Tips For Selling Your Home

Determining the Value of Your Home

Effective marketing begins with setting the price right. Too high a price will lose market time, potential buyers, and possibly value.

Too low will lose full, fair value. Every homeowner wants the best possible price and terms for their home. Unfortunately, real estate is not an exact science. All transactions are different. The market, based on current conditions, the supply of homes available and the current competition, determines the best price obtainable.

Homes have several different values: one to the lender, another to the tax assessor, another to your insurance company and yet another to you, the homeowner. Likewise, different buyers have different needs and desires and therefore your home will have different values to them.

Sales prices are not based on what owners “need”. Since buyers’ comparison shop, a home listed at $300,000 (because this is what a Seller says they need to sell in order to buy another home) will not be successful if the buyer can buy a similar home for $250,000. Houses that do not meet the current competition in price and terms simply do not sell. In fact, they only help the competition.

Our experienced agents can help you in deciding the price of your home. The have handled many transactions, are experienced negotiators and understand the various terms and conditions of the market. Let us help you get the best price possible for your home.

Home Staging

Home staging is one of the best ways to get top dollar for your Maya Real Estate BROKERAGE. Home staging is a proven method used to increase sale prices, and homes that are staged with an ASP Professional Home Stager sell faster and for more money! This is because staging sets the scene throughout the house to create immediate buyer interest in your property. This will then lead to your home selling for the highest possible price in today’s market. Remember, “The way you live in your home, and the way you market and sell your house are two different things.”

Important reasons to stage a home:

It is understandable that you don’t want to spend money up-front on staging your house to sell, but it is an investment that will help you sell your home for more money when all is said and done.

Staging is styling the home to appeal to a broader range of buyers that will help to sell the home faster.

Staging is always less than the cost of your first price reduction.

Buyers need to get excited about your home in the first few seconds. Staging does just that; it excites your potential buyer to make a purchase decision.

Brand new homes for sale, sell faster in both good markets and bad because they are staged well, as the builders create good model homes. You have to do the same.

Marketing Your Home

Now the fun begins! The following are just some of the techniques we might suggest to market your home. Not every technique fits every situation, and sometimes we’ll propose unique ideas for a certain home. It’s up to you to tell us what you do or don’t want to try. Effective marketing is the key to selling your home quickly and obtaining the highest price. Maya Real Estate Brokerage has become a successful real estate company in Washington dc metro by the effective marketing of our Clients’ homes, using all available resources. Our job is to ensure that houses are fully exposed to the marketplace to assure that clients receive as many qualified offers as possible at the highest prices the market will bear.

Effective marketing begins with setting the price right.

• Professional evaluation/staging
• Offer a pre-inspection
• Offer a home warranty
• Make an necessary repairs
• Put up a Maya Real Estate Brokerage LLC sign
• Put a “lockbox” on your house
• Take digital photos
• Put listing into MLS
• Advertise in all other medias
• Prepare a virtual tour Arrange realtor tours
• Send flyers to realtors
• Place ad in Buyer’s Guide
• Consider holding an open house
• Send an email alert to realtors and potential buyer
• Showing your home

Don't Be Home When Buyers Visit

Although you know your home better than anyone, it isn’t necessarily a good thing to have you there when your home is being shown. A qualified Realtor isn’t personally attached to your home, and will have researched the needs of the buyer, so will know best how to sell your home. It’s best if you aren’t home when your house is shown, or, that you stay out of the way unless asked to be involved. The same goes for kids and pets. Keep the environment as clear and quiet as possible so the buyer can envision what the home would look like in their possession. Pack up personal photographs, family heirlooms and religious artwork. Buyers can’t see past personal artifacts, and you don’t want them to be distracted. You want buyers to imagine their own photos on the walls, and they can’t do that if yours are there! You want buyers to see them selves living in the home.

Insist on a Home Inspection

A professional home inspection protects both you and the buyer. It allows both you and the buyer the opportunity to learn about the property’s defects.

A home inspection usually covers the following:

Plumbing conditions – if there is leakage or clogging

Roofing conditions – the extent of deterioration, if there is leakage

Electrical conditions – if there are inadequate circuits or potential fire hazards

Structural problems – if there are problems with the underlying foundation of your home

As a seller, the home inspection reports protect you because it establishes the actual condition of the property at the time of sale.

Getting the Offer and Negotiating

What do you do once you have an offer? First, let us explain to you what the buyer is offering. If the buyer offers your full asking price with no further considerations, then you’re done, and you accept the offer. But many times a buyer will offer a lower price and/or make certain requests. Think carefully about what’s best for you before making a counter offer. Keep in mind that the buyer may never respond to your counter offer, but once all parties accept and sign a counter-offer, it becomes legally binding contract. By the same token, you do NOT want to get involved in oral offers or negotiations. If you verbally accept an offer, the buyer is still free of any legal obligation to actually buy the house, and he may try to keep bargaining with you to see how low you’ll go on the price.

Sometimes, no matter how carefully you’ve prepared your house and how fairly you’ve priced it, you might still get a low offer. Don’t take it personally. The buyer may have mortgage qualification limits, or he may simply be taking a shot in the dark. It’s just business, and you’re free to accept or reject the offer, or make a counter offer. We can meet and discuss what your best option is from here, and we will try to find out why the offer was so low. If other low offers come in, or if your house isn’t being shown or receiving any offers, we need to find out why, and what we should do to make your house more attractive to buyers.

Upon agreement, the buyer usually has a limited option period in which he can have a home inspection and termite/pest inspection. At this point, the buyer can still withdraw from the contract if problems are found, or he might ask that you complete certain repairs before closing or contribute a sum of money toward repairs at closing. Whatever the situation, Maya Real Estate Brokerage will help you try to re-negotiate an agreement to prevent the sale from falling through. After the option period ends, the buyer is legally obligated to buy the house unless they are denied financing. If financing is canceled, the buyer loses any earnest money, but if the buyer never receives money from the lender, then the buyer is not held responsible. That’s why we always ask for a letter stating that the buyer is pre-qualified for a loan. We also ask the buyer’s agent to keep us informed of the buyer’s loan application status once the contract is signed.

We will set a closing date, generally 30 days (more or less) from the contract date. At this point you need to start preparing for your move while taking of any requested repairs.

Closing the Transaction



The exciting day is finally here! we will attend the closing with you to make sure everything goes smoothly, after verifying in advance that all of the paperwork is in order. we also request a copy of the statement sheet for you to review before closing. Feel free to ask any questions before or during closing. And since this is the point where you relinquish the house to its new owner…