Hello there,
In the past few days, I have been receiving emails from property owners who would want to sell their properties. There are houses, residential lot, farm, beach front properties among others.
What strikes me are those sellers or homeowners who want to sell their property with incomplete selling requirements.
You see, in my experience of uploading a property in this website, and monitoring inquiries from our site visitors, I have found that properties that are able to sell out fast are those properties that have complete details.
Not to mention the sellers who could answer most of the questions the buyers ask.
So in this post, I will give helpful guide or things to do first about selling your house. I will give you step by step procedure to prepare your house for selling and possibly attract the most suitable buyer of your property.
Let’s get started.
DECIDING ON THE NECESSARY
Are you really selling your house?
It is really very helpful to ask yourself what your motivations are to sell your home. I have encountered clients who at first were very eager to sell their houses, but at the time near closing the sale, they backed out for no reason.
I think as a seller, you have two main factors to settle before you practically decide to post an advertisement to sell your house.
One is the emotional side.
Are you emotionally disconnected already to the house? Yes, selling a home has an emotional issue. Specially if you already stayed years or decades in the house.
You may have beautiful memories you cherished. It may be hard to let go of those.
Here are some questions to guide you which I think could help identify if you are still emotionally attached to your home.
- Are you ready to hear comments, good and bad from would be buyers who may view your house as attractive or not their type?
- Are you prepared to entertain would be buyers who would want to see your house in short notice?
- Would you be intimidated if buyers give a low offer when they see your house?
- Are you really ready to leave the very place where you have made memories with your family?
- Have you started to remove your personalized items on display? Like diploma, pictures etc.
Second is the financial side.
If you’re a type who is not emotionally attached to your home, then it’s time to consider the finances?
Finding a new house is as much as stressful as selling your home. Can you finance the new home you may want to move-in too? There are taxes to be paid by the seller.
You can easily forget this second area if you already have a home where you can already transfer.
But if you’re selling the house out of the need, or because of financial problems, I think you may have to think it thoroughly.
If you are not sure your finances could handle the moving out and moving-in to your new home, many more problems could arise.
So, consider your cash flow. Yes, as a seller, you can just overprice the house to cover the taxes and other expenses. But still, it is easier said than done.
People today are smart. Everyone could search the Internet to verify almost anything. Buyers can know if the price you put in your home is reasonable enough.
Do you know the real value of your house?
What is your price to sell your property?
If you are emotionally ready in selling your house, let’s discuss setting the right price. You may already have an idea or value in mind for your home to sell. But will that be the right price?
It may be hard to admit, how you value your home may not be the suitable price for your house. We, home owners tend to price also our hardships in owning the house. Not to mention the sentimental value to it.
So how to put a price tag in your home for sell? I’ll give you an idea.
As a home seller you can start by researching within your neighborhood. Drive around and see if there are homes for sale in your subdivision. Ask their owner how much they priced their houses. It’s up to you how would you do the asking.
Your next option is to search the Internet. But I think, basing your price on what you see on real estate selling websites would require a lot of price comparison research.
Specially websites where you can freely upload properties for sale. Because you may never know how do the home owner/seller of that house priced their home.
I suggest, look for websites of independent real estate brokers near you. This would take us to you next option house to price your home.
Next on my suggestion is for you to ask a professional real estate broker nearby. The best way to price your home is still to contact a licensed real estate broker. If you do not know one, ask a friend to refer you.
You can also contact us by sending a message. We can give you an idea what is the prevailing price in your area.
Who will help you sell the property?
Is there someone who would always be there at the house you are selling?
This would depend on what your situation is. The question to ask is, who would accommodate the potential buyer who may want to view your house?
One of the stages of home selling/buying is the site tour. This is where the buyer would get the actual feel of the house. And maybe decide if they will acquire the property.
So, you cannot easily neglect this part. This would not be a problem if you are still living in the house.
But if that is not the case, my best advice is that you have a trusted friend, relative or caretaker who lives in or near the house you are selling so that client visits won’t be hard to schedule.
This way, he will be always available when some buyer wants to see the house anytime. He will act as your contact person. You must make sure that you and your contact person both strongly agrees in selling the house.
Prepare the complete details of your property.
This one I found is the most neglected part of the sellers. Remember this part is very important.
