1. Clean it up
Knoxville and east Tennessee has a lot of hills. They are everywhere.
They dictate the architecture of the houses that sit on the hills or the side of the hills. Many houses in the Knoxville area have a basement or part of a basement. They are sometimes called simply lower levels. In part of the state the main level is the lower level, whereas in Knoxville, the main level is not always the lower level.
The important thing is to thoroughly clean up your house prior to offering it for sale. This is not an effort to insult anyone’s intelligence, but to point out that clutter gathers in an incremental manner. One day, there it is.
If you can afford a pod, that is a good alternative to moving out and staging your house. A pad must have a place to sit, but you can gradually remove your stuff and pod it until you move. The vendor will even move it for you, and your house will show better the more minimalist you can make it.
2. Do your homework on the price
Do your homework on the price.
As though you haven’t already, look at the Zillows and the different agency websites like the Coldwell Bankers and the Century-21s. Have a pretty good idea of what your house is worth.
Look at the neighborhood comparables and go to a few open houses to be comfortable with where you are pricing you home.
Many times you will receive mail from real estate agents trying to prospect for your business. Sometimes your mortgage company will send you a solicitation to refinance, along with a ballpark idea of the value.
It is, of course your option at this point, to spend money on having an appraisal done. I personally don’t encourage that plan of action at this time for a couple of different reasons that are better addressed another time and place.
3. Put it in the MLS
The MLS is the sine qua non of selling your own house. It was, at one time, a sign or a newspaper ad was sufficient to sell your house, but not anymore. Today, if you want to sell it and sell it in a reasonable amount of time, you will probably want to include MLS exposure in your plan.
MLS exposure is no longer the exclusive tool of the full service (read full-priced) real estate agent. Nowadays, there are brokers who put in houses belonging to FSBOs. This is called an MLS entry-only listing. For a much lesser price, you get the exposure of the MLS, but you do the work.
In Tennessee I am involved with a just such a company. Tap or click here for more info on TN flat fee listings.
In return, you must keep the MLS aware of when you accept a contract and when you close.
4. Use the sign of the listing broker and not your own
Make it available to see.
With this sale transaction, you must observe both the law and MLS regulations, or they will shut you down.
Agents can and will report if you commit any infractions. They and the MLS want to see a broker’s sign, and not an Ace Hardware generic sign.
My cost including the sign, packaging, shipping, and handling is $35 as compared to a big box hardware, where you can find one for less than ten dollars. My sign company won’t even come close, but those are the rules.
5. Make it available, answer the phone, be nice to the agents
Keep some extra room on your voice mail. Don’t let it fill up and turn prospects or agents away. You are spending money for those phone calls, and the agents will cry foul!
Answer your phone even before the voice mail if you possibly can.
People want to see your house when they want to see it. Your timing must become their timing.
Master lock – I highly recommend you get one somewhere like at Amazon. It’s a combination lock so you can secure it around doorknob with your door-key in it. Don’t put the combination in listing, and do change every week or so. Tap or click here for more info on these locks.
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