Tips to Sell Your Home in Orange County Before the New Year

As the year comes to an end, it’s time to see if you’ve achieved your goals for the year. It’s quite possible one of those goals are plans to move to a new neighborhood, city, or county that’s a better fit for you and your family in California. The following are some of the things to do before the New Year hits to sell your home and before new work goals take priority.

Make basic repairs
You want your home to be as attractive as possible to potential buyers to sell your home quickly. But not so attractive that you start second guessing the decision.

As you get further into the Fall season, it is a perfect time to landscape and snip the trees, clean out rain gutters, replace an older roof, and upgrade weatherstripping on doors and window frames. You should also fix any door repairs, update the lighting, and maybe paint a room or two to a neutral color if it’s an unusual color presently.

Make your home really appealing
A potential buyer will probably determine if they want to see the inside of your home within the first 30 seconds of viewing the front door. This means that curb appeal, how your house looks from the street, is among the most crucial steps you can do if you want to sell your home fast.

By simply planting some small plants or vibrant flowers near the front door can achieve this. Trim the tree branches and bushes. Take down any outside flags or personal decorations that could be interpreted as controversial.

Do a Comparative Market Analysis
If you want to sell your home pretty quick in a balanced buyers and sellers market, it has to be priced right. We have seen homes listed for sale for more than nine months. You don’t want to be that seller. Hire a listing agent to determine the best market price based on a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) and other factors of your home.

A CMA compares your home to similar homes in your neighborhood. if you’re pretty well versed in these reports and valuing properties,do one yourself and discuss your conclusions with the prospective agent, to be sure you are both on the same page.

Find an agent who knows your market
If you are in a rush to sell your home, don’t sign an agreement to sell with any agent. You need an agent who knows the south Orange County market, because prices can vary a lot depending on which city or school district your home is in. In a perfect world, you want your agent to have recent sales in your neighborhood, and/or adjacent areas.

Stage your home
Small maintenance projects and curb appeal are just a couple of ways to make your home look its very best. The profession of home staging is a strategy to make your home appeal to a larger variety of potential buyers. Staging will highlight the homes assets while being neutral. The ultimate goal is to get buyers to visualize the property as their own.

A few helpful hints are to replace personal effects with stylish decorative objects, improving the lighting by opening the curtains, blinds and cleaning the windows. Add medium to small-sized flowers and plants in large rooms. A professional stager with positive feedback would be a person you can trust and offer their expertise.

Be dedicated to marketing
As soon as you feel your home is in a position for it to be marketed to the public, it’s one-hundred percent go-time for marketing. Photos are going to be your best friend during the marketing period.

Therefore, a professional photographer is one use to take photos of the best features and highlights of your home. The appealing items such as a recently-upgraded kitchen or bathroom would stand out, a view of the mountains, Pacific ocean or park from the bedroom or backyard is nice.

Once you have quality photos of your home, your listing should be displayed on home for sale websites along with authoritative social media channels. A video tour of your home may help as well.

Data Points to Faster Home Sales with Staging

With the economy under the microscope, many financial industry experts say the housing market needs to show stable signs of robust sales. The reason is because when the real estate market is strong so many other elements of the economy.

According to research by the Real Estate Staging Association,  73% of homes sell faster on average, that are staged than homes which are not staged.

home staging

Why Home Staging is a Great Choice

Your options to get your home sold fast are few. You can just sell it cheaper than similar homes in your local neighborhood. Result is you receive less cash proceeds at closing.

A second option is to make expensive home improvements before you decide to sell or list your home for sale. However, tens of thousands of dollars are most likely needed when upgrading the kitchen or bathroom. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that more buyers will make an offer.

A third, and usually better approach is to “stage” your home for sale. The practice of home staging is familiar to many homeowners compliments of reality tv shows. If you don’t know what it is, home staging is the art of prepping a home for sale.

A professional home stager is an expert in the art of preparing homes for sale.  Since most homebuyers begin their home search online, having a home staging professional can be extremely important drawing in prospective buyers.

A home that utilizes no staging comes across as less desirable in photographs compared to a staged home. Statistics also show that staged homes obtain more foot-traffic. Home staging oftentimes includes placement of furniture, artwork, and home accessories for a short-term.

What’s the Cost of Home Staging?

Professional home stagers are paid either by the hour or paid a flat fee for their service. As is the case with most real estate industry professionals, an estimates can be obtained at not cost. The average fee to stage a home is just under $700; and the temporary furniture or accessories will have an additional cost.

Don’t let this deter you. The return on investment is many times well worth the initial cost as you’re only investing a few hundred dollars to generate a return of thousands of dollars more. It can make a huge difference on your net proceeds when selling a home in Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Hills, or adjacent cities.

Here are some obvious and affordable staging practices that may yield big returns.

  • Painting: New paint can cover up home odors while significantly brightening up a room
  • Carpeting: New carpet brings with it a sense of being in a new room and cleanliness
  • Decluttering: Getting rid of “junk” from rooms, closets, and cabinets, and drawers creates instant attraction} and makes it look more roomy.

If hundreds of dollars is too much at the outset, try these low cost home staging tips under $50. First impression is always important so why not make it your best if you’re a motivated seller.

  1.  Invest in a new welcome mat, which may run you just $15.
  2.  Buy a few mirrors and hang them in rooms that are dark, or are small, to make them appear more roomy.  Placing the mirrors adjacent to or directly across from a window, helps them bring in more sunlight.
  3.  Arrange Tables and Counters for Entertaining – Just put out some napkins, wineglasses and a set of plates in the dining area.
  4.  Buy some canvas paintings or prints that are scenery of landscapes, modern shapes, travel locations, or floral motifs and replace any personal pictures on your walls. Typically these can be bought for under $50 at stores such as Michael’s or at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
  5. Make your bathroom area more inviting with all-white linens.