The following details and documents are what almost every home buyer frequently ask; make sure you have all of them.
Imagine buying an electronic device without its manual to operate. Then getting frustrated because you could not find the power button. That’s how the buyer would feel, if the seller could not provide immediately the documents of the house they are selling.
What are the details to prepare? Here’s our Sell Your Property Checklist.
- Exact location – Be specific with the property address. You can follow this pattern (House or Lot Number, Street, Block Number, Subdivision Name, Town/City, Province, Postal Address)
- Clear Photos – Please provide exterior and interior photos. The beautiful front view photo of the structure is a must to make it attractive to would be buyers. It will also be best if you have photos of the road leading to it. Do not just take the pictures of your house. You need to de-clutter first before taking any picture.
- Price: (Please also indicate if the price is gross, NET or negotiable)
- Lot Area in square meters:
- Floor Area in square meters:
- Number of Bedrooms:
- Number of Toilet & Bath:
- Your Agreeable Payment Terms: Cash / Negotiable Installment options
- Owner’s complete Name:
- Owner’s Contact Number:
- Your contact person for site viewing:
- Contact Person’s Contact number:
- Short Description: (Give a little description of the house. You can start with major selling points like: how near are the major establishments, hospital, grocery, entertainment center etc. How old is the property? Are there minor or major renovations needed? Does the property needs repainting, roof replacement, etc. It is better to be honest what is the real status of the property.)
- Documents to prepare: Lot plan, Subdivision plan, vicinity map, Certificate of Title (Land – Owners copy), Condominium Certificate of Title (for condo), Tax Declaration (Declaration of Real Property), Tax Clearance – (both land and improvement), Tax Clearance – (condominium unit and parking if applicable)
De-clutter your home. Remove all Personalization.
When we say your HOME, it means every part of the house in and out. Do a sweep cleaning of every room. This is really a daunting chore, but if you know where to start, is can also be enjoyable task to do.
- Go Outside. First impressions last. The front of your house gives the first impression to the buyers. Trim the grass & plants, re-paint the gates and front door; if needed and your budget allows, re-paint the entire house, clean the garage, clean the walkway, clean the windows. A well-kept house/ condominium unit would make the house more welcoming and you have a higher chance of actually selling the property.
- Go Inside. Start with the main front door. Replace broken doorknobs, cabinet handles, locks, etc.
- Prepare a box for trash, things you can sell and things you want to keep. Put a label on each box. You can print this decluttering label to help you out. As you pick up things on each room, make sure to put it on the appropriate box so that you would not have to re-arrange it again.
- Start with the smallest part of the house. Start with the part of the house that needs a little to no cleaning at all. You will be encouraged to de-clutter the entire house this way than starting with bigger room where it may look like you were not making any progress at all.
- Start from one corner. At each room, start at the farthest corner. My favorite style is to start cleaning at the farthest corner from the entrance door. I will put my labeled boxes near the door then, arranging things in order, slowly from farthest corner going to the entrance door of each room.
- Make every part of the house inviting. Your goal in de-cluttering the house is to make each part of the house inviting. Nobody would want to buy anything if it looks like uhhh… or smells like…. uggghhh.
- Consider the view on each doorway. During house tour, house buyers came not just to see the physical features of the house, but also to feel the atmosphere inside your home. Make sure all the chairs, side table and all furniture are arranged properly. Remove all magazines with crumpled pages. Re-arrange your books. Fix clutters cables.
Stage your house for selling.
Now we go on the part where you improve the look and feel of the home. This is where we highlight the selling strength of your house. The idea is to decorate and prepare your home to make it more saleable ang appealing to would be buyers.
- Re-arrange the furniture. Re-arrange the chairs, tables and any other furniture you may have. Just because your favorite side table is designed for bedroom does not mean you cannot put it on the living room. Try lining it just below the window and put flower arrangement on top, you may be amazed with the result.
- Transform unused room. If you have unused room, try to put one extra table and one extra chair. Adorn it with simple wall poster or frame with flower, it is now a reading room.
- Home lighting. Check every light around the house and make sure they are working. Experiment with dim lights if you have not done so.
- Vary wall décor. Be creative in hanging wall decors. Gone are the days where you hang pictures ang painting in a straight line around the room.
