a home are overwhelmingly viewed first. Ensure that both the exterior and interior photos of your home are captivating enough that when viewed online, buyers are compelled to want to tour your home. This is especially true in the winter! Make sure your agent takes ‘fresh, new photos’ when you hit the fall and again when you get your first snowfall. Taken at night, with ‘up-lighting’ it will look amazing! You’ve done all the hard work, now show it off! Without a doubt, in no time, the only sign in your front yard will say “SOLD.”
65 Home Staging Tips To Use When Selling Your Home
This article is packed with tons of helpful tips! Nathan Garrett with Garretts Realty Group put together a long list of 65 tips to help homeowners stage their home just before putting it on the market. Also added with an easy to follow infographic for homeowners to refer back to.
Many people ask why staging a home is important?
One of the main reasons is because real estate listings today often feature high-quality pictures and typically the first showing will likely take place online. If your home shows well online, you want to also make sure your house will show great in person.
A study put together by NAR reported that thirty-two percent of buyers’ agents believed a staged home increased the value the buyer was willing to offer on a home by one percent all the way up to five percent! In return, that can mean thousands of dollars more for the Seller! Validating that by spending the extra time and money to stage a home correctly can turn into a great investment.
Some of the useful home staging tips you can find in this article range from things as simple as hanging your curtains a little bit higher. In some instances, curtains that are hung from the ceiling down to the floor can give the perception of a larger viewpoint. Other tips include transforming a themed, sports room into a more neutral living area to help capture a larger pool of buyers.
There are many tips and tricks to staging a home and getting it ready for today’s real estate market. By applying some of them mentioned in this article, also added with some of the advice given in the other articles. You can hope for a more successful home selling experience.
Low Cost Home Improvement Projects To Consider Before Selling
It is the same wherever real estate is sold. Homeowners want to sell their home quickly for the most amount they possibly can. It makes sense and is exactly what I would want if I was looking to sell my home.
In her latest article, Anita Clark provides outstanding advice on several low cost home improvements sellers should consider making if they want to sell their home. From simple things like repainting rooms and removing old window treatments to removing popcorn ceilings and replacing soiled carpets, Anita has covered 11 key things to help homeowners put their property in
Anita further discusses other key things sellers can do before putting their home on the local market to make it stand out from other homes in the neighborhood. Whether it is decluttering the property, getting rid of offensive smells, or ensuring the landscaping looks great, following Anita’s advice gives home sellers every opportunity to get their home seen and sold quickly for the best price possible.
Selling a home is a process fraught with subjective factors. Add in seller motivations, desires, and biases, and things can get murky quickly. By following the 11 tips in the article above, sellers are sure to eliminate common obstacles that can keep their home on the market long after it should have closed. Follow the tips and see how quickly your home sells!
Top Kitchen Remodeling & Decorating Trends
As homeowners begin to think about making a move to another house, their first consideration must be the condition of their home. Listing a home is a marketing job and the house is a product for sale. First impressions count and a seller will only get one chance to make a good one. It’s crucial to look at the home objectively, listen to professionals and take steps to maximize the salability of the home.
If the look of the interior is dated, the seller will want to decide which items need to be repaired or replaced. Generally, kitchens are the most expensive rooms to update, and are the first rooms that buyers will scrutinize. In this article Kitchen Remodeling and Decorating Trends, Chris and Karen Highland, central Maryland real estate agents, explain the five big trends in kitchen design, as well as give a number of tips to help sellers make their kitchens appeal to today’s home buyers.
Having an updated, modern and appealing kitchen doesn’t have to cost a huge sum. Fortunately for most homeowners, fussiness and excess have faded away in favor of pared-back looks that present a more timeless, value-conscious style. In this timely article, the Highlands explain how technology has changed the kitchen, as well as the popularity of open floor plans. The other good news: today’s kitchen design trends are full of choices.
Whether homeowners are planning to sell in 2018, or planning to stay and enjoy their home for years to come, they will appreciate these design tips for an appealing updated kitchen.
Guide To Home Seller Representation
If you are considering selling your home with a Realtor (highly recommended). You are going to have to make some decisions about how you want them to represent you during this sale. Realtors are bound to “Code of Ethics”. This code obligates them to be fair and honest in their transactions.
The issue becomes more about knowledge and experience then fairness and honesty. When selling your home you don’t always know the right questions to ask. You need an advocate, someone that can tell you what you need to ask and what you don’t know.
Institutional sellers like Banks or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT’s) have attorneys. These attorneys represent the institutions interests during a transaction. They know how to protect their clients during a transaction. The average home seller doesn’t have this kind of support, this is where “Seller Agency” comes in. Seller Agency offers a true fiduciary benefit to the home seller.
In this article Joe Boylan looks at the different forms of Seller Representation. The article examines the benefits of Sellers Agency, Transaction Brokerage and Dual Agency. Joe also shares real world stories from transactions about how agency works. These stories illustrate the benefits of having an experienced advocate on your side.
Understand Sellers Agency before you you list your home, you’ll be glad you did.
15 Home Selling Myths You Need To Stop Believing
Why are so many of these home selling myths regarded as hardcore truths by home sellers? That’s exactly the question Xavier De Buck, from Johannesburg (South Africa), asked himself after running into too many of them so far in his real estate career.
