Although my house has not sold, in the process of having my house for sale I have learned a few things I wish I could tell my pre-sale self or that someone had told me, so now I pass on these little tidbits of information on.
1) Real Estate is one of the few industries in the world where you are paying someone alot of money to provide you with a service where you have very little say in what they are doing. My advice now; When you meet with your agent, before you sign the papers to list with them you have a marketing/service plan that they need to agree to, for example - we would like our house advertised in x-paper bi-weekly, we expect our ad in your sales window within the next 3 days, we would like you to use the following photo's, if we find an error in your work we expect it to be corrected within 24 hours where possible, we expect that as our agent you will be hosting a monthly open house, etc.... Many new sellers just sign the papers without really asking for many things.
2) Consider hiring the newbie real estate agent, the one that hasn't necessarily built up millions in sales, but instead the one that has a mortgage that has to be paid and if she (or he) does not sell your house, they may be homeless..... those are the ones with drive, because honestly, the agent that has all of the experience will do what they have always done, and I am sure your house will sell - BUT, if your house doesn't sell it won't hurt them any.....
3) Be prepared that viewings will disappoint you, and that people will harp on things you cannot change; i.e. - you don't have a garage, but your lot is not large enough to build one! or that your neighbour is too close, but you can't convince them to move out, buy their house and bulldoze it just so they aren't close......these are the most frustrating comments because there is nothing you can do, so be prepared to not make catty comments back....
These are a few of the ones that I wish we had thought of or where told, the first two points especially.
XO,
S
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