Sometimes sellers want to wait until their home is absolutely 100% prepared to go on the market for sale -- or even 102% ready!
It's hard to disagree with that in principle -- yes -- let's make sure you get your house 100% ready to go on the market before we put it on the market.
But...
If it takes (for example) six weeks to get your house 95% ready to go and another eight weeks to get it to 100% ready -- is it worth waiting those two extra months to list your home?
Probably not -- unless those two months you are waiting are in the middle of winter when buyer activity would be low and when your home might not show its best based on dead grass, leafless trees, gray skies, etc.
A few other points to consider in this regard...
- If we're not closing that final 5% gap, let's make sure we realize what we're leaving "undone" or "unprepared" and make sure we're OK with that decision.
- This scenario -- getting your house 95% prepared before listing it for sale and not waiting an inordinate amount of extra time just to get it to 100% prepared -- is much more reasonable in the current seller's market. In an oversupplied (buyer's) market I would have different advice.
- Certainly, if you can move from 95% to 100% in just one more week, do it. The main point here is not to wait a really long time to list your home because it is very, very close to being 100% prepared, but it is not 100% perfect.
- It's probably fair to say that based on how folks live, some seller's homes start at 50% and some seller's homes start at 90% when they make that decision to sell. The graph above imagines starting at 50%, but the progression would look a bit different if you live your life in such a way that your house could go on the market without any further preparations, etc.
- As noted on the left side of the graph, you don't need to wait to meet with me until your home is 90% or 95% or 100% ready for the market. I can help you assess what areas you should focus on as you are preparing your house for the market and can help you prioritize the projects you plan to accomplish before listing your home for sale.
- How prepared is your home now? Hard to say. You might have a sense of that, or I can give you a sense of that when we meet.
Again, the main point of my ramblings today are...
- You don't have to have absolutely every detail of your home 100% complete before you list it for sale.
- You don't need to wait to meet with me about selling your house until you are just about ready for the house to hit the market and for showings to begin.
Finally, a few examples of a 95% complete house...
- Everything looks great inside and out, but you still want to replace the light fixture in the basement bedroom and get a new mirror for the basement bathroom.
- Everything looks great inside and out, but one of your gutters has a small leak and you won't be able to get it fixed for a month.
- Everything looks great inside and out, but you want to spend some time touching up the paint on the baseboard moulding in garage and unfinished basement furnace room.
OK, maybe those got to be somewhat extreme. :-)
You get the point. Let's meet sooner rather than later and your house doesn't have to be 100% perfect to be listed for sale and to sell in a timeframe and for a price that is pleasing to you.
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