Top 6 Things To Know Before Putting Your House Up For Sale

It’s a super exciting time when you’re getting ready to sell your house. Whether you have a seller’s market or a buyer’s market, you’re determined to make your house the “dream home” for other buyers, while you select your own dream home.

However, there are a few things you need to consider before putting your house up on the market. These things may be discussed with your realtor, and will ultimately help you in selling your house quickly!

1. Research your local housing market

Before you jump the gun and immediately list your house, make sure you take a look at the prices of other houses in the area. It’s safe to say that once you start thinking about selling your house, everyone starts putting their house up, too. So, take a look around your neighborhood or town online and see what people are listing their houses for. It’s also a great idea to look at comparable homes in the area to get a sense of what your house listing price should be.

2. Set a reasonable first price

If your house is barely worth $400,000 on the market, please do not put your house up for $430,000. Pricing your home properly from the get-go is extremely important and will attract potential buyers. If you live in a hot seller’s market, you may be able to get away with a slightly higher price. If you live in a seller’s market, you may want to stick with a reasonable price, and might even find yourself lowering that price if it’s not attracting any buyers. In a buyer’s market, they tend to be a lot more selective when it comes to pricing, so this is crucial.

3. Get rid of the clutter

This is an obvious part of the selling process, but making sure everything is clutter-free, neat, and tidy will attract buyers at the open house part of the drill. If you need to make the necessary renovations if you live in an older house, make sure that’s also complete before doing open houses. A nice, clean, updated house will attract buyers and assure them that they’re getting the best bang for their buck.

4. Expose your home listing on social media

Make sure to give as much exposure to your home as possible via social media. More often than not, you’ll see many homes listed on Zillow or Realtor.com, and these listings can be posted to your social media pages to get more shares and views. This increases the chances of someone seeking a new house to stumble across your listing and might just be the person you’re looking for!

5. Estimate the potential profits or losses

Before reviewing a purchase offer, you must understand the potential gains or losses within your price range. The selling price can be reduced by things like real estate commissions, fees paid at closing, additional settlement charges, and much more. These are things to be highly considered and discussed before moving forward with an offer.

6. Understand the tax laws

Selling your home can be a taxable affair. Thankfully, the IRS provides tax breaks for homeowners! In general, as long as you have used your home as your primary residence for 2 out of 5 years, you’re good to go. The capital gains exclusion amount is $250,000 for single taxpayers and $500,000 for married couples that file together. It’s a lengthy, tricky subject to follow, which is why it needs to be understood fully before even putting your home on the market.

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