Selling
Your
Home
Selling a house is a complicated process, no matter how the real estate market is behaving.
Assessing your home, deciding the best price, creating strong ‘curb appeal,’ staging, pre-sale home inspections, disclosure laws, open houses and weighing offers takes years of experience to get the best results.
Choosing the Right Realtor to Sell Your Home in the DC Metro Area
Working with a full-service real estate agent and broker can be key to understanding and prevailing throughout the process. Be sure to choose an agent with appropriate licensing, education and experience in your neighborhood. Choosing a realtor is the best first step, of course. Find the best team in your market. Take advantage of their experience and track record.
Work with a knowledgeable partner who knows the territory and you’ll be confident that you’ve made the most of selling your property.
Downsizing
Selling your Empty Nest?
If your children have moved on, and you find yourself faced with many empty rooms collecting dust, you may want to consider downsizing your empty nest.
Downsizing an empty nest is a significant decision, but one that offers a number of benefits. Smaller homes save money and require less maintenance. Moving to a new home also allows you to relocate to an area closer to your current hobbies and interests. Individuals with health issues or those who have concerns regarding safety may relocate to a retirement home or assisted living facility. Likewise, in cases where mobility is a concern, moving to a single-level dwelling offers a safer option by eliminating the need for climbing stairs.
Where to Start When Downsizing
When beginning the process of downsizing your home, start by deciding what you want to take with you. A good way to do this is to think of how you can reproduce your favorite room. If you enjoy reading the morning paper while sitting and drinking your coffee in a sunny place, take the breakfast table where you sit and enjoy your morning ritual.
Once you’ve selected your favorite things, the next step involves deciding what you can do without. If you have appliances or pieces of furniture that you’ll no longer need, see if your family wants any of these items. If not, sell, donate, or—as a last result—throw away what’s left.
Prepare Emotionally for Moving Out of the Nest
Beyond the arranging the logistical details, many empty nesters experience anxiety about leaving the home in which they’ve raised their families. Many times, those considering selling their empty nest find that their grown-up children fully support the move. When parents live in a more convenient, easier space, children tend to worry about them less.
As you prepare to create this new, freer chapter in your life, begin by sitting down with your children and openly discussing the situation. Having everyone on the same page can go a long way in making the transition as seamless as possible, and will help make the move a harmonious one.
Thinking about making a move? Contact Nancy Taylor!
Staging and Prep
Is Staging the Right Choice for My Home Sale?
When preparing to sell your home, preparation and presentation are key. Staging may not always be necessary, but our team is experienced enough to know when the time is right.
Successful staging can be imperative to helping sell your home quickly and at the best price. It helps showcase your home’s strengths, downplay its weaknesses, and appeal to the biggest audience possible.
In this particular market, for every dollar spent on staging, buyers can expect to get $2 to $4 in the marketplace. It also means that the sale will be quicker, and that you’re more likely to have competing bids. So you can rest assured, that if the team at Taylor Agostino Group recommends staging as an option, it’s because we know it’s the right choice to list your property at its best.
Marketing Your Home: Our Process
The Taylor Agostino Group’s marketing approach for your property leverages decades of experience, combining common sense with uncommon commitment and strategy. Buyers and sellers agree, the Taylor Agostino Group provides the best experience for creating your own real estate success story.
Offering your property to the greatest number of potential buyers, our goal is earning you the maximum price and the best deal for your property.
Marketing Expertise at your Service!
Our team offers award-winning graphic design, advertising, and public relations services for marketing your home in its best light to the largest group of prospective buyers. Most importantly these days, we offer the area’s most knowledgeable and creative program for social media designed for marketing your property online.
Making the most of your customized marketing campaign is our commitment to you, just as we’ve been successful since 1964. Taylor Agostino clients can expect a carefully planned program utilizing many, if not all of these proven techniques and tools:
Upgrading
What Can I Expect If I’m Selling My Condo or Small Home?
Here in the DC market many believe it is a great time to upgrade – sell a smaller or less-valued property such as a condominium in order to move up into a larger single family home.
Considering the transition from a condo, of course, one of the most important factors is determining how much you can get for selling your current property. Not necessarily determining what is it worth in today’s market, or what you can list it for, but how much will it actually sell for. And then, once sold, do you have something to work with to pay closing costs on both your old and new property, as well as retain a reasonable down payment for the new home?
Know Your Comps
Many recommend having your real estate professional conduct a comparative market analysis. This is important for condo owners, single family homeowners, or anyone selling property. You should be realistic about pricing the home so it moves quickly. This will help you avoid a long gap between when you buy your new home and sell your old condo.
Be Realistic about Your Property’s Value
It’s important to consider the market. If you have only been in the current condo for two or three years and made little or no down payment, you might not have enough equity to sell at a profit. Some might even owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth. On the other hand, if your condo has appreciated well, it might be easier to move up to a bigger and better home.
Get Your Finances in Order
Just as importantly, you should consider your finances. Your overall debt picture is important if you plan to move into a larger, more expensive home. In addition to a higher mortgage, you’ll likely have higher utility, insurance and property taxes as well. If you owe money on a home equity loan, you’ll have to pay that back when you sell the home, which will eat into your profit.
When considering a mortgage, get pre-approved before you start looking for homes. The goal is to find out what you can or are willing to afford and then start looking for properties. You don’t want to waste your time and create unrealistic expectations. Remember that pre-qualification by a lender isn’t enough to put in an offer. It’s a pre-approval that will win the day with sellers.
Get Your Condo Sold
Moving up will go more smoothly if you are able to sell your current property before trying to buy another. For one thing, many buyers are leery of contracts in which the sale is contingent on the seller finding a home. Finances also are an issue. You might be able to get a bridge loan if you’re unable to sell before you buy, but consider whether you can afford two mortgages for more than a month or two.
When all is said and done, factoring the purchase price for your new home and the lowest interest rates available it is certainly a good time to buy. It’s possible you may get less for your condo than you might have hoped, but your goal is to make that up with the current new home prices available today.
Sellers Special Services
For sellers, the process begins with a free evaluation of your property and your goals for selling. Our agents will meet with you and explain what we do, how we do it, and what it all means for selling your home. Your agent will work with the Taylor Agostino Director of Marketing, Reagan Smith and her team of multimedia and branding professionals to create the best plan and mix to put your property in the best market position, including:
Open House Event Management
Let the buying public in the front door, but let us handle the important details. Taylor Agostino Group offers scheduling advice, home preparation, and of course, our experienced agents will host the event and handle all inquiries from prospective buyers and agents, including follow-up sales activities.
Personalized Representation
Of course, while marketing tools and strategies have evolved over the years, the most valuable service from Taylor Agostino remains unchanged since 1964 – our commitment to personal service and the highest integrity in the business. Give us a call and we’ll show you how it all works for you.
Multiple Listing Service (MRIS)
Your home will be featured on the industry-wide listing of homes for sale, accessible by all area Realtors®
Staging
When preparing to sell your home, preparation and presentation are key. Staging may not always be necessary, but our team is experienced enough to know when the time is right. We have interior designers, furnishing and art inventories, along with valued vendors offering decades of experience – in other words, all the resources to make it easy and turnkey to get your home ready for sale.
