Before You List Your Phoenix-Area Home This Fall, Do These 5 Things First

Before You List Your Phoenix-Area Home This Fall, Do

These 5 Things First

If selling your home this fall has been on your mind, now is the time to start preparing even if you aren't ready to put a For Sale sign in the yard just yet.

The Greater Phoenix market has changed, and today's buyers are paying close attention to price, condition and value. The good news? You don't necessarily need to spend thousands of dollars getting your home ready.

Here are five things I recommend doing before you list.

1. Find Out What Your Home Is Actually Worth

Online estimates can be a starting point, but they don't know that you remodeled your kitchen, replaced your AC, have a premium lot, back to a preserve, or haven't updated the home in 15 years.

I look at your home individually and compare it to what buyers are actually purchasing in your area.

2. Know Your Competition

This is one of the most important steps in today's market.

Before determining a list price, we need to know what a buyer will see when they search for homes similar to yours.

If three comparable homes are listed at $500,000, we need a compelling reason for a buyer to choose yours.

3. Don't Automatically Remodel

Please don't spend $30,000 remodeling a kitchen because you think you have to.

Sometimes paint, professional cleaning, landscaping, decluttering and a few targeted repairs provide a much better return.

I would rather walk through your home before you spend the money and help identify what is—and isn't—worth doing.

4. Calculate What You Would Actually Walk Away With

Your sales price isn't your net proceeds.

Before listing, I prepare an estimated seller net sheet that considers your mortgage payoff, closing costs, commissions, potential concessions and other anticipated expenses.

That gives you a much more useful number:

What could actually go into your pocket at closing?

Knowing that number can make the decision to sell much easier.

5. Have a Plan for Where You're Going Next

Sometimes the biggest thing keeping a homeowner from selling isn't the house.

It's this question:

“Where am I going to go?”

That's something we can work through before you list.

Whether you're downsizing, relocating, buying another home in Arizona, moving out of state or aren't quite sure yet, we can look at the options and build a strategy around your situation.

Curious? You Don't Have to Be Ready to Sell.

Some of the most productive conversations I have with homeowners happen months before their homes ever hit the market.

There is no obligation to list.

If you're considering selling this fall—or even sometime in the next 6–12 months—I'd be happy to give you a realistic assessment of:

What your home could sell for.
What I would recommend doing before listing.
What I wouldn't spend money on.
What you're competing against.
And approximately what you could walk away with.

Sometimes having the numbers is all you need to decide whether now is the right time.