10 Tips for Selling Homes in Minneapolis St. Paul, MN
Selling a home quickly and for the best price is always the end goal for home sellers. Long delays or a sale that falls apart before closing can mean disaster. During a seller’s market, a quick sale at a good price can be delayed or derailed at times. Our experienced, well-trained, and creative REMAX Realtors and agents have the skills needed to help sellers get to closing and sell their homes for fair market value.
Kelly Beck – Kelly brings his passion for helping individuals and families to each and every client relationship. Balancing a tireless, authentic energy with excellent marketing and planning skills, he aims to make each of his client’s experiences as smooth as can be. Kelly prides himself on honest, open communication during all phases of the home buying and selling experiences. He shows an agent can be a strong advocate for his client’s best interests at the negotiating table, as well as provide warm and genuine customer service to each and every client. Phone 612-834-0330
Some of the tips we often share with sellers include:
- Appropriate Pricing Is Essential – The Twin Cities real estate market is always changing. Setting a price for any home or other property is a complex equation, based on current market conditions, demand for homes, and many other factors. Our Minnesota MLS listing agents study the housing market constantly, and have the expertise and skills needed to evaluate homes and help sellers set an asking price that will help assure a timely sale at the best possible price.
- Be Flexible – Soon, the home you’re selling won’t be your home any longer. It will be a house someone else has purchased. You know what you paid for it, but knowing what its fair market value today is can be difficult for an owner to determine. Our REMAX listing agents will carefully evaluate your home, check all comparable home prices in your immediate area at this time from Northstar MLS, and suggest what the fair market value of your home is. It may turn out to be less than you thought, given current market conditions. If you overprice your home initially, it may well linger on the market, rather than attracting valid offers from buyers. Staying flexible and separating yourself from any nostalgic attachments to your home will help make the sale.
- Listen to Suggestions – Your listing agent from The Minnesota Real Estate Team will be able to make suggestions about ways you can improve the marketability of your home. Those suggestions are based on intimate knowledge of what helps homes sell and what our REMAX agents are seeing on the complete Minnesota Northstar MLS system. They may include suggestions for fixing problems, improving the “curb appeal” of the home, and other preparations that will make it more attractive to buyers and increase the value of your home. Homes that are move-in ready sell most quickly and for the best price.
- Consider a Professional Home Inspection – In many areas, the local jurisdiction may require a “time of sale” inspection. While these can spot certain issues with the home, they are not a complete inspection. Having a professional home inspector go through your home can identify detailed issues that will show up when the buyer’s home inspection is done. Correcting those issues in advance can avoid complications in any sale. Since most buyers insist on making the sale contingent on a satisfactory inspection, correcting any problems in advance can eliminate that worry.
- Prepare Your Home Carefully for Showings – Time spent in preparations for showing your home always pay off in stimulating interest from buyers. The suggestions of your listing agent and our tips for preparing and staging your home have proven themselves to stimulate actual offers from prospective buyers. Preparations can be a lot of work, but that work is rewarded.
- Take All Offers Seriously – When someone makes an offer on your home, examine it carefully, and don’t dismiss it based on the offering price alone. Discuss offers with your listing agent and prepare your counter offer based on those discussions and your personal opinion.
- Avoid Nitpicking – If an offer includes elements you wish weren’t there, don’t dismiss them out of hand. Perhaps they include a request that something remain in the home that you planned to take with you, or a request for a repair or upgrade of some feature in the home. Weigh all such elements carefully against the possibility of the offer being withdrawn. Discuss each element with your agent from The Minnesota Real Estate Team.
- Solve Disputes Gracefully – Once you’ve accepted an offer, the sale is still not yet assured. The buyer will probably insist on including a satisfactory home inspection as a contingency. If issues are discovered in that inspection, they will need to be resolved, either with a repair or an adjustment in the selling price. The same issues will still be there with the next buyer, so taking care of them is essential to keep the sale on track. The same thing applies to any other contingencies. Cooperation and flexibility are your best solutions.
- Always Work Toward the Closing – Once the home is in the escrow process, act quickly to resolve any title or other issues that appear. Your listing agent or the title company will let you know if such issues come up, and prompt action may be needed to avoid delays. While such issues can be annoying and troublesome, solving them is crucial.
- Solving Closing Day Issues – Closings are stressful at times. Your listing agent will explain the entire process in advance and help you understand any last minute issues. Occasionally, you’ll learn something you didn’t know beforehand. Unless it’s something that is very different from what you expected, there’s probably nothing to be gained from objections. If you have any questions, discuss them with your agent and get an explanation you can understand. That’s your agent’s job.
Helping Real Estate Sellers in Minneapolis St. Paul
The professional, experienced listing agents and Realtors at our top REMAX Realty team are dedicated 100% to helping you market and sell your home effectively. They’ll work with you diligently at every step of the process and make sure you understand those steps fully. Their creative skills and extensive knowledge of the current Twin Cities real estate market help them to accurately evaluate your home and suggest pricing that will assure a quick sale at a price that represents the actual market value of your home. As licensed agents, we will list your home onto the Northstar MLS of MN. Then, once offers come in, they’ll work with you to take the sale through the process that leads to a successful closing.
