What You Can’t Control
- The past: what you paid for your home at purchase
- The size, location and general amenities of your home
- General economic circumstances
- Local market conditions
What You Can Control
- Timing as to when to put the property on the market
- Preparing the home, inside and out, to show at its best
- Marketing the property to reach every potential buyer and every agent
- who might have a buyer
- Pre-sale inspections and disclosure management
- Pricing as close to fair market value as can be rationally ascertained
- Buyer qualifying to ascertain financial capability
- Contract negotiation to achieve the best achievable sales price and terms
- Liability management at every step of the process (in a highly litigious state)
- Transaction management to close the sale as quickly and smoothly as possible
The quality of the agent working on your behalf—his or her competence, integrity, work ethic and commitment to your interests—can make an enormous difference in the outcome of your home purchase or sale in money, stress, time, in future happiness.