Selling a Home for the First Time in Michigan

So, you’ve decided it’s time to sell your Michigan Real Estate. After reading this article from Michigan Realty you’ll feel much more confident navigating the biggest sale of your life. If you’re a realtor reading this, you’ll also find this highly valuable.

Selling real estate for the first time doesn’t need to be scary, and you have options. We list the most important tip to selling real estate in Michigan at the very end, so read on to learn more.

Selling real estate with a Realtor or not.

There are two ways to go about selling real estate in Michigan. Both ways to sell Michigan real estate have their pros and cons. So, let’s quickly take a look at them on the surface.

Selling Real Estate as a “For Sale by Owner” in Michigan

For those people who are looking to save a little bit of money selling real estate this might be for you. Out of all transactions, For-Sale-by-Owner deals only make up less than 8% of all transactions nationwide.

Saving money is really the only positive to this method of real estate sales. As the cons to this method is that you’re responsible for all marketing, showing and scheduling, negotiations, paperwork, and massive legal liabilities, etc.

While saving money is almost always the motivation, you’d still need to prepare to make room to pay commissions. “For Sale by Owners” fail selling real estate in Michigan by not incentivizing the marketplace with an enticing Buyers Agent commission. We’d suggest offering a minimum of 3%, as this is a very standard commission percentage in the Michigan realty marketplace.

For many people who have business experience this may be fun to try. Although, for just a small percentage of savings it may not be worth the squeeze and another option should be considered.

Selling Real Estate by Realtor in Michigan

The next option selling real estate in Michigan is hiring a realtor. The vast majority of transactions are handled by Realtors, and for good reason.

With a financial benefit to help you sell real estate, you’ll almost certainly receive much better real estate marketing compared to For Sale by Owners. All previously listed responsibilities of the For Sale by Owner would be handled by your Realtor.

The only downside for some is ensuring that the sale price for your real estate can accommodate a commission. For lower priced property, property that needs to sell quickly, or those who haven’t acquire significant equity, finding the margin to hire a Realtor can be more challenging. With a great realtor, these concerns can be solved.

Don’t be Greedy!

When selling real estate in Michigan, or anywhere for that matter, people think they need to list the home at the highest price point. The logic isn’t totally off, but it actually doesn’t put you in the best position.

Focus on “Pricing to Sell”. A better option would be to price at around 80% of the highest potential value for the condition that the home is in. This will encourage greater foot traffic in the door. The more foot traffic almost always translates into greater competition and increased offers above asking price.

While we’ll acknowledge that there are many ways to strategize your pricing, trusting your realtor is going to be critical for your success.

Clean up, at Least

Some people post listing photos that are WILD! Clothes on the refrigerator, dog cages in the middle of small rooms, weird looking toys in the bedroom…

Yeah, anyway.

Please, if you’re going to sell real estate remember these three words:

Presentation, Presentation, Presentation.

Selling real estate doesn’t mean that imperfections need to be hidden, but just clean up. The last thing you need are people distracted by things you could have removed from a photo or video.

The opposite of a messy room is an empty room.

Empty rooms aren’t nearly as bad as a messy room. In some cases, it might actually be a preference. Consider staging empty rooms to show what is possible. Many people are great at using their imagination, however many cannot. Stage a room for those people who cannot use their imagination.

Use Video

Did you know that over 90% of all purchase decisions made today are made after watching a video?

Using video is equally important for you if you’re a For Sale by Owner or if you’re a Realtor. Any video is good video, but some videos are better than others. Someone using there phone to make a video is obviously not a good as a professional using a Camera with 6k resolution mounted on a crane. Obviously. Read our other article breaking down everything you need to know about video so you can vet Realtors who don’t cut corners.

It used to be that the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and places like Zillow would never allow you to upload were photos. Now, these platforms have accommodated uploads of video files due to popular demand. Some are even allowing the use of Matterport technology, a virtual walk-through similar to Google street view.

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Price Adjust

If you’re “priced to sell”, as previously mentioned, this is something you won’t have to do. Sometimes market conditions make it hard to get the perfect listing price the first time around. That’s just a reality and if you’re in Michigan selling your real estate, making an adjustment to the price isn’t the end of the world.

One day you could be sitting around with no action on the house, and then next day after a price adjustment, BOOM, you have action on your real estate listing and an few offers. Sometimes the offers would come in at your original asking price if your adjustment did its job and created competition.

Lesson here: Don’t be afraid of the price adjustment to sell your real estate.

Make Needed Repairs

This is the most important one if you can afford to manage this when selling real estate. Like most eastern states, Michigan’s housing market is on the older side. So, with age comes needed repairs when selling real estate.

The value lost when there are elements of the home that need correction is influential in the overall value of your home. Not only from public’s perception of what your home is worth, but also officially affecting the appraisal value of the home.

When selling real estate in Michigan, the number one fix you can make is ensuring that your roof is perfect. Any other fixes will only help you when selling real estate.

You’re Ready to Sell

Selling real estate doesn’t need to be hard if you’re willing to follow these tips. We hope this article has been able to provide you with the insight you need to sell your Michigan real estate. If you need additional information, send us a message here.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out our other Michigan Real Estate articles below, or go back to our Home Page.