Selling Your Baton Rouge Home When You Want to Be a Buyer Too

With all the emphasis on first time buyers this year, the great opportunities for sellers in this current market are often neglected. People sell homes because they want to move on - to a bigger (or smaller) home, to a better area, to a new city, to a new job. Current home prices, though lower than you'd like as a seller, are so inviting when you're the buyer that you might want to join the fun. When you want to buy a new place, of course you want to sell your old home at the best price you can get in the shortest time.

These days, you have to go the extra mile to make sure your home moves quickly at a good price. This means preparing the home for sale, which requires careful planning. Ideally, you should plan ahead a year or two. Sometimes, though, circumstances change that require you to move up the timetable. Or maybe you happen to find your dream house at a good price and you want to sell it now.

So, how do you make your home ready to sell quickly? As soon as you know you want to move, work with a competent Realtor®, who will point out what you need to do to make the home ready to sell and guide you as to improvements that will net increased value to buyers. You might even get a presale inspection to point out any problem areas that need attention. If you find that there is a problem area like a cracked foundation, a bad roof, or faulty wiring, you will want to focus on attending to these repairs rather than overdoing interior upgrades. Make sure to keep records of any repairs you have made, as this can be a negotiating tool for your agent in maintaining your price in discussions with an interested buyer.

When it is time for your agent to actually list the home, he or she will want to take lots of pictures to put on their website and on the MLS. Before the pictures, you should consider professional staging to make sure your home looks its best. Staging tends to depersonalize the place to help new buyers concentrate on the house, not your things, and visualize themselves there. Even if your home looks like it could be in House Beautiful, a professional stager might subtract some furniture and some personal effects to better showcase the property.

When the agent lists the home, the price should be competitive - perhaps even on the low side. If you are selling so you can buy, you want the price to be attractive enough to entice buyers. You don't want to lose a sale - and perhaps the chance at you own dream home - for a few thousand dollars.

Sandy's Team has a reputation of selling home other agents can't. If you have a home you'd like to sell now in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, or Livingston Parish, check us out. We can offer you a personalized comparative market value on your Louisiana home as well as tips to help it sell quickly to a qualified buyer.