- Repair the tiles. Missing or cracked tiles are easily spotted by a meticulous buyer. It may cost less to repair those than the buyer asking to deduct it to your total contract price.
- Experiment with rugs. Cheap but good-looking rugs can now be found in surplus stores. Try to experiment with variant colors.
- Sort out the shelves. Inspect every shelf of all the rooms. Remove all the things that are making it look messy and avoid overfilling each shelve.
- Put curtains. Put curtains in all windows. Long, short, half, experiment with variations and color with what you have available. If possible shop around for a more updated designs. But it also depends, some houses look great with just big windows and no curtains.
List your house to real estate selling website.
Of course, I would want to advise you to contact us. We can help you find serious buyers for your home. Here at PhilRealty Global, one of our main objective is to find buyers.
We list properties nationwide. The concentration of our properties are in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Palawan, Cebu, Baguio and many major cities in the Philippines.
Before we upload the property to our website, we make sure to have complete details of the property. So, make sure you read carefully our sell property checklist number 5 on this list. We will also need your valid email address and contact numbers.
How do we market your property? We do paid advertisements on google, we upload also your property on lamudi.com.ph, property24.com.ph, which is the now the leading real estate portal in the Philippines.
We also do social media marketing and many other marketing channels available on the internet.
As a precaution also on both of us, we do background checking on all our possible clients.
We already have developed a way to filter out serious buyers from window shoppers and bogus buyers since not all inquiries are buyers. With that, you get one less hassle on your part.
When you send your property to us, we act as your real estate broker. I think this is an advantage to you as a home seller.
For so many reasons, one is you get many marketing channels already because we do the marketing of your home.
Two, you remove that hassle of meeting a bogus and window shopping client.
Three, we can do the paper works for you if you don’t have your personal assistant who fixes these documents for you.
And four, these marketing activities are all for FREE. We only ask for a 5% standard legal commission after the sale is closed.
Here is a list of other real estate uploading portal in the Philippines.
- lamudi.com.ph
- property24.com.ph
- olx.ph
- bahay.ph
- ebay.ph
- zipmatch.com
Just remember that you would be dealing directly to all the inquiries who may inquire to your ad. Web inquiries are not all ready to buy directly.
There are those who are just window shopping, but the reality is they are not yet financially ready. I’m not saying they are not serious buyers, they are just not yet ready.
You need to know how to filter out those ready to buy inquiries from those just window shoppers.
Because it’s just a waste of time and effort accommodating and entertaining them and knowing in the end they are not capable to finance your home for sale.
If you sell your property with us, we do that part for you. You would only be meeting clients not just with financial capacity but also serious buyers with need and reasons to acquire a property.
Be prepared to answer questions.
As the owner of the property, you should be prepared in answering the questions and even the objections of the client. But if you did your assignment on number 5 on this post, then you are prepared to answer all the most frequently asked questions by the buyer about your house for sale.
Other questions that may arise would be practical like:
- how old is the house?
- how much is the association dues?
- Is there a history of flooding?
- How about the security?
- Etc;
Be professional in meeting the buyers.
Yehey! You have now an inquiry and possibly a buyer of your house. Let’s prepare to meet them. It would be best if you are present in the house/ property tour.
Set a schedule beforehand, exact time of meeting would be appropriate. Dress casually, but hopefully not in your pajamas or not in your house clothes.
Build rapport first. Welcome them like they are expected family and not just buyers.
Though it is not customary and required, it’s up to you to give refreshments. It’s always nice to have a discussion with something to eat or drink.
As you tour the house, tell the client what the room are you are entering. Tell the client what good experiences you have in the house. The neighborhood, the security, garbage collection, weather etc.
It is also ok to tell if there are other buyers who have seen the house already.
You can also prepare questions to ask to the buyer, like what are their occupations, besides you would want to know if they are financially capable to buy the house.
What are their hobbies or interest, so you could give insights what are available nearby? How many kids they have?
And finally, don’t forget to discuss what are your final price and your negotiable payment terms. It’s really ok to discuss it directly than leave the client guessing what their options are.
So, there you have it, I hope you learned something and enjoy reading my post. I would love to read your comments or if you have questions and if you have property to sell, you can use the form below.
