If you want to sell your home for the most money possible, getting multiple offers is a great way to go.
Here are five steps you need to take before listing your home to ensure that happens.
Recently, sellers have been calling us, asking, “How do we make sure our home sells with multiple offers?” Today I’m going to address five steps you can take to increase your chances of receiving multiple offers on your listing.
1. It begins with a consultation. You’ll want to schedule a consultation with a real estate professional well in advance of listing because it revolves around things you can do to the property to raise its value. This includes things like painting, minimization, altering decor, and so on. These projects aren’t expensive, but they can change your overall sales price.
2. Get an inspection. This isn’t typically the seller’s job, but if you get a pre-inspection and leave the report open for the buyers to see, it will go a long way toward making the buyers comfortable moving forward with an offer.
3. Pick a price that positions your property well against the competition. Your home has to appear to be the best value amongst the rest. We can look at sold-home data to see what comparable homes have sold for; from there, we can price yours slightly above that average. You’ll want to price your home a little more than the comparable homes but also less than your competition so that buyers will flock to your property.
4. Do some pre-MLS marketing. We take a full week prior to listing your home to do a number of things: put out a Facebook campaign, put a sign in your yard that says “Coming Soon,” send out an email campaign, and then we network with other Realtors who have sold properties in the area.
5. Hold a pre-MLS or Broker Only open house. This is a unique time for buyers and their agents to get a sneak peek at the house. All the while, we’re creating a sense of urgency and pent-up demand for the home.
"Remember: the success of this strategy is predicated on the idea that the property is in top shape, that you’ve picked a good price for it, and that you’re in a market with a lot of active buyers."
The step following these five is to actually list the home, but there’s a little bit of a trick to it. List the home on a Thursday; it’s right before the weekend and late enough that people will see the listing, but it’s less busy than Friday.
Hold off on giving any showings until Saturday. You can even try to bottleneck the showings by setting up a strict and limited window for buyers to come look. Buyers will see each other as they come and go, giving them the impression that this home is a hot commodity.
After that, hold back all offers until the following Monday. With all the pent-up demand you’ve created, you have a high chance of seeing multiple offers come Monday.
Remember: the success of this strategy is predicated on the idea that the property is in top shape, that you’ve picked a good price for it, and that you’re in a market with a lot of active buyers.
As I said, this all begins with a consultation. We’d be happy to help you.
If this strategy sounds appealing to you and would like someone to come out and give you advice on how we can raise the value of your property, feel free to reach out to us.