Call a Realtor early, save money

One Reason to Call a Real Estate Agent EARLY. 

If you’re in a home today, or you’re trying to make real estate decisions one of your first things to do might be to call a real estate agent in early. This is not a sales pitch, I’ve got strong logic about why this makes sense. Usually what I hear from people is “Lisa I can’t possibly have you over to my home, because I have to clean it first. I have 40 years worth of buckets in my home I have to get rid of first.” What I would tell you is I’m in 30 homes a week and as long as there is a path I can walk through, we’ll be good. There’s a reason I would tell you to get someone in to talk with you early.

HGTV is not Professional Real Estate Advice

Do you watch HGTV? It’s 24 hour a day programming about how to decorate your home and how to shop for your home. It’s a very romanticized version about how to prepare your home. It’s not really what happens in the real world. The best advice I can give you is if you’re planning to move, turn off HGTV and don’t turn it back on again until after your move. It’s just not real life.

Save Money on Getting your Home Ready for the Market

When you work with a real estate agent, one of the things we want you to do is save you money. We don’t want you to spend unnecessary money to get your home ready for the market if you won’t get a return on the investment. HGTV may have all sorts of ideas about how to get your home ready for the market. If you use those ideas I may not be able to list your home for any more. 

Here’s an example: If you just remodeled your kitchen in 1975, everything in your kitchen works perfectly, but it’s not updated. If an agent tells you to remove the carpet and change the counter tops in your bathroom, the buyer still sees your 1975 kitchen. The buyer looking at your home does not have the benefit of seeing the before and after, they only see what you haven’t done. My theory, which is different than other agents who don’t solely work with seniors is: if you don’t do everything it may not make sense to do anything. We don’t want you to spend a bunch of money changing countertops or flooring if it’s not necessary. 

This has never been true more than it is today in this seller’s market. Any advice I give you today about how to get your home ready is good for about 3 months. If the market changes, my advice to you for preparing your home will change. Today we are in a very strong market and you are in the driver’s seat like never before if you’ve got a home to sell.