You want to sell your Central Mississippi house, and you want to get top dollar. Is top dollar all cash at closing or is selling on terms an option? Would you consider a joint venture with a buyer to potentially get more when the home is sold again?
Excellent! We are cash home buyers! We buy houses on terms too! We have successfully completed joint ventures with property owners! When you think “What do I need to do to sell my house?” Call us first!
But “What do I really need to do to sell my house in Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Pearl, Brandon, or Florence Central Mississippi“?
Here are some tips on how to get your home ready to sell if you’re looking for top dollar that the market will bear:
*NOTE: These instructions are if you’re looking to get full retail value for your house sale. Most often this is achieved when working with a licensed agent. However, if you don’t want to do the things below… or don’t have the time or money to do the things below… you can still sell your Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Pearl Brandon, or Florence Central Mississippi house fast for a fair value in a win-win sale that’ll save you time and expense.
1) Clean, clean and clean. Even vacant houses get dusty and dirty, so keep it up! Nothing short of gleaming perfection will impress buyers. If you’re not a total clean freak, hire someone who is to help you out until you sell. If you have relocated from the property, consider a cleaning service that will drop in once every week or two – a quick vacuum, mopping, wiping countertops and cleaning toilets, tubs, and sinks to keep it fresh. Even the best homes left vacant will have a bug or two show up alive or dead. Buyers will often walk away if a house “feels dirty”. Pets in the home, light bulbs that are burned out, dishes in the sink, laundry on the sofa. Sure, you have to live in your house, but if the buyer doesn’t “live like you” they will move on to a property where they feel at home.
If you’re a slob, consider finding somewhere else to live while you show your house. Maybe you can bribe your cleanest friend to trade houses with you? Seriously, keeping everything immaculate really helps buyers feel comfortable in your space. Nothing stops people faster from buying faster than feeling grossed out. The worst I’ve ever seen – underwear in the middle of the floor, and a bra hanging from a ceiling fan; Pet “messes” around the house – the smell alone will push many buyers out the door.
Don’t forget the yard and landscaping! First impressions happen at the curb and are hard to get past mentally sometimes. Fresh mulch or pine straw, trimmed shrubs and blooming flowers create a welcome feeling.
2) Cultivate a cohesive, neutral style. You don’t have to paint everything off-white. In fact, some subtle colors can really help change the perception of spaces – for example, a soft yellow will help brighten up a dark kitchen, while a deep dark blue or green will help a bright bedroom to feel like a calm place to sleep (but be careful, dark colors will also make rooms feel small). Consider talking to a decorator or other professional and don’t buy that “mismatched paint” on clearance at the paint department.
Spend the money to get high-quality paint and professional help. Subconsciously people will pay more money for a property with just the right colors and very neat lines – it makes the home feel better built, even though it’s just paint. Don’t fancy yourself a painter if you don’t know what you are doing. We repaint many “freshly painted” properties because of poor workmanship, holes not patched, painting around appliances, as well as switch plate and outlet covers. Also NEVER paint over the switches and electrical outlets!
Optical illusions are real, and psychologists study this stuff. Don’t believe me?
Look it up. And don’t neglect the outside and just do the inside, or anything else that’s unbalanced.
3) Fix or replace anything that’s broken. Yeah, it might feel like a waste of money to spend an extra couple hundred bucks on a dishwasher that someone else might just pull out and replace again. But really, quite a few buyers will get a home inspection and use the opportunity to negotiate with you. As the seller, you’ll often end up paying more if you try to hide neglected maintenance from the purchaser – and of course you don’t want to be guilty of fraud. Read this again!!!!! Nobody wants to buy someone else’s trouble. Consider having your heating and cooling systems services by a reputable vendor and make sure that documentation reaches the buyer and any inspectors.
Make sure you stay in compliance with all the laws.
It’s often a good use of money to hire a home inspector to come through before you put the property on the market. If you ask in advance, they’ll often charge you a tiny rate to come back after you’ve done a bunch of minor repairs and deliver you a clean bill of health. Prospective buyers love to see an independent report on the condition of the house – it makes them feel very comfortable with the purchase.
