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Selling your home for the most money possible requires understanding the homebuyer’s mindset.

Experiment: What’s on your list as you look for your new home?

Take a quick moment and write out your wish list for your new residence. Don’t list out location, cost or size requirements. Focus on the look and appeal of the home you hope to buy. What does that list include?

Your list might look like the following:
• Move in condition
• Clean, bright interior
• No nasty smells
• Nothing that clashes with your tastes – neutral wall colors
• Ease of lifestyle – the ability to imagine yourself living there
• An attractive exterior

Using your wish list for your new home helps you understand what potential buyers will hope to find when they consider purchasing your house. There is probably very little difference in the needs for your future home and the needs of those who might consider buying your property.

In your search for your future home, maybe you have spent some time looking at listing photos online or even touring potential homes. I bet you’ve come across some homes that spoke to you and others that were not as pleasing –– maybe even some that were complete turn-offs. What were the key factors in the properties you liked, and what were the issues with the ones you didn’t like?

Give this question some thought. Using your buying experience will help you get into the buyer’s mindset regarding your own house.

Another way of getting into the mind of a buyer is to go online and look at the listing photos of homes that are for sale in your area and your home’s price range. Which homes do you think will sell first? Why? (You can see recently sold properties by going to one of the real estate listing sites, such as Zillow , Trulia or Redfin , searching for your area and then filtering on sold properties. We prefer Redfin as they seem to keep the listing photos for sold homes on their website most consistently.)

The current home selling market is very different than just a decade ago. Unless you understand buyers’ requirements today, your home will take longer to sell and may sell for less than its potential. Failing to understand today’s buyer means thousands – or tens of thousands of dollars – lost!

What is different today than even just ten years ago?

Not too long ago, a home buyer would engage a real estate agent and tell them their needs. The real estate agent would take their requirements, get on a private home listing database and search for homes that met the criteria. They would select a handful of homes and the buyer and the agent would drive around looking at the homes. At the end of the tour, the real estate agent would get feedback, adjust the requirements based on the feedback, return to their database to find more suitable homes.

The process would repeat until the buyer narrowed down their selection and made an offer on their favorite property. In total, a typical buyer would tour 10 to 15 homes before they made their decision. The market for a typical buyer, therefore, was 10 – 15 homes. A seller’s challenge was to be the best out of a pretty small list.

Homebuyers today are much savvier on many fronts than just a decade ago. Today’s buyers are influenced largely by technology, but also by price and lifestyle. Technology has made searching home listings, understanding affordability, evaluating communities, and assessing real estate values much more assessable. Almost 100% start searching online before even engaging a real estate professional. In doing so, home buyers have a much better idea of what they want and what is on the market. Buyers today are also more specific in what they seek and are more willing to continue their search until they find that property which exactly meets their needs and wants. Today, buyers can view a virtually unlimited selection of homes at their convenience.

These changes have manifested in several ways. First, the competition is intense, and buyers are VERY selective. Even in areas that might be in a “seller’s market,” where homes sell quickly, homebuyers have lots of options and are more willing to wait for their desired property rather than to settle for a home in which they cannot immediately see themselves living. Homebuyers have simply been exposed to too many options to compromise.

Edited and reprinted from readyhomesell.com

When we staged this house in a resort style beach neighborhood, it had been on the market a year. Painting the walls and staging made all the difference. We used the homeowners rug and dining room and staged everything else. They got very close to asking price. The bath and kitchen still needed updating but staging and painting took care of many things on that list.