Your home may very well be the most valuable asset you own.  So if you have plans to buy a larger home, downsize, or relocate, selling will be the most important decision you’ll make.  In order to get familiar with the home selling process, this report has been specially prepared for people just like you.  These 10 Tips will show you how to ease your anxiety, be in control, and get the most out of your investment.

1. Keep it Real. Recognize your motivation to sell is the driving force behind the marketing strategy. It will affect everything you do from how much money, energy, and effort you’ll put into preparing the house for the market to your asking price.  Your reason for selling will also determine your approach to marketing the home.  For example, most homeowners will usually price their home competitively if they need a quick sale. However if the sellers want to maximize their net returns, they will frequently choose to spend some time and money making repairs and improvements to the house.

2. Hire a Realtor. After you have decided to move, you will need to hire an experienced agent to represent you.  Don’t think you can wing it just because you’ve bought a couple of homes in your lifetime.  The fact of the matter is there are many agents who help clients buy and sell homes multiple times per month.  Therefore, they know the contracts and potential pitfalls, local market conditions, and they also know how to market your home to bring the greatest number of potential buyers.  However here is a quick word of warning: make sure you hire a Full-Time Realtor.  There are many who do this on a part-time basis only in order to supplement the income.  Do your homework before you sign on the dotted line.

3. Price it Right. Just out of curiosity, do you go to the doctor so you can tell him how to properly treat you or do you go looking for professional advice?  You answer is most likely the latter.  The same should be true when selling your home.  If your Realtor has completed a thorough Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), the evidence will clearly show exactly where you should set the price. Should you go against the Realtor’s advice and list higher, you may never see a profit because the home may never sell.

4. Keep it Confidential. This can often be a bit of a challenge for many home owners.  After all, being honest and upfront is human nature, right?  Wrong!  The Reason you are selling can and will impact the way you negotiate an offer. By keeping the “Why” confidential, you are preventing your potential buyer from getting the ammunition they want in order to negotiate a lower price. Let’s just say you are relocating to another city and need to move quickly, you could be placed at a disadvantage in the negotiation process by disclosing your reason for moving. This should be between you and your trusted real estate advisor.

5. Disclose, Disclose, Disclose. In the previous paragraph, we discussed remaining confidential about the reason for moving.  However, you must disclose everything you know about the condition of the property, any repairs you have completed as well as any existing latent defects they buyer may need to know about.  This must be completed in writing (Seller’s Disclosure Notice) and before the house goes on the market.  Potential buyers will want and need to know exactly what they are buying into before they place an offer on your home.  All too often, a seller may inadvertently “forget” to disclose pertinent details about the house only for the unsuspecting buyer to find out long after they have moved in.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Lawsuits can be very expensive.

6. Go House Shopping. Believe it or not, when you put your home on the market, it’s a dog-eat-dog contest to see who will get to the finish line first.  In this case it is not a finish line, it’s the closing table.  So, if want to know how to beat your competition, you have to understand their strategy.  The best way to know what today’s buyers want, you will need to get out there and do some house shopping.  Have your Realtor schedule showings of comparable homes in your neighborhood and area.  Attend some open houses and visit builder’s model homes.  This will give you a unique perspective of what is going on in the marketplace and also an idea about how to compete.

7. Don’t Get Emotional. When selling a home, think of this process as a business transaction.  Remove all of the emotion you’ve invested in your home and focus on your new home and next great adventure.  When you receive a lowball offer (and in this market it happens frequently), remember that buyers are looking to purchase the best home for the least amount of money. Knowing what motivates them and keeping your cool will enable you to negotiate more effectively.  With all the emotions in check, you’ll gain and maintain the upper hand.

There’s nothing worse than to enter into the home selling market unprepared and uneducated.  As a result, your home could sit unsold for many months because of improper pricing and a weak marketing strategy. Nonetheless, either of these situations is extremely frustrating to any home seller. But more than that, it can be financially crushing if you’re counting on the full proceeds of the sale of your home to fulfill another responsibility. Don’t let this happen to you!  This unfortunate scenario can be avoided with planning and preparation.

If you need assistance with selling your Plano home or with Plano Real Estate just need professional advice, we would like to help.  Call Joy Rice of RE/MAX DFW Associates today at
(214) 662-5588.

Have you ever considered selling your Flower Mound home for sale by owner FSBO?  You can do it if you have the right knowledge and skill set. Many homeowners believe that to maximize their profit on a home sale, they should sell it themselves. At first glance, the home selling process seems simple.  Why should a homeowner pay 6-7% to a real estate professional for something they could do themselves?  Pretty straightforward, right?

