With the hot seller’s market beginning to cool down, experts are predicting a shift toward a more neutral real estate market in 2023. From home sellers' perspective, this could mean more competition from other sellers, reduced demand from buyers, longer days on market, and less compelling offers. The good news is there are strategies you can take to keep making sales amid these changing conditions.
Here are six steps to efficiently sell a home in any housing market.
Hire the Top Seller’s Agent in Your Market
The first and most important step when selling your home is to find and hire the best realtor or broker in your area. According to Realtor.com, a listing currently spends an average of 67 days on market. Working with a good agent can help you bring this time significantly down.
Selling a home on your own, also known as FSBO (“for sale by owner”), is entirely possible. However, it’s not typically recommended for first-time homeowners—especially in a neutral or buyer’s market. After all, it requires a lot of active work for often suboptimal results. This is especially true if the buyer works with a realtor, as you will probably end up receiving a much lower price. In most cases, the price difference will more than compensate for the agent commission. This means that even with paying the required fees, you will receive more money if you work with an agent.
There are many advantages of working with a realtor. In addition to having local market knowledge and expertise, they can support you with pricing, negotiation, and other technical elements of the process. Realtors handle the majority of the legwork to get you the best possible sale price and terms.
Choose the Right Listing Price
When learning how to sell a home, another crucial step is to price your property the right way. Once you have hired a good realtor, they should be able to help you with this process.
In general, you will need to conduct a comparative market analysis (CMA). This involves finding three to five comparable properties within a one-mile radius that sold in the past one to three months. Set up a listing price that falls within the price range of these sold homes, while also factoring in any differentiating factors of your property. Some considerations include size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, year built, finishings, and amenities.
Performing this type of detailed analysis can take a homeseller a couple of months. That’s why it’s smart to work with an agent to set up the right listing price for your property.
Just make sure that you’re not asking for a price that will push homebuyers away. Aim to ask for a price that is no more than 10% higher than the fair market value generated from the CMA. Looking at a few expired listings can also help you get a sense of what amount is too high to ask for in your area.
In dynamic markets like the one we have seen in recent years, it’s also important to keep an eye on local housing market trends and adjust accordingly. For instance, a new infrastructure development project in the area could cause a sudden demand for homes. As a result, you might be able to list your house for more than what comps sold for a few months ago. On the flip side, an industrial project can make the local housing market less attractive and push it towards a buyer’s market. This means you might need to consider lowering your asking price.
Fix Up Your Home
To sell your home as fast as possible at the best possible price, it’s crucial to have it in good shape. If your house is relatively new and has suffered little to no wear-and-tear, you might have nothing to worry about.
However, in most cases, fixing up your home for sale is an investment that will more than pay for itself. Hire professionals to check up the foundation, roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC system to ensure that everything is working properly. These are the most important factors that home inspectors hired by homebuyers will focus on, and having issues with any of them might significantly impact the offer price. According to a recent agent survey by HomeLight, 53% of agents are reporting an increasing number of buyers pushing back on inspection items. And 77% of agents are witnessing contingencies coming back.
In addition, consider repainting the spaces that look like they could use a fresh coat of paint. In most cases, these would be the kitchen and the bathrooms—especially if you have a humidity problem in the home. Repainting an entire house costs between $2,000 and $10,000, but painting a few rooms will be much more cost-efficient. At the same time, it leaves a good impression on homebuyers and can persuade them to offer a better price. If you choose to repaint, the HomeLight survey found that 43% of agents see buyers express excitement about light or calming color palettes.
Pay attention to the curb appeal as well. After all, the exterior of your home is the first thing that buyers will see.
Once again, use the experience of your real estate agent to determine the most appropriate fixes for your space.
Stage Your House Effectively
When it comes to selling a home effectively, it’s important to prepare your house for the open houses and showings that your agent will hold. Staging your home is likely to be even more critical in 2023, due to increased competition from other sellers as we shift towards a neutral real estate market.
In terms of which rooms to focus on, a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that the living room was cited as very important by 46% of homebuyers. This is followed by the master bedroom (43%), the kitchen (35%), and the dining room (27%).
As the homeowner, your main responsibilities in preparing your house are to declutter and depersonalize the home as much as possible. Remove any items that make your home look busy, disorganized, and unwelcoming. Moreover, remove personal items like photos and souvenirs so that potential buyers can truly visualize themselves living in the house.
The actual staging of the home is the obligation of your real estate agent, but it is smart to work together in this process. After all, you know your home best and can provide valuable insight on how to highlight its best features.
Leverage Virtual Tours
A major step of selling a home efficiently is incorporating virtual reality into your listing. Zillow reports that homes with a 3D tour sell 14% faster than homes without it. While a virtual tour can cost between $100 and $300 depending on the size of your property, it can help you sell faster and at a better price. This cost is also typically covered by your agent, so make sure to talk to them about adding a virtual tour to your listing.
Benefit from Real Estate Technology
Virtual reality is not the only type of real estate technology that can make selling a home more seamless. Listing your house for sale on online marketplaces like Redfin and Realtor.com is a must in 2023, as that’s where the majority of first-time homebuyers look. Additionally, tools such as Zestimate help you price your home without requiring any manual research and analysis.
Another innovative tool that you can leverage in 2023 is Landslo, an AI-driven digital real estate assistant that lends valuable support through every step of the home selling process.
Landslo will send you tailored tips on how to sell a home in your market, along with updates on the latest local trends. He will share your home listing with buyers who are interested in this exact type of property, ultimately increasing exposure to qualified buyers. Last but not least, Landslo will connect you with the most relevant vetted real estate agent for your specific needs.
Start chatting with Landslo now to learn how he can help you sell your home.
Sell Your Home Efficiently in 2023
Real estate experts might predict a shift away from a seller’s market this year, but that doesn’t mean your homeselling journey can’t be a successful one.
Keeping these tips top-of-mind will help you overcome potential obstacles and sell your home as quickly as possible in 2023.