Selling your home can be an emotional process. You may be attached to your home and selling can bring up a lot of feelings, especially when buyer, real estate experts, and inspectors come in out and start making changes and negotiating the value of your home. It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed, but we at Invictus want to prepare you for anything that may arise during the process of selling your home and alleviate as much stress as we can.
You’ll want to start by doing some research on the value of your home. This way you can decide on the listing price. The listing price needs to be reasonable for the area as well as for the house itself and it all depends on the overall market. The average market price for a home in Miami Florida in 2022 is just over $550,000, however in Ocala Florida, the average home value is just over $265,000. This is because the market in these areas is very different from one another. Remember that just because you renovated the home doesn’t necessarily mean that you can list the home with an incredibly high price, otherwise you may lose out on buyers.
Once you’ve established a listing price and packed a majority of your belongings, you’ll want to hire someone to stage your home. This can be either a professional stager, or your real estate expert. Once your possessions are in storage, they’ll come in and recommend changing paint colors, remove some more of your personal belongings, and even add in pieces, all with the intention of making the home look valuable. Remember how we mentioned how emotional the process could be? This is where those emotions boil. At this point in the process, the place you have called home is no longer your home, and it’s important to remember that when the stager is removing and replacing items. You feel uncomfortable and even possessive of the space, but justtry to take a step back and remember your goal of selling the house.
One of the most important things to be prepared for is living accommodations for yourself. Once your house is on the market there is no telling how quickly, or slowly, the process will take. If you’re selling your home because you’ve bought another house, you’ll want to be well within the buying process, such as during the inspections or final walkthroughs. However, if you aren’t that far in the process, like if you’re waiting to put in an offer, it’s okay, you’ll just want to know how your financial situation will look. In best case scenarios you’ll be able to leave your old home and immediately walk into your new one. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll have already sold your old home and you’ll need to stay at a hotel or temporary apartment. It’s important to consider both as a possibility so you aren’t surprised no matter which scenario you fall into, however most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes.
After the house is listed, and if the market is good, you should start receiving offers. Ideally, you’ll get multiple offers, but it is important to know that the highest offer may not be the best offer. Buyers have requirements that they may want met before they agree to purchase a house, and it’s important to read through the offers and carefully make a decision that is fair for the both of you. Once you’ve picked an offer, you may want to hire a real estate attorney to handle the paperwork, since this tends to be the most boring and confusing part of the process. It’s important that you are confident and comfortable with the decisions that you make. They buyer will also want to do inspections and walkthroughs of the property to ensure everything is ready to go and any remaining repairs will be brought up at this point. After that you can sign the final documents.
Congratulations! You’ve officially sold a home at this point. It’s a stressful and intimidating process, but you did it! Celebrate your victory, even if you haven’t bought a new house at this point because the emotional roller coaster involved is more than enough reason to be proud of yourself. Take your time appreciating the hard work you put forth and get ready for whatever the future holds for you.
