If you’re wondering how to sell your property in Nashville, TN and make a high profit on it, you need to consider its appearance, its price, and the level of expertise that you get from a professional real estate agent.
Make the Property Appealing
When you’re selling your home, you want to keep it clean. First impressions are important, and if you live in the house, you never know when an agent will have exactly the right person coming over to look at it. So, that’s obvious, but another part of appearance is not having moving supplies visible when people are coming through the house. Don’t have all your rooms packed and boxes stacked and ready to go. People will see that and think you’re in a hurry to sell, which means they’ll probably offer you less money than you could get if they didn’t think you were motivated.
Pricing Your Property
You want to price your house correctly. Traditionally, you would price it three to five percent above what you want. For Sale by Owners often mark the list price 10 to 20 percent higher so there is room to negotiate. But in the Nashville market right now, especially within the Nashville corridor, many homes are selling above asking price. Achieving 10 or 20 percent above asking price is not uncommon. So, if someone has a $200,000 budget, they will know not to look for a house that’s more than $180,000 or $185,000, because they will get outbid. If you want $190,000, don’t list your house at $200,000 because you’ll miss some perfect buyers in this market.
Use a Professional Real Estate Agent
That model only works if you list your house with a real estate agent. Traditionally, people think they can sell for themselves and save some money. Recently, I had a real estate client who wanted to sell quickly. He owned a lot of rental units. This particular property management client usually sells his rental properties on his own because he has been successful with that in the past. He had a house in a good neighborhood and an appreciating area, so he thought he could get $100,000 for his lot. I knew he could get more; the property was a duplex and right now two-family homes are very desirable. So, I convinced him to give me a two-week listing, and if he didn’t get an offer in that time-frame, he could go back to selling on his own.
We had multiple offers after the first day, up to $135,000. During the due diligence period, we found that zoning had never actually recorded it as a duplex even though it had been a duplex for 30 years, and he had been paying taxes as a duplex. Zoning and Codes showed it as a single-family property, which was a problem. The owner wanted me to go back to the buyer and offer to sell it for $70,000 if we could close within two weeks. I convinced the owner to give it a few more days and let me work some magic. By the end, I could get $130,000 for the lot, even though the owner was expecting he could get $100,000 when he sold, and was willing to take as little as $70,000. That’s a $60,000 difference that this experienced investor made with an agent.
The property owner already knew the value of hiring a professional for property management services, and now he realizes the power of hiring a professional real estate agent.
If you’re looking for an agent or you’re thinking about selling your home, contact us at Apex Ventures Real Estate. We will run the comps and look at your home value for free. We are here with over 30 years of experience covering real estate and property management in Nashville, and we’d love to show you what we can do.