Things You Should Know Before Selling Your Home

There's always going to be those "what if" situations that we look back on and wish we'd done a little more research before investing our time and energy. For example, renovation may sound like a good idea at first. After all, wouldn't adding something new and updating a room or two, or even just a wall or two, make the worth of your home go up when it comes time to sell? While it's true that there are certain advantages, what many sellers aren't always prepared for is the added stress that deciding to renovate right before selling their home (or even while selling) may cause. For one, if you already have your house on the market and you decide to begin renovating after, you could already have a buyer before the renovations are done.

Therein lies a sticky situation of trying to work on the renovations while figuring out when and how you are going to coordinate your own move-out, assuming you are still living in the home you're selling. It really all boils down to bad planning and terrible timing. Even though the seller's intentions may have been good, it can end up being more trouble than it's worth if the timing is off.

That is why it's highly suggested that for those sellers who wish to renovate apiece of the home they're selling, that they do so long before having the house on the market. While it's nice to have that head start, there's no reason to set it up so you may be bound to fail in the end. Not to mention the possibility that the renovation may cost more than what you had in mind, so if the home is sold for a set price, you could easily be looking at a loss if all the numbers aren't taken into account beforehand.

On another note, a home owner looking to sell may end up making a grave decision when it comes to how they showcase their home to potential buyers. While you may look at your home and see homey, another may look at it and see clutter. This is a case of a home owner's personal tastes getting in the way of what would actually sell. This is why it's good to err on the side of caution and go for neutral, yet tasteful, decor when showing your house to someone looking to buy. If not, you may be looking at numerous buyers attempting to shave off thousands from the price simply due to their own personal tastes, effected by what they are seeing in the way the furniture and other decorum is set up.

An equally pertinent thing to note is just how often home owners don't get a survey of their property prior to selling. There have been home owners who didn't realize that part of their land ended up running into another's, leading to the acreage or other aspects of their property to be considered worth less than what they initially advertised. This can really leave a bad taste in a potential buyer's mouth, so it's always important to get a survey of your land and a thorough inspection of the property before putting the house on the market in the first place. This may seem like common sense, but it truly is something that many home sellers tend to overlook all too often.