Should I get a home appraisal prior to listing? 

Save your money, appraisals often cost somewhere in the range of $500. Glover Home Group will do a market valuation of your home free of charge. Appraised value versus market value can be entirely different. The appraisal is based more on an analytical approach and is influenced heavily by the “bones” of the house, along with any significant historical changes made to the property. The market value, simply put, is what someone is willing to pay for your home, often influenced by emotion, competition, and marketing. Save your money upfront and save yourself from a pricing headache, by getting a free market evaluation.  

Should I get a home inspection prior to listing? 

In the current market we’d advise against an inspection prior to listing your home. As a home seller, purchasing an inspection prior to listing, will open a can of worms that’s best kept closed! A home inspection will cost you in the range of $400 and is normally the buyers responsibility. Although the upfront cost isn’t what you should be concerned about in this case. Once you’ve reviewed the report you’re now legally obligated to disclose any new issues discovered on the seller’s disclosure statement. In today’s market buyers are often willing to overlook certain problems, negotiate for partial repairs/payment, or even waive a home inspection entirely. If you uncover new issues ahead of listing, you may find yourself paying for a lot more issues than expected. There are some one-off cases where an inspection makes sense ahead of listing but for the average home seller, we vote NO. 

How much is my house worth? 

Chances are your home is worth more than you think, the housing market has continued to increase by large percentages year over year. The best way to get an accurate representation of your home’s value, is to contact Glover Home Group. We use many tools to determine your home’s value, including but not limited to, comparable homes in the area, online automated valuations, percent increase of the neighborhood, adjustments based on improvements done, and more. Reach out anytime to someone on the team for a home valuation, we’re able to do a “quick and dirty” virtually, or an in depth report after a quick walk through of your home. 

What repairs should I make to get my house ready for market? 

The current market is heavily favored towards home sellers, with that being said, major repairs and renovations are often not necessary in order to sell your home. Your focus for preparing to sell should be shifted to applying finishing touches on any projects you might not have been working on. Such as, paint touch ups, outlet covers, trim, patching holes, replacing light bulbs, etc. Large renovations like painting the entire house, replacing flooring throughout, full kitchen or bathroom renovations,  likely won’t see a good ROI. Of course in certain cases, if your desired sale price is higher than what your home supports currently, renovations may be the only option. 

Are Zillow “Zestimates” and other online valuations accurate? 

According to Zillow.com, “Zestimates for an off-market home have a median error rate of 7.49%”. Meaning if your home value is 400k Zillow’s valuation on average is thirty thousand dollars off! Listing 30k or more off of the accurate value is a recipe for disaster. Glover Home Group absolutely looks at Zillow’s valuation when pricing a home but the weight it holds in our value calculation is much less than other tools. Zillow’s automation hasn’t been inside your home, or drove through your neighborhood. Zestimates are relatively accurate in situations where the home has been sold recently and no major renovations have been done.  

How soon should I connect with Glover Home Group if I’m thinking about selling? 

Sooner the better! Preparing your home correctly for the market takes time. We like to come walkthrough a couple months in advance of when you’re considering selling. This will give you ample time to de-clutter, pack, make any necessary repairs, and not be overwhelmed by a short timeline. In all seriousness we can have your home on the market in <24 hours, although in order to get you the most amount of money with the least amount of stress reaching out well in advance of selling your home is key. Staging, photography, planning, social media, paper marketing, and word of mouth all takes time. It’s better to have too much than not enough!  

Is selling my home easier vacant or with furniture? 

Having furniture is preferred but not required. We bring a stager through, who will help curate the furniture you already own, in a way that allows home buyers to visualize your space in its best form. A vacant home is intimidating, buyers have a hard time imagining how a space is used when there isn’t any furniture. Our goal is to create that HGTV feel by removing a large portion of your personal items and crafting an enticing environment that the photographer can capture to draw buyers in. 

What real estate websites will my home be on? 

Any and all websites showcasing homes for sale in the area will have your home on them. We upload your listing to FlexMLS and REMAX.com which in turn shares data with almost every search engine worldwide. Partnering with RE/MAX allows your home to be automatically syndicated into a multitude of different languages and shared across the top home searching websites worldwide. Your home will be shown on major websites such as, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Trulia, etc. while also being shared to individual websites using that same data such as GloverHomeGroup.com and those similar.  

Should we price high to leave room negotiations? 

Should we price super low to drive the price way up? 

Pricing your home correctly is extremely important no matter the market conditions. We use an intentional pricing strategy to determine a price range for your home and then review current market conditions to finalize the list price. Our goal in today’s market is to find that happy medium in pricing, not too high, not too low. 

Pricing too high, in order to leave room for negotiating, can set us up for failure. Buyers are internally trained to expect competition and the possibility of homes selling for over the listed price in most cases. If we price above market value, most buyer’s reactions won’t be to offer below list and negotiate, it will be to wait for the seller to drop the price. Advertising a price drop raises red flags to a lot of buyers. What’s wrong with it? Why isn’t it selling? Being a sellers market, our goal is to drive competition in order to sell quickly and for the most amount of money. Once we advertise a price drop, we’re chasing a rolling ball down hill, our chances of creating an offer frenzy and our negotiating leverage are drastically reduced. 

Pricing too low isn’t the correct solution either! We don’t want to attract potential buyers that are not pre-approved for the market value of the home. Posting your home well below market value will generate mass showings and a stack of purchase agreements, sounds great right? Problem being, if we have listed your home fifty thousand dollars below market value there is a possibility none of the offers we receive will even come close to the actual market value. On Top of that getting offers fifty thousand dollars over list price raises red flags for appraisals, and can cause financing issues down the line. 

Our goal is to find that happy medium price which in turn drives the correct buyers through the front door. Having a solid amount of showings, which generates a handful of strong offers, will net you more money, in a faster time, with less stress, every time. Trust the professionals. 

Okay, I’m ready to sell in the near future, how do I get started? 

Fill out the form on this page and one of the members of Glover Home Group will be in touch to help guide you through this process. Selling one of the biggest assets you own can be a daunting task, save yourself the headache and the heartache and let us help!