What to Expect When Selling Your L.A. Home in a Hot Sellers’ Market

You have finally made the decision to put hour home on the market, so you should know what to expect when selling your L.A. home in this hot sellers’ market.

Even though inventory is low you will probably still be competing with similar homes on the market in your neighborhood. Don’t rest on your laurels and assume that your home will sell right away, you still need to do your best to make it stand out and encourage buyers to take a look.

  1. Hire the right Realtor®. After you have signed the listing agreement your agent will take pictures and enter the listing into the Multiple Listing Service. Once that is done the listing will be syndicated throughout the internet and your home will be visible to all those buyers who are just waiting for new inventory. There are a lot of hungry buyers out there so your agent should be inundated with calls. However, the pictures taken and the description written need to show your home in the best light, otherwise calls will be limited, inventory or no inventory. Buyers still want to fall in love with their future home.
  2. Don’t assume you can overprice your home. Even in this sellers’ market you do still have competition, and there will probably be comparable homes that sold recently. Buyers are still not willing to overpay, especially if they are getting a loan. The home is going to have to appraise at the price offered.
  3. Make your home look its best. Paint where necessary, clear up clutter and attend to the landscaping. You don’t have to make upgrades, but the less a buyer feels they have to do and the more they see themselves in the home the better the offers will be.
  4. In a low-inventory market you should expect many showings so you should make it easy for buyers to be able to see your home. If they can’t see it they will not be buying it. The more showings you have the more likely you end up in a multiple offer situation.
  5. Your agent will probably have a couple of open houses right after listing the property and may have private showings in between. If offers come in after the open house resist the temptation to wait a little longer to see how many more you get. You know what you are willing to accept so negotiate. If you wait you may lose out on these buyers and there is no guarantee that they will wait around. Sellers’ market or not properties can get stale. The longer your home stays on the market the less you will get.
  6. Your agent will review offers that come in with you and explain the pluses and minuses of each one. Not all offers are created equal, and with several to review at once you should pick the one that is most likely to close. If you decide on price alone you could end up having to put your home back on the market after you encounter problems in escrow for one reason or another, often because the buyer cannot get the loan, negotiations fail over repair requests, or some other reason. Your agent should know what to look for in these offers and guide you to the best option.
  7. Try to keep you emotions at bay during this whole process. You are excited that you are in a sellers’ market and feel that selling your home is going to be a no-brainer. It certainly should be than in a buyers’ or flat market, but you still have to follow the same process and rules, and you may have to be more discriminating as to which buyer you are going to choose.

Selling your L.A. home in a hot sellers’ market is the best of all scenarios. Take advantage, but do it right.

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