You can usually count on home sales to heat up as the weather does, with spring and summer the primary buying seasons. Homebuyers with families want to get moved in between school years, and home sellers time the market for when they know buyers will be out in force.
Of course, things that cause uncertainty can disrupt the predictability of home sales. An economic downturn, high unemployment, or a large-scale health crisis make it anything but business as usual in any industry.
But it doesn’t mean you can’t sell your home or even that you have to wait to put it on the market. You’ll probably just have to sell a little differently. Here are four musts for home sellers in challenging times.
1. Enhanced curb appeal
You might hear all the time that curb appeal is important when attracting home buyers. And when they can’t easily view the interior of a home in person, it can be even more important.
Without open houses and with fewer in-person showings, buyers will likely do more “drive-bys,” looking at homes from the street. A house that lacks curb appeal, therefore, might not stack up well against one that looks great from the curb. Also, if seeing the inside of a home isn’t as simple as it used to be, a spectacular interior isn’t going to make up for a lackluster exterior the way it might in normal times.
2. Professional photographs
When homebuyers started going online in earnest to browse homes for sale, it was still fairly early in the history of the internet. Agents who listed homes online didn’t even always have pictures of the properties they were selling. It wasn’t until they figured out that postings with pictures helped generate more interest that nearly every listing included photos.
Still, not all listings with photos are created equal. It’s not difficult to go scroll through pages of homes for sale and tell which ones were photographed by a professional and which ones were owner-provided or shot with a mobile phone.
At a time when social distancing is causing buyers to rely on the internet even more than usual, it’s going to be important to use eye-catching photos of your home. A pro photographer has the skills to help put your property’s best foot forward.
3. Home Staging
Any listing agent will tell you that it’s easier to sell a home that has furnishings than one that’s vacant. Buyers want to picture their own belongings in a new house, but they can’t always paint a good picture when the canvas is completely blank of filled to the brim with your personal belongings. It’s too much for the mind’s eye.
Home staging helps provide context to spaces, and it can be especially useful when fewer buyers are physically visiting a home or visiting less frequently than in a typical market. Staging, whether done by a professional or the seller, makes it easier for online viewers of a home to fully see it. A professionally staged – and professionally photographed – home can appear stunning online therefor encouraging more showings and offers.
4. Interactive Virtual Showings
If homebuyers are less eager or less able to personally walk through homes for sale, it’s vital to allow them to see as much as possible via digital tools. One common digital tool for real estate listings is the virtual tour.
Sometimes, virtual tours are simply video-recorded walkthroughs. Other times, an agent or website will use software that allows the viewer to see the home in 3D, and even control the camera views. True professional virtual tours (not a video of photos) will let the potential buyer experience your home more intimately so they can feel as if they were there seeing it in person. It can also weed out the lookey loos and help you avoid valuable time relocating your family and pets, cleaning and preparing for in-person showings.
For a feel that’s truer to the actual experience, an agent or owner could live-stream a walkthrough for buyers. A live virtual showing can accommodate groups, like an open house, or individual buyers. By being live, the buyers can direct the streamer where to point the camera and can ask any questions they might have in real-time.
The bottom line: Home sellers are concerned with mainly two things: How quickly will a home sell, and for how much money? Selling a home fast and for top dollar can still be done even in uncertain times, but particular selling tools are a must.
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