Are you ready for the truth when it comes to Selling Your Lakewood Ranch Home?

by Adam Miller, PLLC

Are you ready for a dose of reality? Ready to hear the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Stick around. Now, of course, I'm very well aware that many folks—not all folks—try to avoid the hard truth, especially when it comes to selling a home. Unfortunately, there are lots of real estate agents out there who are willing to tell you whatever you want to hear in order to secure your listing. So, we get asked all the time, how do we at the 941 Lifestyle Group differentiate ourselves? One of the ways we do that is we stand by our commitment to always act with respect and honesty and ensure that you will always hear the truth from us.

Now, we also know that on occasion this may cause us to lose a listing, which for us is okay because we would much rather have you be upset with us today for telling you the truth than have you be upset with us in 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, or even a year when your house fails to sell because it was overpriced.

Now here's the reality you need to be prepared for: if you're looking to sell your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time, there are specific actions that you, as a homeowner, are going to need to undertake. And, of course, there are critical tasks that we, as real estate professionals, excel at. Now when it comes to selling homes, marketing is one of the things that we do best. Now, if you overprice your home, all we'll really be doing is just expressing to the masses that maybe your expectations don't necessarily align with the market realities.

Now, to make sure that your home stands out in this very competitive real estate market in Liquid Ranch, we have a couple of recommendations for you. Okay, first up, cleanliness is essential. A meticulously cleaned home will leave a lasting impression on home buyers. It sends a message to potential home buyers that the home is well-maintained and well-cared for. So before listing your property for sale, we highly recommend that you hire a professional to come in and do a deep cleaning of your home. And we're talking about from floor to ceiling, especially those areas that buyers are going to be spending a lot of time in—kitchen, bedrooms, your living room.

Okay, next up on the list, let's talk about paint, and specifically, we're talking about opting for neutral colors. And applying a fresh coat of neutral-tone paint is a strategic way to attract a vast, broad spectrum of buyers. One of the things that neutral paint does is that it allows potential home buyers to visualize what their lives and their decorations may look like. And in our opinion, this is a small, worthwhile investment that'll go a long way in making sure that buyers perceive your home in a positive light. And in our opinion, we highly recommend hiring a professional to do the painting for you.

Okay, next up on the list, number three, is decluttering. Decluttering is a phenomenal way to make your house look more open and inviting. And a home that is free of clutter does a couple of things. One, it makes your home look more spacious. And two, it allows buyers, potential buyers, to visualize what the home might look like with their decorations and furniture in there.

And I know what I'm about to say might be tough for some of you, but our goal is to depersonalize your home. We want buyers to feel like this home could be theirs, and it's tough to do if they see family photos or just family knick-knacks, those types of things.

Okay, so are you sitting down? I'm sitting down. Here's—we're talking about the truth that may not sit well with a couple of you, and we're talking about pricing your home right from the start. Setting the right price from the beginning is vital. Let me say that again: setting the right price from the beginning is so vitally important. And the data, the data does not lie. It is proven that homes that are priced right tend to sell for more money in less time. Unfortunately, testing the market with a higher price leads to a stagnant listing, and unfortunately, one of the consequences of overpricing a property is significant and frequent price adjustments. And many times when the home finally gets priced right and sells, it sells for less money than you would have gotten if you priced it right from the beginning. And in my opinion, one of the most devastating things that happens to home sellers when they overprice their homes is you inadvertently help sell other homes, for real.

Nowadays, buyers are savvy; they have access to real estate statistics, so they probably will have a good idea of what a home like yours should be listed for and what it should sell for. Of course, real estate agents have access to all that information too, and it's possible that they don't even show your home to the buyers because they have one goal too, which is to help their buyer find a home that they can close on at the right price, in their timeline.

Okay, next up, this one's a biggie. You have to realize that when you list your home for sale, you are entering a competition. So, with interest rates hovering around 7%, there are very few buyers out there. So our goal is to make sure that the few buyers that are out there buy your home, and not one of your neighbor's homes. And Buyers, when they're looking for a home, go through house after house after house, and they look for the one that offers the most features and the most benefits, for the same price or lesser price, whichever it is. It's all about the price here.

Let's role-play this really quickly. Let's just say, for example, your home is worth $850,000, that's based on what other similar homes like yours are either listed for or have recently sold for. But you want to test the market, so you want to list it for $950,000. Here's what the great real estate agents will do—I know all would do this one, I know my wife Jus will do this one—here's what we'll do with our buyers: 'Mr. buyer, if you love this home at $950,000, by the way, I'm showing your house first. Let me show you the house right down the street, that one's listed for $865,000, same square footage, the same number of bedrooms, the same number of finishes, and now all of a sudden your home at $950,000 made the other home at $850, $860 look like a better value.' And just like that, you help sell another home, and you don't want that, do you?

At the 941 Lifestyle Group, we are committed to guiding you through the home-selling process with integrity and expertise. Our goal is to match your home with the right buyer, ensuring a smooth and successful transaction that aligns with your expectations as well as your timelines. My name is Adam Miller with the 941 Lifestyle Group, I'm a real estate agent and a lifestyle matchmaker. If you are thinking about selling your home, I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to talk to you about what we're doing differently to market and sell homes in today's competitive real estate market

Beyond Homes - We Match Lifestyles

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. We are excited you found us.

We are the 941 Lifestyle Group.

We are real estate agents in Lakewood Ranch and would love to be your go-to real estate team in the 941 area.

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