The Essential Guide to Selling Your Home:

Getting the house ready

Remove all personal touches:

Prepping Your Home for Sale:

You’re going to pack up your family photos and diplomas for your move anyway so best to start now. Buyers need to focus on the space and functionality of your home vs who currently lives there. We want to them to envision THEMSELVES in your home as opposed to thinking of how the current owners function.

Remove all signs of pets:

We all love our furry family members but buyers today increasingly come in with allergies or other sensitivities we cannot plan for. This is why the best plan is to neutralize your home from pet odors, food bowls and other signs of pets.

Declutter and remove knick-knacks:

Put away all items of value:

When you sell your home, the question is not how much your home is worth, but how much will buyers pay for it! And the best way to entice the new owner to pay top dollar for your home is to make it appeal to their senses, needs and expectations. HGTV has made many buyers feel being in the market is a game while also leading them to expect a heightened experience when they visit your property. We want to help you position your home to best win against any other options these buyers are seeing. Part of our services include working with you to discuss what to remove or reposition in your home so help each space serve its best purpose. Additionally, we can offer various tiered staging options that have proven to help your home sell higher and quicker than it would otherwise. So let’s get started:

Sure, we all appreciate that curio collection or the impressive display of magnets from around the world. However, we want buyers to focus on the condition and function of your space. The more clutter there is to take in, the harder it can be for many buyers to focus on what an incredible space you have. Furthermore, when buyers view photos of your home on their phone, clutter keeps their eyes from focusing on your space and updates.

Although there is always an agent present during showings or public Open Houses, it’s best to remove all temptation from anyone walking through your home. Make sure you put away jewelry, money, & credit cards. We also suggest taking prescription drugs and hiding them away in a space outside of bathrooms and the kitchen.

Air fresheners can work against you:

Although well intentioned, air fresheners often come off as too strong or lead a buyer to believe you may be covering up smells within your home. A good cleaning is the best approach when welcoming buyers into your home as a clean home never offends anyone!

How long will I have to respond to an offer?

In Western New York, we usually see a response from sellers within a matter of hours, and certainly within the day the offer was received, so that has set a precedent with buyers. Past experience has shown it’s helpful to keep the negotiation process moving at a steady clip before emotions can come into play on either side. Additionally, we often find the response to an offer, or the chosen option in a series of offers in front of you, can become quickly clear so there is then no reason to delay getting back to a buyer. All that being said, there are always situations where multiple sellers need to be contacted, time zones complicate discussions, or you simply need to sit with the information presented overnight to provide an answer you’re comfortable with in the morning. We will advise in each scenario and can determine what the best path forward may be for you.

Managing showings once on the market

We’ll work with you to create a custom listing plan designed around your personal needs, the demands of today’s market and our unique strategy to sell your home. Getting buyers in the door is the first part of our job, but once they start showing up there are several points to consider:

Expect other agents to show your home:

Planning for Open Houses:

Today’s market is one in which buyers often wait for an Open House to gain first access to your home. From there they have been coming back with their agent (or contacting us) so they can take a closer look on their own. This is why we often suggest planning 1 (or possibly 2) Open Houses so that we ensure as many buyers as possible can see your home and provide us with the greatest number of offers possible.

A buyer has stopped you outside requesting to see the home:

How buyers will get inside:

Most of your showings will be conducted by the agents for the buyer. To help manage this, we use electronic lockboxes on our listings. These ensure that only agents licensed with the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors has access to the box and furthermore, it immediately alerts us who and when accessed the box each time it is in use. This allows us to keep your home safe without limiting the time we can show your home based on our personal schedules.

I want to listen into showings via camera or doorbells:

Reviewing offers on your home

Do I get to see each offer that comes in?

We have an obligation to present each and every offer submitted to you directly. Based on many factors, we may present several offers at once in a spreadsheet outlining the necessary details or 1-2 offers in a verbal format. Whether we do this in person, over the phone or via video app will be based on your personal situation.

Although we will be present for Open Houses, our own clients and anyone that does not have representation, most showings will actually be managed by the buyers agent. We will be providing detailed information about your home via the listing, signage throughout the home and personal contact with buyers agents so that buyers can experience your home in the most comfortable way and speak to their agent freely. For this reason, we encourage private showings and suggest you leave the home during these visits so that buyers can get a true feel for how they may feel if the home were theirs.

First off, we don’t want you letting anyone you don’t know inside simply for safety reasons. Second, you do not know if this person is even qualified to buy your home. And finally, you hired an agent so we can manage the showings and keep you from unwanted exposure. Where we can deflect an uncomfortable question or defer to having to speak to you before responding in a thought way that protects your interests, it’s far more difficult for you to say “I don’t know” or potentially reveal something that makes your future negotiating power more limited.

Approving and managing showings in your home:

We use a system called ShowingTime that allows other agents to schedule showings within the timeframes we have agreed on for the showing of your home. Often, we set planned showing windows when you expect to be out of the home and simply allow those showings to be automatically approved before sending both you and us an email with the details. However, we also have situations where it makes more sense for you to approve each and every showing and we can set you up for that via text or email approvals.

We don’t often disconnect security already in place so that we can ensure your home remains safe to you while others view the property. However, this is a time for buyers to come in and assess if your home meets their needs. Often speaking candidly, their opinions are often completely subjective. We find it’s best to trust the process and let us provide any feedback we receive to you directly.

We review and vet every offer that is received to make sure there are no gaps or clear questions before we even take up your time. Based on our agreed upon strategy for offer review, we may be discussing one offer or many at once. Our process ensures you understand all the details surrounding a buyer’s bid while discussing the pros and cons and possible responses to best meet your needs.