1. Don't Overpay For Services

Many people misinterpret reduced cost with lower service, however the real estate industry is certainly a large exception. The fees charged to sell a home in the USA has been unchanged for decades and with recent advancements in technology, consumers are starting to see that a 6% commission may not be as needed as it used to be. Recent studies reveal that 62% of real estate professionals think this too and the smart ones want to embrace this, not run from it. We curate the best rated agents from over a million vendors to ensure we showcase vendors with superior feedback, and a commitment to embrace consumer savings.

2. Check Your Home's Value Often

Home owners usually check their homes value for the first time preparing for a sale. Knowing your home value is just as important as checking your credit score, or even checking your bank account balance. Essentially, your home is a virtual equity bank account, and checking it is easy with modern home valuation models. Tracking your equity will help you plan your sale appropriately.

3. Get A Net Sheet Early

By getting a Net Sheet at the beginning of the transaction, you can avoid endless headaches before closing. Many consumers think they have to wait to get an offer first before getting a net sheet, but an estimated net sheet will still be extremely useful. There are many fees sellers forget about such as: property transfer taxes, escrow fees, association fees, and many more. Know your fees, and know them earlier. It will give you the leverage you need when picking an accurate list price.

4. Set Your Price Right, The First Time

Setting an accurate listing price is important because potential buyers see price changes as a sign of turmoil by the seller. Do not use automated home value estimates from big portals, as they are not as accurate as we all expect them to be. An agent will provide a home value estimate for free (the good ones will at least). Listing too high will increase days on market and make buyers think there is something wrong with the home, while listing too low and trying to do a price increase will show your cards to the buyer too soon.

5. Good Photos SELL Houses

We live in a digital real estate era, and photos are the delivery mechanism to the masses. Do not let an agent take their own photos. Even with previous experience, an agent will never take as good of photos as a professional, which will drive less traffic to your listing online. Most professional photography services also will do post production to enhance the raw images further. Let me put it this way, spending twice the price on photos, should yield dividends on the amount of traffic you get. Your agent should be paying for the cost of your photos anyways, so don't let them skimp out!

6. Giving Incentives Draw More Eyeballs

Historically, a home owner has only been able to incentivize real estate agents with higher commissions to bring more buyers and put your home at the top of the stack, but you can actually incentivize the consumer directly through portals like Home Stimulus. When you add bonus savings to a consumer, your home gets featured as a Home Stimulus Bonus Rebate Home and gets more impressions. We show these homes more, because we truly enjoy watching consumers save.

7. Understand Listing Syndication

Majority of the time, once your agent puts your home on the MLS, it is magically and automatically syndicated to thousands of real estate portals, but consumers typically don't understand that the broker can select certain sites that they don't want the site to be syndicated to. Just make sure your home is visible online.

8. Clean It...

Yeah yeah, this one is obvious. But when we say clean it, don't just pick up and declutter. Send a professional cleaning crew in to spruce up areas that you may not think about.

9. Leave The Home For Every Showing

As much as you would like to stick around and brag about how great of a house you have, the sellers should not be in attendance during the showing. Home buyers want to dream about themselves living in your home, and when they see you still there, it ruins the whole experience. Depersonalize photos, and take down personal belongings that a buyer may not relate to.

10. Make Sure You Pick The Right Agent

Agents, Lenders, Escrow Officers come in all shapes and sizes and we combine, analyze, and rank agents based off of hundreds of different factors. While there is no 1 correct way to pick an agent, there are at least some warning signs. Stay away from up front fees as a majority of vendors get paid at time of closing. Don't get trapped into long term contracts as most agents that are confident in their services won't require you to sign them. Most importantly, enjoy your experience, and find an agent that can make it a little less stressful. With the right team, selling a home is actually a walk in the park.