Selling your home is stressful. The possibility for mistakes, financial pitfalls, and wrong decisions is great and, often, you can feel like you do not know where to turn for advice. Your friends may tell you one thing, your family another, and you may have read a third variation online. STOP You are on a roller coaster and need to get off. Start by hiring a licensed Realtor. Their knowledge comes from years of experience selling homes. In fact, you may have only done this once; they do it every single day. They know what they are doing.

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Choosing a Realtor and selling your home can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Our site is dedicated to helping you through the process. Step by step.

Below, we have included a free survival Guide! 3 Steps to Surviving the Sale. Start by reading that. If you need more information, click above to read about the Top 5 Don’t for Sellers and our suggestions on how to list your home at The Right Price … The First Time. It’s all great advice, straight from the pros.

We even have a FREE report that you can download INSTANTLY > 31 Tricks to Getting Your House Prepped for Sold! Think of it as our little gift to you, to help during this stressful time.

Everyone has heard the phrase, “Location, location, location” in reference to real estate, but there is another phrase that is equally important.

Basically, if your house is priced correctly, from the start, it doesn’t matter if it backs to a freeway, is located next to an airport, or has a giant, neon billboard in the front yard, it will sell, and sell fast. Now, if you are thinking that the above doesn’t apply to you because you have a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood, think again. The message is still the same: pricing your home correctly is essential to a quick sale for top dollar. That bears repeating:

It is tempting as a homeowner to list your home for more than it is worth, or to hire the Realtor that says it is worth the most. Perhaps you think that you may get lucky and find a buyer willing to overpay. Or, maybe you want to have room to negotiate an offer. Both theories are wrong, and only hurt your chances of selling quickly, and hurt your chances of selling for top dollar. In fact, overpricing your home can backfire in a big way.

	The bank will perform an appraisal of your home as a requirement of the buyer’s new loan. When the numbers do not add up, you could lose that buyer, which will cost you both time and money.
	Your high price could exclude many buyers looking to purchase in your area. If all the homes in your area are priced at 200k and you want to list your home at 218k to have that room to negotiate, they just won’t bother to look. You are out of their price range. Or, worse, their Realtor may have only searched for homes up to 200k and no one even saw your listing.
	Other Realtors may use your home as a benchmark. They may schedule an appointment only to use you as an example and show their clients that another house is much better priced and, in turn, a much better purchase decision for them.
	The longer a home is on the market, the more buyers, Realtors, and even neighbors remember seeing it. Eventually everyone starts to think something is wrong with your beautiful home in that nice neighborhood. It becomes stale. Eventually no one wants to see it because it is so old. The showings will dwindle to nothing and you could sit on the market forever.
	The only way to get out of the slump and shake things up is to reduce the price because … price overcomes all obstacles. This will work, but the problem is that you may have to reduce it to below what your original list price should have been and, in turn, sell for less! Why, you ask? Simple. In the beginning, you had no obstacles to overcome. You were the beautiful home in the nice neighborhood. Now, you are “that” house. The one that no one wants to see. It is going to take hard work and price reductions to shake that reputation.

Pricing your home correctly, right out of the gates, would have worked out better for you. Your home would have sold faster, with less stress, and for more money. It’s a tough lesson to learn. In fact, every Realtor with any experience knows that a squeaky clean home priced correctly from Day 1 will not only sell, but sell fast and for top dollar.

So, how do you arrive at the right list price the first time? You need a professional Realtor to assess your home. It is their job to know what houses are selling for and in what timeframe as well as to assess the condition of your home in order to arrive at the right price to get your home sold quickly.

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When you finally decide to put your home on the market, the decision can be stressful, slightly nerve-wracking and, to be honest, a little bit scary. The key to surviving is to bring your patience, and follow a few key steps.

You need to hire a professional, licensed Realtor to do the job. Selling your home is not a do-it-yourself project. You can find a Realtor from a variety of places, including recommendations from friends and online searches. When you find someone you like, request a CMA (Competitive Market Analysis). This is simply a fancy way of saying that the agent is going to analyze your home and those in your area that have sold recently to arrive at an appropriate listing price. Believe it or not, many homeowners slip up here. They can get lured into a high estimate when, in fact, the numbers may be inflated in an attempt to gain your business or, worse, by an inexperienced agent. Do not hire a Realtor based on what price they suggest, but rather on their solid marketing strategy to get your home sold, their experience in the field, and their proven results. Ask how many homes they have sold this year. Ask what percentage of their listings sold and for what percentage of the list price. Don’t be shy. All Realtors worth their salt know the answers to these questions. If they don’t, move on.

Once you assemble a real estate team to help sell your home, you need to come to terms with a few facts about the real estate game. Showings are tough. You have to make sure your home is perfect before you leave for work each morning, which was already a hectic time to begin with. This includes putting away the breakfast dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, and picking up the toys. You may even have showings scheduled at odd hours that are inconvenient; like the exact 22 minutes of free time that you had on Wednesday to cook dinner. Another fact to consider is that your first offer is your best offer. The longer your home stays on the market, the more it appears stale. Buyers see it pop up week after week in their emails and on websites. They remember it. They begin to think something must be wrong with it. Then, not only do the showings drop off, but so do the chances of getting a good offer. Everyone wants to make money when they sell their home. In fact, there are tons of television shows dedicated to this phenomenon. You should, however, sit down and be realistic with your family and your agent. How long can you realistically live with showings and keeping your home in perfect condition? Ask your agent if you are priced appropriately to get the job done in that amount of time. If you want to hold out for more money, that’s up to you, just know that it will take longer and be much more stressful. In the end, the few extra dollars may not be worth it to your family.

Learn to trust your real estate team. Too often people go to great lengths to hire the best, only to second-guess and countermand every decision they make. Why? If you hired the top Realtor in your market, know that they did not get to that spot on their good looks. Likewise, the agent with the reputation for selling homes the fastest did not just make that fact up. They earned it! A Realtor is a licensed professional that works hard for their clients. Generally, they have years of experience and knowledge under their belts. In fact, you may have only sold one or two homes in your life to date. Your Realtor has sold hundreds or more. You wouldn’t second-guess any other professional. You wouldn’t question your dentist on his tool selection or your lawyer on her brief. Why do it to your agent? Having an open house is a perfect example. Most clients insist on having lots of open houses. It works on TV, right?! The fact of the matter is that houses rarely sell during an open house. Open houses are great for new agents, though. In fact, newbie agents often ask other, more experienced agents if they can hold a listing open for them in order to pick up new clients.

If you are unsure of your next move or if you feel concerned at any point during the process, call and talk to your agent. Ask them for their opinion, that’s what you are paying them for. They are skilled individuals that know the game works and can help guide you every step of the way, from the first showing to sold.

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