PROPERTY VIEWS | Simply selling vs. selling well: Keys to getting your best result

It should be simple to sell your Madison Park home — it’s a hot seller’s market, after all. If your only goal is to simply sell it, you might be right. 

Recent sales data shows area homes sold quickly, some going under contract in less than a week and most selling above their listing price. Achieving that kind of result, however, takes more than just sticking a “For Sale” sign in your yard.

If your goals include selling your home quickly and for the highest price and have a seamless process to settlement, you’ll need to do a little more to make your home a standout property. 

There’s an old saying in the real estate business, “Homes are like bread, sell them before they get stale.” To ensure freshness, your sell-by date is within 10 days right now. After 10 days, you might begin to lose momentum.

Find the right broker

Take the time to do your due diligence in finding the right broker — everything else will follow from this decision. 

Identify several top-selling brokers and interview them. Not only does it give you the choice of finding the Realtor who will best represent your interests, it gives you an out when asked why you didn’t use your best friend’s cousin from across town.

When you conduct your interviews, there are six key attributes to investigate:

•Can the agent attract local buyers? — You need someone who has worked in the Madison Park area. They’ll know what’s sold quickly and where the sales leads are. Because our inventory is fixed, there are buyers who want to live here but haven’t found the right home yet — yours may be it. 

•How does the agent market to other brokers? — Some brokers simply enter the home into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and sit back and wait for showing appointments to come in. You want someone who is actively reaching out to other brokers, owners and firms constantly — to make sure their buyers will see your home immediately. 

This is especially important if a decent offer comes in early for your listing — you want your broker working the phones to bring in other buyers who may make better bids.

•Your broker needs to tap into the relocation market — Area employers bring in new people with good salaries every day, and those transferring employees are a huge resource in Madison Park. 

Look for Realtors with relocation designations. It means they’ve taken course work, passed an exam and have experience working with relocated clients. It gives them access to a set of buyers looking to move into the area, buyers who want to find a place to live quickly.

•You also need a broker who is able to bring you buyers from outside the country — International buyers make up a significant number of new homeowners in the Greater Seattle market. There are a few legal hoops to jump through for these buyers, though, so it’s important your broker knows what they are and how to satisfy the requirements to get you to a completed sale.

•Does the broker have a stable of tradespeople to call — plumbers, electricians, painters, landscapers and the like — to help you quickly solve any problems? 

•The broker should have references or online reviews posted — Don’t just accept them at face value; call them and ask questions. Sellers who’ve been successful with a broker are happy to tell you about the experience.

Look at your home critically

Even in our current market, a home that’s in so-so condition may linger longer than you want. And as those days on market go up, the chance of you getting multiple offers or selling for more than your listing price goes down.

You want to list your home in turnkey condition.

We’re all only human, though. We all miss things or get used to them after we’ve lived in a place for a while. You may no longer see the slightly chipping paint in a doorway, smell the doggy scent in the hallway or hear the squeaky kitchen drawer. But buyers will. 

This is where your experienced broker can look at your home through fresh eyes. The right broker will go room by room, creating a punch list of items that will minimize buyer objections. 

Remember the list of tradespeople you want your broker to have? This is where they come in, solving the problems if you don’t have the time. 

Most improvements will be simple and cosmetic. It can be fresh paint on the front door and entryway or pruning and weeding and mulching the gardens. You want buyers to love what they see as soon as they get out of their car. 

Replace worn or stained carpet, fix or replace leaky plumbing — these are small investments that will make much more back for you.

Set a strategic price

Because you’ve selected a broker who is experienced in Madison Park and knows your home, you will work together to set a listing price that’s competitive with other homes in the neighborhood. You’ll base it on factors like age, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, recent remodels and overall condition.

If you have the right broker and spend the time and money to get your house in turnkey condition, you’ll boost your chances to sell quickly. You’ll likely get an offer for your asking price, and you may even get multiple bids with a higher sales price. 

Even in a hot market, successfully selling your home may not be as simple as some think.

CHRIS SUDORE is founder and president of King County Estates. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.