How do you go from listing agent to super agent in the minds of your sphere and clients? By getting the best deals for your clients every single time.
Before I even meet with a potential listing, I have a game plan in place that helps me educate and answer my client’s questions in preparation for when they’d like me to sell their home.
My process to win listings before I arrive is well documented, and once I’ve secured the listing, I have a game plan in place to highlight the home. This is the checklist I use every listing to guarantee top dollar, and it is my best practice for getting a house ready to sell.
How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar To-Do List
Before I list a house and put it on the MLS, I need to educate my clients on what they can expect. Of course, that means I need to understand the local market, how similar homes are being marketed and sold, and the nooks and crannies that make my client’s home special.
The goal is to create an opportunity for you to highlight the home and show off your expertise and services so that you can sell your client’s home quickly and for top dollar.
Plan Ahead
For your client, preparing their home to sell means that you need to analyze their home from a first-time buyer’s perspective and the expertise from selling homes like theirs. In other words, you need to look at their home, all the good and bad, as a first-time visitor would.
Part of the process of selling their home for the best price you can is to dedicate yourself to your client and their needs.
One thing they may want to do is to interview a couple of different agents to see what is presented to them and suggestions they may have to sell the home for a top dollar.
Most agents at the listing presentation will offer a comparative market analysis (CMA) report about local transactions. Still, they don’t always provide much insight into ways to get a better return without costing too much money.
So do more in your listing presentations. Have detailed plans of how you will market their home, the types of open houses you’ll plan, and if you’ve done the work ahead of time, you should win the listing before you even arrive at the appointment.
Planning includes thinking about your potential buyer’s first experience with your client’s house, and for almost every home, that is curb appeal.
Curb Appeal
How often have you heard, “you only get one chance at a first impression?”
Your first impression is the home’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is what the house looks like from the street as a potential buyer sees the property for the first time. Curb appeal can be improved relatively cheaply. All landscaping, touch-up paint, and a few trinkets can make a huge difference in a person's first impression.
Declutter and Depersonalize
Another critical thing to do is to have your client declutter and depersonalize their home. Eliminate the years of heirlooms and acquired keepsakes and hone in on only having minimal items and personal effects needed to make their home appear friendly and inviting.
Take down those family photos, achievements, and awards. Instead, make the space friendly with art but depersonalized. Think about the aesthetic when you walk into a hotel room the first night, sparse, warm, but not personal.
Decluttering makes the rooms appear more prominent and allows buyers to picture their belongings and design in the space.
Rather than create a sense of “home,” wall after wall of picture frames assaults the buyer's senses, making your home seem more closed in and less inviting.
In other words, convincing your client that less is more is a great strategy when preparing to sell their home.
Focus on Kitchen And Bathrooms
Two of the most important spaces in the house are the kitchen and the bathroom. Kitchens and bathrooms are nearly as important as curb appeal when it comes to making a positive impression.
Make sure your clients give both spaces a nice, deep clean. Generally, the less cluttered and cleaner the room is, the more attractive and inviting the area. Some suggestions you can do are:
- Replace old fixtures
- Touch up paint and trim as needed
- Clean all appliances and fixtures
- Replace old caulking around sinks and tubs
- Clean all sinks, mirrors, countertops, tubs, and toilets–remove all stains
- Scrub, mop, and wax floors
- Hang fresh towels
- Have an air freshener for the bathroom
Focus On The Senses
Making your client’s home appear lived-in without making it overwhelmingly personal is a balance. In the past, agents used one technique to have cookies baked in the oven to create a desirable smell.
You can try that, though there are air fresheners that denote the same aromas as freshly baked cookies and create that same “homey” atmosphere. Scented candles are another good suggestion.
One key consideration: eliminate any musty or pet smells that may permeate the home. Instead, make the home smell fresh, like blooming springtime or other lightly scented aromas that one would find appealing.
Also, focus on increasing the natural lighting throughout the home. Open windows and pull shades back, turn on lamps that emit soft lighting, and add flowers and greenery throughout the house to create an inviting, soothing effect on the senses.
Create a flow to the room, turn off all TVs and maybe have soft music playing lightly in the background.
Adding some potted plants helps set an inviting flow to the room and can add to the ambient scents and aromas if done strategically.
The key here is to create a setting that enhances the mood and disarms new visitors. You want the home to be inviting without traces of the previous owner and family. Remember, you’re trying to create a mood for the buyer that allows them to see how they could live and thrive at the house if they were to buy it.
Touch-Up And Highlight Best Features
Highlighting the home's best features and drawing attention to aspects that make the home unique is part of your challenge.
For example, if the house has original hardwood floors, pull rugs off, minimize the furniture, and open the space to expose the floors. Be sure to wash, mop, and wax to create a bright, shiny sheen on the floor.
Other suggestions to highlight natural features:
- If there are breathtaking views, pull back the drapes and have the windows cleaned
- Have the front porch and entry-way cleaned and have potted plants to create an inviting feel
- Focus light to accentuate high ceilings or exposed beams
- During the winter, make sure fireplaces are in working order and consider a small fire
- Be sure that any yards are landscaped and pools are “swim-ready.”
Have your client consider touching up paint and creating warm, neutral tones on walls and hallways. Neutral colors are warm and inviting, but it’s also rare for someone to dislike a neutral color.
Remember, your job as the seller’s agent is to advise your client to create an environment that makes potential buyers see themselves living in the home.
Remind your client to fix any loose handles, paint scuff marks, and deep clean the windows and doorways of the home.
Prepare Your Clients For Showings And Viewings
The final and perhaps most crucial step in getting a house ready to sell is to prepare for viewings.
The first thing is to ensure all valuables are secured and put away.
Next, schedule viewing times that are convenient for your client.
This step is easier said than done if the house isn’t vacant, but if your clients are living in the home until it sells, you need to prepare them for the inevitable last-second viewing.
Discuss with your client the importance of being flexible, but also let them know it’s ok to have some boundaries–i.e., no showings after 6 pm on the kids’ school nights.
The single most significant thing you can do during a viewing is to have a sign-in sheet or another way to capture visitor information.
Be sure to ask if they are working with an agent already and permission to contact them. Again, this is a way to gather leads and prospect information that you can further target to create a more extensive client pool and sell the home you’re working on.
Preparing a home to sell, especially in today’s market, requires you as an agent to be creative and better prepared than other agents.
Doing preliminary work to stand out and showcase your expertise is only part of the work that must be done to succeed. Once you secure the listing, being prepared and educating your clients about the process is crucial to winning future business and referrals, which are the lifeblood of expanding your business.
Having a checklist that includes being prepared, decluttering, cleaning, and making the home inviting are great ways to highlight your client’s home and your skill and expertise as their agent. If you have systems built in to capture leads, having one listing can turn into plenty of business for you down the road.
