Things to Research Before You Contact an Agent for Help with Selling Your Home

If you're interested in selling your home but don't feel in a huge rush to do so, you're in a good position. Instead of rushing into the process, you can take your time to do some research to find out if this is the right time to sell—and to get what you want for your home. Instead of rushing to hire a real-estate agent, you can do some of your own research to help you make a decision about how you wish to proceed. Your research could suggest that now is the right time to sell, or it could show you that there's no rush to list your home. Here are some steps to take when conducting your research.

List All of the Specifics of Your Home

Your first priority in researching whether it's a good time to sell or not is to make a list of all of the relevant specifics of your home. This list should include your lot size, the square footage of your home, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the number of garage doors, and other such details. You should also write down when your home was built and include notes about the years that you had major work done. For example, you may have had the roof replaced in 2014.

Start Finding Comparable Properties Online

With your list in front of you, head to your local real-estate listings website to begin finding properties that are comparable to yours. You might not find anything that is exactly the same, but you should strive to find homes of a comparable age and size with comparable lot sizes. Carefully peruse these listings. You'll certainly want to note the listing price of each home and evaluate whether it's within the range that you'd expect to get for your home. If this price is significantly lower, it might not be the right time for you to sell.

Assess How Quickly Comparable Properties Are Selling

Price isn't the only thing that should compel you to sell or not try to sell. You'll also want to know how quickly these comparable homes are selling. When you've found several comparable listings, bookmark each of them to monitor them. Check every few days to see whether the listings are still active; you may find that an active listing now reads that the house has hold, and this is a good sign. It indicates that there's interest in the area for a house of this nature, and this theoretically means that there should be interest for your house too. If you decide that now is the right time to sell, you can move forward with contacting a real-estate agent.

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