For many people, summer holds an enduring appeal.It could be the memories of the end of the school year or taking in a baseball game with your dad or even making your first few dollars from the lemonade stand you set up in your front yard. Whatever the case may be, summer time has some great memories associated with it.
If you are going to sell your home in summer, you should be aware that this period can sometimes be surprisingly challenging for home sellers. On the other hand, it can also be an ideal time as well. The saying all real estate is local holds true when it comes to summertime home selling.
Depending on your location, buyers could be out in full-force. Most of the time the weather is cooperative, and if you have children, summer is the perfect time to make a move. But selling a home – even in one the hotter real estate seasons – still requires taking the appropriate actions to set yourself apart.
Competition can be fierce in the summer for sellers, and you want to do everything you can to make your home look like an appealing purchase. Keep reading and you will see some of the best summer home selling tips. Enjoy these ten top nuggets to keep your home selling prospects sizzling.
The advice here will put you in perfect position to sell your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time with hopefully a minimum number of troubles.
This is how to sell a home in the summer!
Tips For Selling Your Home In Summer
1. Clean it up.
The only buyers looking for dirty, cluttered homes to buy are low-bidders hoping on finding a fixer-upper – or more likely, wanting to flip houses. These bargain shoppers are not going to give you the payment you want or expect from your sale. In fact, the reason why buyers will bid low on homes that are in a bad shape is so they can fix them and sell for a handsome profit. Why not put that profit in your pocket instead? One of the cheapest forms of home improvement is making your home spotless inside and out!
You want to appeal to buyers who are looking for a home where they can move in and feel comfortable, where they can see themselves and their loved ones being happy. A clean home is a priority for these buyers, which means you need to do a thorough house cleaning. Ideally, you will hire a company to do a professional job. Or if you are motivated, you can do it yourself. Either way, clean up and keep it clean for showings.
2. Do something about clutter.
It ‘s okay to accumulate a certain amount of “extras” when you own a home. You have room, so why not hold on to things that might be useful later? But when you are showing a home, you need to demonstrate all the available space. Every square foot counts and clutter can quickly eat up that space without you noticing. A house full of clutter looks smaller and is much harder to picture yourself in when you are buying.
If you don’t want to throw it away or give it away, rent a storage space. Whatever strategy you use, get rid of the clutter if you want to fetch the best price for your home. Bright spaces unfettered by too much furniture, a ton of nick knacks and extremely personalized is what you need to avoid.
3. Work on your landscaping.
Summertime is for barbecues and backyard parties. It is also a time when plants can grow by leaps and bounds. You want your yard and landscaping to look neat, tidy and as inviting as possible. Buyers are going to be paying attention, imagining entertaining outside or kids playing in the yard. The front yard is super important. As customers come up to the home, they will notice how well the yard is kept and if the flower beds are healthy looking.
You don’t have to be a professional landscaper, but you do need to maintain the lawn being mowed, weeds down and ideally plant a few flowers to add some color. There is nothing worse than approaching a home in the summer where the grass is tall and overbearing. There is something that speaks volumes about a well-manicured lawn. The term “pride of ownership” certainly comes to mind.
It goes without saying the front entry way including the door, steps and walks should look terrific.
4. Keep the interior comfortable.
If you live in an area where summers are sweltering, you better make sure your home’s interior is beautiful and cool when you show the house. If buyers are sweating while walking through the house, they are not going to be happy. They may also question what state of repair your HVAC system is in. If they think there is something wrong with the A/C, you can expect them to calculate that into their offer. If your home does not have central air, it makes sense to have some window units for those days that are just unbearably hot.
Of course, there is also such thing as too cold – no matter how hot it is outside. Pick a comfortable temperature.
5. Adjust the interior for the season.
While it may be easier to keep the same drapes and interior styling throughout the year, when selling, you are putting your best foot forward. It is time to ditch the heavy curtains and go for something lighter, allowing more light in and making the interior seem bigger. Decorate inside with whites and other summer colors that feel welcoming. Martha Stewart gives some great summertime home decorating ideas. Check them out!
6. Blend the interior and exterior together.
If you are fortunate enough to reside in an area of the country where the weather is consistently beautiful, you may want to consider staging your deck or patio with appropriate furniture and keep it there throughout the process of selling your home. Buyers – especially young buyers – are looking to connect the inside of their home to the outside of the home. Many home buyers prefer a fluid environment and open floor plans that blend the inside with the outside.
