Stressful is the key word when used to describe selling your home. There are so many areas that need decisions to be made and monitored. These include:

What needs to be done to the home to make it more saleable and achieve a better price?

Which Real Estate Agent you should list with, if in fact you decide to list with an agent at all?

What is the home worth?

Do I auction or go through the traditional sales process?

Is it worthwhile to have open inspections?

How can I keep the home presentable 24 hours per day?

To make the whole process easier we will go through them one at a time.

Making the home more saleable

The key here is to see your home as if you were a potential buyer rather than some one who has lived in it. Be critical and look for good and poorer features. Once you have reviewed these, ask yourself:

How can I make the good points stand out more?

How can I eradicate its poorer features or at least minimise them?

Have someone who you respect inspect your property and provide suggestions to make it more sellable.

Go through magazines like Better Homes & Gardens for ideas.

Get rid of clutter. Is there some where you can temporarily move non essential furniture to make your home more appealing?

We owned a rental property in an outer suburb of Melbourne that we sold after much stress in 2001. The current tenants had been there 4-5 years and were a growing family! The house was clearly not large enough for them and they didn't look after it as well as we would have liked. In hindsight we failed to manage the property properly. The house had carpet that was stained, walls with hundreds of pin marks as well as old curtains. Outside the pergola was rotten in parts and falling apart, the back door had no gravel to prevent dirt being traipsed in.

The result was no one wanted to buy our house at a reasonable price. To solve our dilemma we had a fix it weekend with family members helping out. The house was painted inside, curtains replaced, crushed rock brought in to make a path and many smaller areas repaired. The final wash up was the house was sold within a week to people who had previously inspected it. The cost of our weekends work was only a few thousand dollars with the sale price being increased by at least 5 times that amount!

You don't have to spend a fortune to make a difference.

Which Real Estate Agent?

The most important factor to remember here is the agent works for you not any potential buyer. This may appear straightforward however often when the negotiation process begins many agents concentrate on convincing you to lower your price instead of negotiating with potential buyers to increase their offer.  

A worthwhile solution is to visit potential agents as a buyer not a seller, and listen to how they promote the property. Ask questions about the vendor's willingness to accept a lower offer or how keen they are to sell the property. This test will help decide whether you would like this particular agent as your agent. If you are well known to the local agents ask someone who isn't and have them help you out. Once an agent has been decided upon, don't be embarrassed by your test. Let them know they met your conditions. They will be extremely satisfied that their standards have been rewarded.    

Real Estate Agents usually do not rely on repeat clients. In real estate, the home sellers often leave town. There is little incentive to keep them happy. Even if they stay in the same area for many years, most sellers won't need an agent for a long time. This is why some agents appear  not to be working for you. They aren't, they are working for themselves. This is why they are not always committed to negotiating an extra few thousand dollars on the sale price. This amount makes little difference to their commission!

Don't ask an agent what your home is worth when working out which agent is to represent you. If they tell the truth, they know that other agents may over quote the value of your home, to win the listing. The agent who tells the biggest lie about the likely selling price is often chosen. It is more important to ask agents how they would sell your property?

What is the home worth?

There are a number of ways to find out what your home is worth. The best is to hire an independent valuer. By being independent they have no reason to mislead you. Give them clear instructions. Let them know why you want the valuation done and that the valuation is to be accurate and not inflated to please you.

The second way is to research similar properties in your area. Remember asking price and sale price can be very different.

To auction or use the traditional sales process?

This is a difficult question to answer and you will get conflicting responses from many people. Auctions were very popular when the property market was booming. The frenzied nature of buyers has appeared to push the price past what was expected and therefore the use of auctions became more popular. Since the property market boom has tapered off, auctions have become less popular with a greater number of properties being passed in.  

Auctions give Real Estate Agents control because vendors are trapped in an atmosphere where they feel the home has to be sold that day. The pressure at auctions forces vendors to make instant decisions. In some cases, stress has clouded their judgement and a decision to accept a price made which later on may be regretted.   

There is a common point of view that auctions do not always get the best price, they get the second best price. This is a valid point as auctions finish when the 2nd last bidder declines to bid any more. Who knows what price the remaining bidder was prepared to go to? A promoter of auctions would counter that the traditional sales negotiating process would not necessarily find the price this last bidder was prepared to go to. This has some validity as well.

A good rule to go by is use the traditional sales process unless your property is expected to be very popular and/or difficult to place a price on.

If you do go the traditional sales method, make sure you are comfortable with the approach taken to sell your property.

A relatively new strategy of agents is to market the property with a price range, instead of listing a price. The agent may encourage you to market your home by promoting a price below the value of your home, saying that it will attract more buyers. The reality is the lower price will most likely be much closer to your selling price as potential buyers will tend to focus on that lower price.

Open Inspections

Real Estate Agents are enthusiastic supporters of open inspections. Sometimes this is because it enables them to meet more potential buyers! The benefit therefore can be for the agent!

When selling homes, people like to see the agent showing their home to as many potential buyers as there are. Therefore we like to come home and see their business card on the kitchen bench. Sometimes agents use your home and others to help them sell another property that may be a little cheaper or different in some way. A key point is you only need one buyer.

To protect the value of your home, remember it's not the quantity of buyers who see it, it's the quality. The last thing you want is people inspecting your home who cannot buy it.

Open inspections can be dangerous. Criminals are known to use them to target family possessions for theft. Some Agents are now demanding proof of identification before allowing potential buyers to inspect properties. This should be raised with any potential agent if you have concerns.

Be reluctant to have an open inspection.

Keeping your home presentable

If you take steps to make your home more saleable then this will make it easier to keep it neat and tidy. My sister had a unit that had to much clutter and was wisely advised by her agent to clean it up. She did better than that she moved a heap of stuff to my parents which made a great improvement. My parents weren't impressed but the agent was.

The key is to have the home appropriately priced and this is where a clear picture of what it is worth at the start helps. This should mean your home will be sold faster reducing your stress at keeping it presentable for potential buyers.

Interesting points to consider

Some of these points are from Neil Jenman's book ""Don't sign anything"" I felt they were so valid I had to include them.

Market value is often defined as the best price a buyer will pay. But often properties are sold on the basis of what is the lowest price sellers will accept!

As a seller you must never reveal your lowest price. If you do, this price will become the highest you get.

Overexposure can quickly damage your home's value. The more people who hear about it and the more time that passes, the harder it becomes to get the best price.

The number of genuine buyers is usually higher when a home is first placed for sale.

The best market value is the highest price a buyer is prepared to pay.

A seller's aim is to discover the buyer's highest price.

If buyers love a home, most will pay their highest price rather than risk losing it.

Investing in an independent valuation is like having inside knowledge.

When selling, the best you can get is the best price on offer in the market. Whether or not this matches your needs is another issue.