4) Make only necessary improvements. The biggest mistake people make when getting their house ready to sell is over-improving. They often spend too much money on customized frills that can’t be recovered in the sale. The KISS principle is the best thing to remember here – Keep It Simple Sir(or Madam)
Paint is about the only safe investment – it’s easy to overspend on almost everything else, and it’s easy to get ripped off by unscrupulous contractors. I can tell you the story about the family that didn’t like a professional painter’s quote. They hired “somebody knocking on doors looking for work” and ended up spending more than the professionals quote because that other person made such a mess. My dad taught me how to paint walls, and trim, how to stain doors and baseboards when I was 10 years old. I am better than a few pros, but I don’t hire out for this service!!
It’s important to know what improvements will produce a return on investment to avoid wasting money. As you consider these improvements, always consult with a real estate professional about the best options for your property.
5) Get expert opinions. You should definitely find at least a few decent real estate brokers who will help you price your property, but be honest with them. If you’re going to market the property on your own, don’t make enemies by lying about your intentions. Great brokers are rare, but they make more money for their clients than they earn. One of our partners is a MS licensed real estate agent and can provide you with an honest and fair assessment of your property value. If you interview others but want to reserve the right to sell it yourself, make that clear upfront! Some won’t agree to this unless you have a list of excluded buyers and the agent may set a time limit for those buyers before they invest alot into marketing your property.
6) Have a really great marketing plan. Again, great brokers earn their value by doing this work and spreading the advertising expenses across many clients. It’s pretty expensive and time-consuming to start from scratch on your own, but if you’re already a marketing expert you’re ahead of the pack. There is a lot more to what a great agent does than just stick a sign in the yard! Professional advice on preparing your property, an honest opinion of what steps you need to take if listing it retail, and professional photos (no not with their new cell phone either) are the minimum standard you should require in an agent.
If you’re not, spend the time listening to what the best brokers do to sell houses in Central Mississippi – just to educate yourself on the options. Social media to include video is important these days too. Whether you do it yourself or make sure your agent does during the interview. Occasionally an agent may have someone that wants to list their property, but for privacy they don’t want a sign or any social media. An agent should always respect your preference on this.
7) Get a cash offer. Maybe a retail sale is not an option – your house is in foreclosure or the house is in probate and you can not afford to pay the mortgage, clean out the house, and make costly repairs. That’s ok because we have a team of people who do this for us. While we work primarily in Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Brandon, Pearl, and Florence, We buy houses all over Central Mississippi Central Mississippi area, and we do all the work so you don’t have to deal with any of this stuff. Reach out and if we can not help you, some of our contacts in other markets may be the right fit for your situation.
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Don’t Want To Do The Things Above Yourself? But Still Want To Sell Your Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Brandon, Pearl, or Florence Central Mississippi Mississippi House Fast?
While everyone wants to get as much as they possibly can from their house sale… not everyone can do the things or wants to do the things required to sell it at full retail value to an end buyer. When we buy your property, we are going to make the needed repairs and improvements and plan to sell it at full retail value to the end buyer.
Doing the repairs, cleaning the property up, upgrading the property, marketing the property… those all take money and can take lots of time. Often the expenses are much higher than most people estimate. Let’s face it, if we can not purchase your property, fix it up and sell it for a profit, then it is often not the best fit for you or us.
If you have the funds to do these things... AND you can wait the 3-9 months it takes to sell houses in this market… then you’ll be better off financially to do those things then list it on the MLS (the main property listing service that real estate agents use).
If you don’t have the funds to do these things... AND can’t wait months to sell your house… then you may be a perfect fit for our Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Brandon, Pearl, or Florence Central Mississippi house buying service. You’ll submit basic info about your house over here on our website, we’ll evaluate your house, we’ll make you a fair all-cash offer on your house, and you can decide if it’s a fit for you.
Then we can close FAST (often times within 7 days) if you need us to.
Take a look at what we’ll pay you not to do anything versus the time, expense and hassle involved with doing it on your own.
So if you’re still asking “what do I need to do to sell my house in Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Brandon, Pearl or Florence Central Mississippi“… now you have 2 solid options.
Either…
- Fix the property up and get it all nice and ready with the steps above to sell it at top dollar
- Let us do all of the work and we’ll make you a cash offer on your house in AS-IS condition. This saves you time, money, and gets the hassle off of your hands.
If you need to sell a property near Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood, Brandon, Pearl or Florence Central Mississippi, we can help you.
We buy properties like yours from people who need to sell fast.