As with much of Atlanta’s suburbs, the Alpharetta housing market is always competitive. Even when the housing market is hot, there is no lack of Alpharetta real estate for sale. As such, it is important to make your house stand out from the rest so not only will it sell, but you will increase the number of offers for it getting a higher price.
There are several things you can do to increase the appeal of your home, as well as potential offers. Here are some of the key factors.
1. Hire a Reliable, Experienced Real Estate Agent
Naturally, you want an experienced agent familiar with the Alpharetta area. Luckily, the Happy Homes Team is based in Alpharetta and ready to help you. Realtor Gretchen Evans, who established the team, has been in real estate for more than 20 years. Her goal is to utilize her Top 10 Service Process for every Alpharetta real estate transaction. This entails:
- Needs analysis
- Pricing strategy
- Property preparation
- Marketing strategy
- Offer evaluation
- Negotiating the deal
- Managing contracts
- Pre-closing preparation
- Closing
- Post-closing matters
All these factors are essential to home sales and garnering multiple offers for your property.
2. Prepare your property for sale
There is no way to get around it. Whether you have lived in your home for three years or 20, getting a house ready to put on the real estate market is a lot of work. The same preparation applies to large estate properties as well as Alpharetta condos for sale. So, let’s get started.
Getting a pre-listing inspection and tending to repairs
Most potential buyers will request a home inspection before they sign on the dotted line. But you should be ahead of the game. Hiring a home inspector will let you know just what repairs your house needs. It is up to you to determine what you need to take care of before you list it for sale.
Some issues which should be fixed include any structural issues and roofing problems. In addition, you will want to ensure there are no leaky pipes or faucets, or electrical issues. It is important to make the inspection report available to serious potential buyers along with proof of what has been repaired.
Decluttering and cleaning your house
Although you may still be living in your home, you want to offer an appearance of a clean canvas as much as possible to house hunters. They want to envision what their lives might be like in the home, not yours. As such, you need to declutter.
Rent a storage unit to store the things you want to keep but do not need in the short term. This includes kitchen items, extra linens, out-of-season clothing, family keepsakes, and knickknacks, as well as extra garage items such as tools and other boxes of things you have been storing there.
Follow your decluttering with a cleaning crew to clean up every niche of your home, including:
- Cabinets and cupboards
- Windows, sills, and screens
- Sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets
- Entry and bedroom closets
- Floors and floorboards
- Patios, porches, and decks
Low-cost improvements
Add natural, neutral colors by painting any walls that are an unusual color or that need repainting, replacing heavy drapes with lighter fabric or blinds, replacing old or worn-out carpeting or other floorings, and replacing old, outdated lighting fixtures inside and out.
3. Determine your Alpharetta property’s listing price
Your listing agent should have vast experience in pricing local homes. They can run a list of comparable homes for sale in Alpharetta along with recently sold properties.
Together you should agree upon an attractive listing price, one which potential buyers may wish to improve upon if they are serious about your property. You want to set a price that will bring in showings and not drive them away by asking too much.
4. Have a marketing strategy for your property
While you should be able to count on your realtor for most recommendations and decisions on marketing, you may have some of your own ideas to offer. You want more than a sign stuck in the yard and placement on the multiple listing service.
These days good marketing includes listing on your realtor’s website as well as social media. Internet traffic is now vital to attract home lookers. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), more than 50% of the houses sold nationwide in 2020 were first found online by their buyers. Because of the popularity of internet shopping, your realtor may wish to also place your listing on MLS sites. But also consider more traditional advertising through local newspapers and other periodicals.
Do not underestimate the importance of good photography!
Even if someone is handy with a camera, that does not make them a real estate photographer. Professional real estate photographers understand proper lighting to draw viewers in. They also know the proper angles of different-sized spaces from which to shoot the photos. And they have the proper equipment to do so, including multiple wide-angle lenses, portrait lenses, and lighting equipment, when needed.
Start off marketing your home with a brokers’ tour
So, you have had a home inspection, taken care of necessary repairs, decluttered as much as possible, and had your home cleaned from top to bottom. The photographer has taken fabulous photographs, and you and your realtor have discussed your listing price. You are ready to list and advertise.
Now is the perfect time for a broker’s tour. This offers a chance for your realtor to show off your property to other realtors in the area. After all, they want their clients to find the right home just as much as your agent wants to help you sell yours.
While you may not want to be home during the tour, do help your agent organize some hors d’oeuvres and nonalcoholic drinks to keep those other agents around, asking questions about your property.
5. Schedule strategic showings
You will want to accommodate potential lookers whenever they are ready to look, and you should realize that the first few days of your listing are going to be remarkably busy. Other agents will be calling your realtor to schedule a showing, who may want to arrange for lookers to “inadvertently” run into each other. While you do not want possible buyers tripping over each other, you want them to see that others are interested.
Coordinating a new appointment in what just may be a slight overlap of the last can work in your best interest. It may cause a bit of panic. That is okay. Seeing others looking at what they may want to be their new home may encourage offers to come in faster.
But you will have to miss the fun. Showings go best when sellers are not home. Again, those lookers do not want to see you in your home, they want to envision themselves in their new home.
6. Add a lockbox
There are times when your realtor may not be available to show your home when another agent has someone who wants to view it. With a lockbox on site, the agent with lookers will still be able to access your home without you there.
They will not come unannounced. The viewer’s agent will first contact your agent’s office to schedule a time. Someone from your agent’s office will confirm the time with you, so, if possible, you can arrange to be otherwise engaged.
7. Try an open house
Open houses can draw a lot of attention to your property. Sure, you will get some lookie-loos, but you may also attract lookers who do not have their own agent yet but feel the need to stop by during an open showing by your realtor. Your agent will likely have prepared for this possibility through their marketing strategy.
While not all agents favor an open house, one can, if done correctly, “bring the perfect buyer to the table, or drum up enough interest in your home to spark a bidding war,” according to HomeLight.
8. Let your Alpharetta realtor be your guide
While you may have your own approach as to how you want to sell your house and how much you would like to see it sell for, your agent has much more experience and expertise in the Alpharetta real estate market. Of course, you will want your ideas heard, and no doubt, you have wise advice to offer. After all, you have lived in your home and know its finer points and its quirks.
The Happy Homes Team is working with local real estate every day, often seven days a week. Let one of them be your guide. You need a realtor who you feel comfortable with and can trust. Call upon Gretchen or one of the other realtors of the Happy Homes Team in Alpharetta to sit down for an initial meeting to discuss the possible listing of your home today.