This is certainly enhanced when you have a large deck or porch off an attractive space for a kitchen or a family room. It is like an extension of the interior of the home, creating a more spacious living area. You can also see some additional interior features millennial home buyers prefer in this terrific article.
7. Provide Information on schools.
If you live in an excellent school district, it makes sense to get that information in the hands of prospective buyers who will be visiting your home. Many of the buyers who are moving in the summer are specifically doing so to make sure their kids get into the school system for the coming year. It is a fact that the school system can play a major role in home values. This is something you will want to emphasize if your city or town has exceptional schools. This could be the difference in your home being chosen over another when the buyer is looking in multiple locations.
8. Consider some summer refreshments.
A complimentary pitcher of homemade lemonade or iced tea can be a nice way to make buyers feel welcome. Depending on your area, you may have some summer traditions that add flair to the season and feel appropriate. The more consumers feel like they are welcome, the more active their associations will be with the house. When they may be looking at multiple houses, every little bit helps on your part. This is a summer time home selling tip that could set your house apart in a buyers memory bank if nothing else.
The next two tips are the ones we stress the most to first time home sellers. Make sure you hire the best real estate agent and price your home correctly!
9. Find the right Realtor.
Finding the right real estate agents is one of the best pieces of advice year round but certainly, applies in the summer. A quality real estate agent can make all the difference in your sale – helping you sell more quickly, and for a better price, than you can manage on your own. It pays to take your time picking out a real estate agent. You should interview at least two or three to get an idea of what is out there. Make sure the one you pick has solid references from satisfied clients – recent clients. The best agents tend to sell homes for close to the price they list them, something to keep in mind when you are making your decision.
Remember, the best Realtor for you is the one that meets your requirements – a good track record, solid references, a personality you can get along with. The best option is almost never your neighbor, your sister’s friend or any other random agent. You are making a business decision, so be critical in your decision making.
10. Price it right.
With a drum role, please…..The #1 summer home selling tip is to price your home correctly! If you don’t take one other piece of advice when selling your home, make sure pricing it right is one you do take into consideration! Nothing else you do will matter if you overprice your home. No matter how much you love your property – or how much money you may have poured into it – you can still only sell it for a price that works for your market.Many homeowners get caught up in falling for one of the more common home pricing myths, like pricing your home higher will lead to a higher sale price, or you need X amount of dollars for negotiating room.
Your real estate agent is the best person to listen to when pricing the home. He or she will look at all the other homes like yours that have sold recently and price the home accordingly.
You may be tempted to price the home higher than the agent’s recommendations. Doing this is not advisable. Most homes priced too high sit on the market for longer than they should, which can cause them to appear undesirable to buyers. If it sits long enough without selling, you may be forced to lower the price so much that you make less than you would if you had just listed it correctly in the first place.
Be sure the agent you have hired is someone you can trust when it comes to pricing your home. Lots of Realtors will mislead sellers on their homes value just to get the listing. This is the kind of real estate agent you should avoid at all costs!
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading these ten summertime home selling tips. By now you should have a good handle on how to sell a home in the summer! Best of luck on your home sale journey.
Additional Home Selling Articles Worth a Peek
- How to sell your home fast via Imagine Your House.
- Benefits of a home inspection before listing for sale via Rochester Real Estate Blog.
- How to successfully interview a real estate agent via Xavier De Buck.
All of the above home selling resources are from top real estate agents who have made it a practice of producing great advice. If you are going to be selling your home, shortly have a look and see if the advice moves you!
About the Author: The above Real Estate information on the summer home selling tips was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-625-0191. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 29+ Years.
Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!
I service Real Estate sales in the following Metrowest MA towns: Ashland, Bellingham, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Northborough, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sutton, Wayland, Westborough, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.
Faylinn says
My husband just found out that he is being transferred to another state for his work and so we really need to sell our home as soon as possible. It is still summer, and so I really like the idea of decorating with whites to help make the place look bigger and brighter. However, fall is nearly here and so I think that adding orange into the color scheme would be a good idea as well.
emily bennette says
This is some really good information about selling a home in the summer time. Pricing it right does seem like a very good thing to do and even more so in the summer. After all, people still want to do a lot of fun things in the summer and spending a ton on a home could prevent that. So, having your home priced correctly does seem like a good way to make sure your deal goes through.
Luke Smith says
Your tips about making a home look like a place where someone would be happy and comfortable are very sensible. I would imagine that having a home which looks clean and comfortable would even make a potential buyer able to overlook any possible imperfections in the house or property. A good realtor could probably advise you as to which areas of the home need the most attention, and how to attend to them.