Take for a moment if you have ever had an opportunity to ask someone who has tried selling their home by owner.  They will most likely tell you that the phone starts ringing almost as soon as the sign goes up in the front yard.  Unfortunately, the majority of those calls are not from potential buyers, but rather from Realtors wanting to list your home.  Frankly, the idea of not paying the commission is attractive to any home seller.  However because of all the issues and pitfalls that can and do occur, selling a home on your own can present many unexpected problems.

For the adventurous at heart if you choose to go it alone, here are a few things you may encounter on the road to selling on your own:

Lackluster negotiating skills. For Sale By Owner properties usually attract bargain hunters, speculators, and “tire kickers”.  Most FSBO buyers are merely curious, but some are real buyers looking for a steal.  Right or wrong, many of these opportunists believe homeowners are uninformed about the marketplace.  They can often be tough negotiators and submit lowball offers on FSBO’s because they think they have an advantage in dealing with an amateur homeowner.  As the seller, you are selling on your own to save the commission.  Even serious buyers will almost always deduct thousands off your list price plus another six percent discount due to lack of Realtor involvement.

Complete strangers in your home. “Stranger danger!”  This is what we teach our children yet at the thought of saving the Realtor compensation, our sense of reasoning can become clouded.  Ask yourself a few important questions:  what do you know about the potential buyers coming into your home?  Have they been pre-screened and pre-qualified by a lender?  Do you know how much they can afford?  Even more importantly, do you know if they have a criminal history?  Are they sincerely interested really in seeing the home?  Keep in mind, by inviting complete strangers into the home, unsuspecting homeowners place themselves and their children in harm’s way all to save a few bucks.  Theft of valuables, robbery, home invasion, or worse — murder — have occurred in these situations.  Most Realtors are trained professionals know who their buyers are, their true motivations, and whether or not they can afford to purchase your home before they arrive on your doorstep.

Potential liability. Many home sales have been lost due to incomplete paperwork, contract misinterpretations, property surveys and encumbrances, survey affidavits, title policies, third party financing, HOA bylaws and restrictions, lack of inspections, appraisal issues, or not meeting the state’s disclosure laws, and the list goes on.  Ask yourself how you plan to handle a dispute with the buyer if one arises.  What is your Plan B if the home doesn’t close?  Even worse than a failed home sale, many lawsuits have occurred in For Sale By Owner transactions after closing due to
non-disclosure of existing or previous latent defects.  Are you completely informed of all the steps necessary to stay out of court?  Before you venture into unknown territory, make sure you understand all the details essential to successfully completing a real estate sales transaction.

Lost free time, nights and weekends. Complete accessibility is one of the key components to selling your home profitably and competently. You must be available to answer the phone calls, answer questions, and provide property tours at any given time.  Many homes have stayed on the market much longer than necessary because of an owner’s unwillingness or inability to show the property when potential buyers wanted

to see it. Recognize that a given number of hours each day are vital to selling your home.

Lack of enhanced marketing skills. Unless you are an incredibly skilled marketing specialist, most earnest buyers will never know your home is up for sale.  Statistics show that approximately 92% of buyers buy a home that was presented to them by a real estate agent.  While sometimes not initially, individuals searching for homes almost always end up working with a qualified Realtor.  The process is much easier for the buyers because the agent does all the legwork, the service costs them nothing, and the contract is negotiated in their behalf by their real estate professional.

The key to a successful Flower Mound FSBO transaction is to be fully prepared, knowledgeable of the contracts, and understand the pitfalls.  Some FSBO’s discovered that the lost money as a result of poor decisions outweighed the commission.

If the process seems a little overwhelming, let us handle all the details for you.  Joy and her team at RE/MAX DFW Associates have a proven track record of netting home sellers like you an average of 11% more on the sale of their home with fewer days on the market.  We can save you thousands with our FSBO Reward System.  Call us for more information.

Don’t leave your hard-earned equity to chance, call Joy TODAY at (214)662-5588 or email Joy@JoyRiceRealtyGroup.com.

Hannah and Lacy both love living in the Flower Mound subdivision of Wellington.  It gives them access to all the great spots, like The Dog Bowl in Dallas.

We have homes for sale located the upscale subdivision of Heritage, that is actually located in Fort Worth but is with the Keller Independent School District ISD.

Heritage – The Bluffs homes for sale

We have some new information for the subdivision of Wellington of Flower Mound.

Wellington Real Estate Agent

We have another page with lots of Coppell information pertaining to real estate and homes for sale.  If you are in need of a Coppell realtor please let us know.

Hello everyone. I wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know that we have a new page for Hidden Lakes Homes for Sale.

Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions on how we might be able to improve the page.

Hidden Lakes Homes Keller TX

Joy Rice of the Rice Realty Group is a real estate agent in Coppell serving the greater Coppell, Texas area with over 11 years experience.

Coppell, Texas Real Estate Agent Joy Rice

Here is a picture of the Flower Mound Public Library

Flower Mound Public Library