I’m sharing a few ways you can be smarter about selling your home.

When you’re selling a home, you may realize you haven’t gone through the process in 10 or 20 years…it’s not something the average person does very often. However, there’s a smart way to sell your home. I looked at one simple question in the data I’ve gathered: Why would a buyer walk away from a house?

The number one factor is the home inspection. Everybody gets all excited about the home. An offer has been made and accepted, but all of a sudden, something unknown comes up in the inspection that scares the buyer.

I decided it was just common sense then to have a pre-inspection. I saw a huge drop in the cancellation percentage immediately; it went to less than 1%. Those remaining cancellations were probably due more to financing or the buyer’s conditions changing.

Some of the issues these inspections uncovered were things the homeowner wanted to fix anyway just to protect their investment. Even if none of the changes were made though, the buyers were still less likely to cancel. I think it comes down to that most people don’t have a problem with these issues as long as they have all the data when they agree to buy the home.

“Different kinds of homes work for different buyers.”

The buyer might decide to fix these issues themselves, or they might not even care that much. We all know there is no perfect house out there, and we apply this in almost everything we buy. The pre-inspection almost work like reviews on any other product. Some buyers will be discouraged by them, and others will just be more reassured.

Different kinds of homes work for different buyers. Trust me, some buyers are addicted to HGTV and couldn’t be happier to get in and tix something up.

The second big factor is termites. Termites can make buyers nervous whether or not there is any actual damage. As part of the pre-inspection, we make sure to check for termites as well.

The third factor is making sure you have great photos of the home. We used to talk about curb appeal a lot, but that’s shifted now to the online photos. Those will be the buyer’s first impression of the home, so it’s important to make sure they are fantastic.

If you have questions about the smarter way to sell a home or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I would love to hear from you.