5 Easy Things You Need to Know to Sell Your House

12 years in a house can have a big impact on you and your family. In 12 years, you can accomplish a lot as a homeowner. You can make connections with a house, with neighbors, with a community. When it comes time to move from a house you have lived in for 12 years, it can be difficult but it CAN be done.

When it came time for us to move from this home that we have loved and poured our hearts, sweat, tears, and yes…money….into, it was a challenge. I learned some very valuable lessons as I prepared for us to sell our house.

Make the decision and move forward. It is often difficult to think of leaving a home where you first brought your newborns home from the hospital. Or perhaps you have done extensive remodeling. Maybe you just refinanced and it seems strange to then turn around and sell your home. (All of which applied to us.) No matter what, if you are hesitant, you won’t make the change. You will easily talk yourself out of the change….especially if it is a BIG change. If selling your home is the right thing, you should do it. Go for it!

Get yourself a good realtor. We (thankfully) had a good friend who is a realtor. He is a fantastic realtor. He let us know up front that he wanted to help us achieve our goals. There are some who balk at the idea of a realtor and would rather save money and sell their house themselves. They don’t want to pay a realtor commission. Well….let me tell you…it was worth it! He knew all the in’s and out’s of the process and was extremely helpful. I also feel like people take a home that is being sold by a realtor more seriously. A good realtor is passionate about their job, will work FOR you, and get your house sold.

Clean your house. Like…really well. Dirty houses don’t sell. I found myself taking pride in my vacuum lines in our carpet. I may have also used the vacuum lines to “track” which rooms prospective buyers checked out…maybe a little creepy…oh well. Think about what you would like to see if you were trying to buy a home. Some say “staging” a home is not necessary, I say it is imperative.

Get ready to “get out of dodge.” When your realtor calls and lets you know that someone would like to come look at your house, you a) clean like a crazy person, then b) you get out of the house when they are scheduled to be there. Yes, there were times when I had been away for the allotted hour of showing only to come back to the house to find the potential buyers were still perusing. Inconvenient? Yes. Horrible? Not really. I would often just end up driving around for another little bit or go to a friend’s house and wait it out. It is worth it to let someone have time in your (maybe their) home.

Ask questions. This goes with #2…you’ve got to have someone knowledgeable of whom you can ask questions. When you aren’t sure if you need to fix something in your current house or if you need to be looking for certain things in your new house. Don’t be afraid to ask LOTS of questions – you will most certainly have MANY!