If you live in Georgia, you’ll find that one of the most stressful and annoying situations you can find yourself in is buying and selling real estate in Georgia.
It’s a common perception that selling homes is accompanied by much stress and it’s for this reason that many people looking to sell their homes choose to hire the services of realtors who specialize in property sales.
However, you on the other hand may be one with the do-it-yourself orientation and that doesn’t hurt either because many for-sale-by-owner sellers have emerged with success stories over the years.
While you may be excited about the possibility of selling your home yourself, it’s noteworthy that as of 2020, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) put the value of agent-assisted home sales at over 70, 000 USD higher than the value of for-sale-by-owner homes.
This implies that if you choose to sell your house yourself without getting a realtor involved, you’d be selling at a value less than its actual market value.
This article will focus on guidelines and tips that’ll make selling your house in Georgia a smooth one. But before then, let’s go over why there’s a need for you to become your realtor today.
Why Become a For Sale by Owner in Georgia?
Selling your home yourself puts you in total control of the funds that’d be accrued from that sale. This implies that you’d no longer have to pay the standard 5 to 6 percent commission to a real estate agent.
For instance, if you’re looking to sell your home for 300,000 USD and you involve a realtor, this puts the commission fee you’d be paying in the region at 15,000 to 18,000 USD.
Now if you’re not comfortable with parting with such a sum, acting as your agent comes in handy.
However, before you go on with your decision, you must know some risks involved when you don’t use a realtor. Let’s highlight them quickly.
- Since you’re not a realtor, the inexperience factor may kick in and make the selling process tedious for you.
- When it comes to home sales, much legal paperwork is involved, thereby exposing you to risks of legal troubles if you don’t do your homework properly on this crucial aspect.
- You must understand that real estate is a full-time business that requires time and dedication and there may be the possibility that you won’t have enough free time to find a buyer, especially if your job keeps you busy.
- Getting a satisfactory sales deal entails good negotiation skills which you may not have and this can make you end up settling for low-ball offers if a realtor in Georgia isn’t involved.
- Calls may come in at any time and you’d be required to show potential buyers the property you intend to sell to them. So you have to be prepared for any eventualities.
Now if you don’t think the highlighted factors above can hold you back, then let’s proceed to some tips you’d find helpful in alleviating any undue stress that comes with selling your house in Georgia for top dollar and also within a considerably short time.
Meanwhile, if you want to get an extensive read, you can check out this article on how can I sell my house without stress.
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Declutter Your House and Fix Maintenance Issues
You must declutter your home because not only would you be getting lowball offers as a result of its messy condition, but you’d also be putting off your buyers because its appeal will reduce greatly.
In addition, if you’re aware of any small maintenance issue, endeavor to fix it. It could be bad lights, holes in the drywall, or even a gutter that’s clogged.
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Clean and Prepare your House
Cleaning your house to prepare it for the exhibition is different from conventional spring cleaning. Overall, the cleaning and preparing stage should take you about two to three days to complete.
The preparation stage involves painting, looking around the house to fix any flaw that a potential buyer will find.
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Stage Your House
Here you have to bring your creative prowess to the fore and it generally entails home beautification. You can fit your home with eye-catching designs to make it look more luxurious and appealing to buyers.
Also, you can use flowers, lights, furniture, pieces of art, and other relevant things that’ll make your home draw your buyer’s eyes.
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Take Good Pictures of Your House
After you must’ve prepped your house and it’s ready to be put out for sale, you’ve got to make everything come alive by investing in photography.
Here you can either do it yourself or hire a professional photographer to take fantastic pictures and videos of your homes at different angles. Keep in mind that this is a crucial step as it plays a part in the marketability of your home.
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Advertise Your House on the Market
The aspect of marketing your home is the most mentally tasking stage as it involves many unpleasant hassles. Here, you can either leverage the power of good photography to advertise your house, or you can simply engage in word-of-mouth advertising.
However, to manage the stress of marketing your house, you can use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) where they put all available houses on the market for sale.
A way to go about this aspect of marketing is to find an online brokerage that’ll not represent you, but provide an MLS listing-only service to you. Contact them and pay a fee for them to help you post your home on the Multi Listing Services platform.
Listing your home on MLS gives it maximum exposure because most buyers looking for property go to MLS first.
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Always Prepare for Eventualities
When you’re dealing with buyers, you need to be prepared for anything. It could range from last-minute or unexpected requests to people changing their minds. Preparing your mind for these possibilities makes it easier to handle any surprises if and when they come up.
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Don’t Personalize the Feedbacks You Get
Try not to take negative feedback from buyers personally. This is because you can’t appeal to every buyer at all times and it’s certainly not an affront to your style or personality. Rather it’s merely a choice or preference
Conclusion
If you have a house that you’re looking to sell, the guidelines and tips in this piece will mitigate the troubles of selling your house in Georgia.
In the end, know that every property sells, and finding the right buyer is key because it’s a game of numbers and you’ll always get a result.
