A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How We Prepare to Sell Your Home

When it comes time to sell your home in St. Louis, you not only want to receive the highest possible price for your home, but you also want the experience to go smoothly. Working with an experienced real estate agent like Mike Knoll is the best way to accomplish this. You are likely familiar with the obvious things an agent does to sell your house: hosting open houses, giving tours of the home, and marketing your property through various channels. But when it comes to selling your home, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Much of your real estate agent’s job takes place behind the scenes. Here are a few things your agent is doing to ensure your property sells quickly, and for the best price.

When it comes to selling your home, choosing the right price is key. One of our first priorities is to perform extensive market research to ensure your home is priced properly. We pull data on comparable properties in the area from MLS and any public databases, comparing how listed prices correlated to the average time properties sat on the market. This research enables your agent to determine the appropriate market value of your home and suggest a listing price. We want to ensure your property is listed at an appropriate price. Too low, and you won’t be able to maximize your profit. List too high, and buyers may move past your home because it is not in their price range. Asking too much may ultimately be more costly than asking too little for a property. We will prepare a Comparative Market Analysis by analyzing the prices of similar homes in your area that have recently sold. These professional insights are crucial to pricing your home and getting it sold for what it is worth.

Marketing real estate has evolved. Today’s marketing involves much more than a sign on your lawn. Upon listing your home, we will enter it into the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and place it on several other local and national websites. When we list your home, we also use a combination of social media and print advertising to get the word out about your home. Flyers distributed throughout your neighborhood in the form of postcards or flyers are surprisingly effective. It’s not uncommon for your neighbors to have friends looking to buy a house, and this “word of mouth” advertising is highly effective. There are many tried and true methods we will employ to sell your home. We will be making phone calls, contacting potential buyers directly, and alerting other agents in the area. The goal is to get your home in front of as many eyes as possible. Our unique marketing plan can set your property apart and draw in more potential buyers. Increased exposure is great, but someone needs to manage all the inquiries, follow up with potential buyers, and schedule viewings. Before we schedule a tour of your home, we have already fielded multiple emails and phone calls and talked to any potential buyer’s agents. Most of this happens behind the scenes.

Another vital aspect of the home selling process is providing complete and accurate information to your potential buyers. Much of this information is not necessarily something you, as a seller, will have ready and available. We can gather all the information about your property so it is readily available for potential buyers. We can collect information on things like utility usage and area vendors, floor plan breakdowns, inspection reports, and more, saving you time and hassle.

It is not surprising that most sellers have an emotional attachment to the home they are trying to sell. We don’t doubt you love your home and have happy memories to share. You might feel like you are the most qualified to show a potential buyer your home, but typically this is another behind-the-scenes aspect of the work we do for you. To ensure the best possible showing, we can help you prepare your home by creating an inviting, welcoming environment, but then you can leave it to us to take potential buyers through your property.

Once we have found you a qualified buyer and they make an acceptable offer, it’s time to manage the close. Closing the home can often be a logistical nightmare. We take most of that off your plate. There is a lot that we will work on together, from negotiating with the buyers to reviewing contracts, but there is a lot more that goes into managing the close of your home than what you will witness in our meetings. We will manage the paperwork, from the contracts to titles and mortgage liens, sending it to the buyers and sellers, agents, lenders, title companies, and attorneys. 

When you work with us, there will be plenty of things we will work together on, and this is just the beginning. The time we spend putting on home tours and open houses is just a small fraction of the work we are actually doing to sell your home. We want to make the process as painless as possible for you, and a majority of this work takes place behind the scenes. If you are ready to sell your home in the St. Louis area, contact us today!