How to Get the Best Price for Your Home: Tips from the Pros

Over time, I have developed certain strategies that work well for me in my home listings. I always  analyze the results with any strategies I use, but a few things always stand out as the most important when getting a home to sell for the most money.

But I wanted to hear what some other Top Producing agents around the country had to say about property marketing. It turns out, that there is a lot of agreement from the people who sell the most homes.

In order to get some expert opinions on how to get the most money for your home I reached out to Bill Gassett, a top real estate agent in Holliston Massachusetts, along with five other top producing agents to get their advice. Here is what they had to say:

Visual Representation

“Ellen thanks for asking me for my real estate expertise. One of the most important aspects for getting the most money for a home is your photography.

First impressions are everything when it comes to selling homes. The first place a potential buyer will see a home is online 95% of the time. Your photography can make or break you. If the photos are terrible most buyers will just skip to the next property.

Some of the biggest blunders are not providing quality photos as well as not providing enough for a buyer to get a true sense of the property. A good real estate agent will pay the few hundred dollars it will take to give the buyer the best experience possible. Sellers deserve this from the real estate agent they hire!”

“My favorite marketing strategy for selling a home (outside of proper pricing of course since no amount of marketing will help sell an overpriced home) is to take great photos and videos of the home.  The old saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words and in the case of selling a home that is quite an accurate statement.

“With over 80% of home buyers starting their home search online, if the pictures do not ‘wow’ the buyers then that means fewer buyers come to visit the home and fewer chances of getting an offer.  Low light pictures and cell phone pictures need to be a thing of the past when it comes to taking pictures of a home for sale.  Either a professional photographer should be used or, like myself, a real estate agent who knows how to take great photos and has professional level camera gear should be taking the pictures.  With great photos and videos homebuyers will be excited by what they see and want to see more in person.”

“One of the most important aspects to consider when marketing is photography. We work with professional photographers to capture the best images of the property. We stage each individual photo to make sure that the photo is shot with the best lighting, and the photo is inviting and has no clutter. When prospective buyers are searching online, the photos need to stand out as that is the first thing a prospective buyer will see.

“It is also important to have many photos so that a buyer can view the property online. It is a disservice to the property if there are only a few photos as it is not being showcased. The property has one chance to make a good first impression, and it begins with the photos of the property.

“We generally like to take photos when it is sunny and clear, exterior photos taken outside when it is gray are not as compelling. Evening or sunset shoots can be another way to showcase the exterior of the property.”

“Of course, everyone wants top dollar for their home!  So what sort of strategy allows you to do so?  What I advise sellers is your home needs to be compelling.     With smart phones, tablets, computers, etc…. A home buyer has almost every home at their fingertips, all they need is an internet connection.  You need to capture the home buyer’s attention online.

“And how do you do that? The single most important piece of marketing of your home is high quality real estate photographs.  Gone are the days of inexpensive point and shoot cameras or your agents snapping a few photos on their cell phone.  It is expected by home buyers that you have high quality real estate photography of your home.   Many of today’s real estate agents are hiring professional real estate photographers and others are taking the time to learn how to get professional results themselves.

“The internet has trained today’s home buyers to be image driven.  So that translates to an online real estate listing at well.  You need to capture a buyer’s attention with professional quality photographs of your home.  A buyer spends over 60% of their time looking at the photographs of your home.  If you don’t capture their attention immediately they move on to the next listing.

“When hiring an agent make sure you review the quality of the photographs they are using for their listings.  Great marketing starts with great photographs.  If your home is compelling and brings in the buyers for personal showing you will be sure to get top dollar for your home.”

Pricing

“Price your home right from day one! The most activity takes place in the first couple of days after a home hits the MLS. Overpricing a home leads to a longer time to sell ( if it does sell at all) and usually means a home sells for less. Correctly pricing a home means buyers will be excited about seeing your home.”

Preparing the Home for Market

“Perhaps one of the most important aspects of marketing a home for sale is in how a home is presented.  Presentation of a home is paramount. Skip it by not properly preparing a home and it will be evident in a lower price that a home will sell for in any given Real Estate market.

“Presentation of a home for sale includes details such as; cleaning it to be spotless, white glove viewing ready, clutter free, staged just right and plenty of high quality photos and video. Even if a home does not have all the latest updates, a well presented home can demand a top price when comparing to all other like homes. So if you’re looking for top dollar for a home you’re selling, make sure you and your Real Estate Agent have mastered your home’s presentation.”

Anita Clark, a Bonaire GA real estate professional, says one of her favorite, and most effective online strategies to get consumers interested in one of her listings, is to run a Facebook ad to a specific targeted local audience. Not only does it quickly reach the FB viewers she intends it for, but this approach has resulted in several listing sales this year.

Once you have all these wonderful strategies implemented, your listing is ready to hit the market. But, wait! My favorite marketing strategy, which has been very effective in eliciting multiple offers, over the list price of the property, is something called pre-marketing.

Pre-marketing is creating buzz around your product before it is available for sale. In the case of selling a residential property, I like to get all the marketing visuals prepared, and then using social media and other digital marketing tools, I can let the target audience for your property know that the property is almost ready for the market. This gives prospective buyers time to prepare for the showing and makes it more likely that you will have a larger turnout when the property goes active.

Increased competition is a necessary component of a competitive offer. And in their simplest form, all these strategies listed above, appropriate pricing, excellent visual representation and proper preparation, are simply ways of increasing competition by giving buyers what they want most and letting as many buyers as possible know the product is available.