Lorraine Ryall
Arizona’s peak real estate market is from now until May/June, therefore, if you are planning to sell your home this year, now is the time to get everything ready to get your home on the market.
Starting with January’s article, which was Get The Best Bang For Your Buck When Remodeling to Sell Your Home, I am writing a series of articles to help with the selling process. Second in the series is this article. Next month’s article will deal with enhancing and staging your home. You can read all these articles on my website Homes2SellAZ.com, under the Blog section.
What Is My Home Worth?
You may want to jump on Zillow or other real estate sites, but I urge you to hold off and get a market analysis from a local Realtor. While Zillow will quickly give you a value, their values are often way off, as they can only look at statistics, usually use a larger area from which to pull those statistics, and the data can be outdated. Our neighborhoods are very different here in East Mesa, and the values are skewed when the data is pulled from other neighborhoods.
There are many other factors affecting your home’s value, which the computer cannot calculate, such as the upgrades you have, if you have a pool, location, views, golf course lots, single-story versus two-story homes and many more. All these make a big difference in your home’s value. If you do want to go online to get a quick value, you can get an accurate home estimate at InstantHomeValueAZ.com,
which takes you to my website. I will personally run the report for you. However, the only way to get the true market value of your home is to schedule an appointment for a free Home Valuation.
You can also get a free Neighborhood Report showing all the homes currently listed and sold within the past 90 days in your neighborhood at MyNeighborhoodHomePrices.com.
You can see what your same model home is listed for and what it sold for. If you are not ready to sell just yet, this is a great way to keep current on what home prices are doing in your neighborhood.
Interviewing a Realtor—Top 10 Questions
Choosing the right Realtor can make all the difference on how quickly your home sells and for what price. The best thing to do is a have a list of questions you want to ask the Realtor, so you can get a feel for the individual’s knowledge, expertise and marketing plan. It also is an opportunity to get a feel for the Realtor as a person and a professional. After all, you are going to trust this person with one of the biggest investments you have, so you want to ensure you choose the right Realtor and someone you feel comfortable with.
Here is a list of questions to ask the Realtor:
- Where do you live? (If you are selling a home in Mesa, you don’t want an agent who lives in Scottsdale.)
- Are you a full-time Realtor?
- How many homes have you listed in the past 12 months?
- How many homes have you sold in the past 12 months?
- What percentage of the asking price was the sales price?
- How many days does it take you to sell a home?
- Are you part of a team? If an agent has a support team to handle office chores, this means the agent can devote more time to serving a client’s highest priority needs. If they are part of a large team, chances are you may not be working with that person again, and you may end up working with several different people you have never met before. I think so much of real estate is based on good communication and the relationship you build with your clients.
- How will you market my property? The marketing can make all the difference. Compare the marketing plans between the agents you interview to see who offers the best marketing plan for your property.
- How will you attract buyers to my property?
- How will you keep me informed, and what will you do throughout the process of my transaction?
Please contact me if you would like a free Home Valuation Report to determine the current market value of your home, or for any additional information.
Lorraine Ryall has been a Multi-Million Dollar producer for the past seven years. You can reach Lorraine at (602) 571-6799. You also can send her an email at Lorraine@Homes2SellAZ.com, or visit her website at www.Homes2SellAZ.com.