The answer to his burning question turned out to be rather straightforward: most home selling information found on/offline gets taken at face value, even if it’s completely unsubstantiated! And he’s right: why would anyone believe a complete stranger on some internet forum to be 110% correct?
In this detailed article discussing the most common home selling myths, Xavier debunks them one-by-one, as he goes through the (il)logic behind many of those hollow statements. As a non-real estate professional, will the home seller be the one setting the asking price? Or will the likely overpricing of the property be part of the overall marketing process to “see how the market reacts”? Or is it perhaps to leave some extra room for negotiation?
My favorite quote used in this article undoubtedly is the following: “Unlike wine that gets better over time, homes are likely freshly baked bread: awesome to consumer the first few days, but as time goes, less and less pleasant! ” And isn’t that real truth! Or do you think that a quick offer means the property’s under-priced? And then you must probably agree that the longer the marketing, the better the offers will be as well? Heck, the house more than likely will sell itself!
I think you’re getting the point here: through his usual tongue-in-cheek writing style, Xavier did a great job in exposing all those home selling myths for what they really are: hearsay at best! Home sellers ought to be warned not to take a lot of the information they hear or find for granted, but to further research its validity before risking many thousands on its assumed truth! Hopefully, knowing the facts will give home sellers enough ammunition to avoid the many pitfalls caused by these myths!
What Should Seller’s Use to Make their Home Smell Good?
First impressions are everything when selling your home and in addition to how it appears how it smells is just as important. Now many seller’s understand their home needs to smell good, but what most seller’s don’t realize is the things they use to make their home smell good could actually be hindering the sale of their home.
Oftentimes seller’s will light candles, use plug-in air fresheners and bleach everything in an effort to make their home smell good and inviting to potential buyer’s, but are these really the best options?
What Is A Listing Presentation?
This article from Dan Barcelon is written for those preparing to sell their home. If this will be your first time selling your home, you may not be aware of what a listing presentation is.
In this article, Dan writes about the necessity of a listing presentation prior to selling your home, as we all as what you can do as a homeowner to prepare for a listing presentation with a realtor. In case you didn’t know, a listing presentation is like an interview for the Realtor you will be choosing to sell your home.
This is your Realtor’s opportunity to present to you the marketing plan for your home as well as the strategy to take when selling your home. In the listing presentation, you can bring up any concerns or questions you may have.
Dan also includes some essential questions you should ask any Realtor during a listing presentation. The listing presentation should also go over timelines of the sales process, as well as some comparisons of homes like yours currently on the market, or have sold in the last few days.
These pieces of information are important to come to a list price for your hone. Your list price is critical in getting right the first time around, as an overpriced home will sit on the market for days. The listing presentation will help to reaffirm your relationship with your Realtor and learn more about their skills, experience, and professionalism.
The listing presentation ensures you won’t be leaving money on the table as you’ll be able to discuss in full with your Realtor every aspect of the sale beforehand. Dan Barcelon is a Real Estate agent in Long Beach, California and wants to help people become a better homeowner through his blog. Be sure to check it out!
4 Secrets To Boost Your Homes Value
Every home Seller hopes to sell their home for the most money. And, they’re often wondering what can be done to boost their home’s value. What can they do that doesn’t involve a major renovation?
What can be done? To start, you’ll want to read this featured article written by Real Estate professional, Lynn Pineda with Keller Williams Realty who serves Southeast Florida from Coral Springs to Boca Raton. Her article highlights secrets to learn in order to boost a home’s value. Lynn lets the secrets out in her article, 4 secrets in fact, on just what will help home Sellers increase the value of their home. There indeed are things you can do that once you learn, it will all make sense.
“When it comes time to sell a home, most home Sellers will have top of mind that they want to reel in the most money that they can for the home that they’re trying to sell. Of course…who wouldn’t?! We all want the most money and then some. As a homeowner, one of your first questions is “What can I do to boost my home’s value?” Just how can you boost your home’s value? Discover the secrets now.”
A Buyer’s perception of your home can be huge, often adding to your home’s value.
Have you ever considered what it would be like to make your home appear larger, without adding on another room? There are techniques that can seemingly add more space to your home and this will all be part of what the home Buyer perceives as being larger; allowing them the space they need to be able to live comfortably in your home. The have to be able to visualize this needed space. How can this be accomplished is discussed in Lynn’s article. Read her article to give your home’s value a boost.
Final Thoughts
The home selling blogs all cover very important topics pertaining to selling real estate. The authors of these articles are some of the top real estate bloggers in the world.
If you’re a real estate professional who enjoys reading blogs or writing blogs, make sure you join the Real Estate Bloggers Group on Facebook.
Also, stay tuned for next Tuesday’s publication of the best mortgage and home financing blog articles from 2017!
Previous “Best Of” Real Estate Blog Articles
About the authors: The above article “The Best Home Selling Blogs From 2017 | Advice For Selling A Home” was written by Kyle Hiscock of the Hiscock Sold Team at RE/MAX Realty Group. With over 35 years combined experience, if you’re thinking of selling or buying, we’d love to share our knowledge and expertise.
We service the following Greater Rochester NY areas: Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield, Pittsford, Fairport, Brighton, Greece, Gates, Hilton, Brockport, Mendon, Henrietta, Perinton, Churchville, Scottsville, East Rochester, Rush, Honeoye Falls, Chili, and Victor NY.
