If you’re contemplating selling your home, call your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Tomie Raines real estate professional. They have ample data at their fingertips to inform you of current market conditions, which may have changed in the last few months. They’ll assist you in selecting the right price to list your home and help you get it sold for the highest price possible. Their advice may include the following:
Price trends are trackable, so if your market is slowing, you should price your home slightly below the market trend. You want to avoid having to reduce your list price, as the longer your home is on the market, the more likely it is that other agents and their buyers may conclude your home has a problem.
The better condition your home is in, regardless of age, the more money you can ask. While it seems counterintuitive to spend money to make money, such as paying for remodeling or other professional services, your job is to make your home competitive to other similar homes with upgrades that buyers prefer.
Your fireplace and chimney should be top of your spring-cleaning list, especially if you’re selling your home. Not only will your fireplace look (and smell) better, but it will be much safer to operate next winter.
Wood-burning fireplaces build up creosote which is highly flammable; one spark can turn into a chimney fire, damage the lining of the chimney, limit ventilation, and pollute the air quality of your home. Creosote, dirt, and other debris can accelerate carbon monoxide buildup and inhibit the release of toxins and smoke. Dirty chimneys can also keep oxygen from the fire and prevent the fire from burning in the right direction, filling the room with smoke.
When you sell your home, the homebuyer will arrange an inspection of all operating systems—a clean chimney is not only easier to inspect, but it will send the right kind of message to the buyer. Remove all the fireplace equipment and instead put a decorative screen or urn with flowers to take your fireplace into spring and summer.
If you sold your home in 2024 you could claim the maximum capital gains exclusions that were set in 1997. However, since these exclusions aren’t adjusted for inflation, so many long-time homeowners may still face capital gains taxes on their federal tax return
The maximum exclusion on homestead capital gains is $250,000 for single filers, and $500,000 for married couples. Sellers must have lived in and owned the home for at least two out of the past five years.
Subtracting the purchase price of the home from the sales price gives you the cost basis but you can minimize capital gains by including the cost of any capital improvements you made. Capital Improvements are permanent structural changes and restorations that enhance the property’s overall value, its useful life, or adaptation to new uses.
To sell your home this spring, you should repaint, declutter and deep clean, but details will make the most difference.
Before you paint, scuff up the surface with a light sanding or a fine abrasive pad. Clean walls and floors of dust and dirt so painter’s tape will adhere tightly and your paint job looks more professional.
Be ruthless when you declutter. Donate items you don’t use or like very much. Closets look bigger with fewer clothes. Organize kitchen and bath cabinets and drawers for more appeal.
Deep cleaning should include windows. Vacuum dust and dirt from sills, then apply a generous spray of window cleaner. Use a squeegee to remove wet streaks, which works better than a cloth. Fluff curtains in the dryer and wipe off curtain rods in the meanwhile. Open all window coverings for showings to homebuyers.
Pay attention to smells. Wash all bedding, and apply baking soda to the mattresses, then vacuum. Wash or replace pet beds. Put orange peels down stinky disposals to help clean smelly blades.
Real estate agency is a legally binding relationship between real estate agents and their clients during the buying and selling process. Each state has its own rules regarding the licensing and duties of real estate professionals, as well as how they’re allowed to work with consumers.
First, there are two levels of licensure—broker and agent. Brokers can own their own agencies and work independently, while agents must work under a broker’s supervision. When you hire an agent, you’re really hiring the broker.
Because brokers and agents can represent either or both parties to a real estate transaction, agency relationships must be disclosed to both the seller and the homebuyer. In most states, dual agency isn’t permitted, but a broker may assign another agent in the firm to represent one of the parties as a designated agent with limited fiduciary obligations.
In some regions, new industry rules or existing state laws may require homebuyers to sign temporary or long-term representation contracts with a buyer’s agent before they can begin touring homes. The contents of these agreements vary depending on the location of the property and other factors; consult with a local broker or sales professional for more specifics.
If you really need to sell your home, you don’t have to wait until after the holidays. While there are fewer homebuyers, those actively searching are often committed to making a swift move due to reasons such as lease endings, job relocations, or military transfers.
You can make your home stand out in several ways:
Price it right. A lower price will excite buyers, but only accept a fair offer.
Clean and declutter. For a few hundred dollars, a cleaning crew will make your home look spotless. Pack away anything you don’t need in moving boxes and store them in a seldom-used room.
Keep holiday decor simple. String lights and evergreen branches. Skip the big tree and place a small one on a tabletop instead. Bake cookies and serve cinnamon cider for showings.
Prioritize the exterior. Make sure leaves are picked up, snow is shoveled, and walkways are safely de-iced.
Let someone else host dinners and parties. You can still enjoy holiday festivities without doing all the cooking and planning yourself. Friends and relatives will understand.
Make your home as unique as you want it, but if you are considering selling in the not to far future or are already on your way to listing, staying away from these items might pay off when your offers start rolling in.
DIY Home Improvements – while they may save you money, if not done professionally, it will be obvious to a prospective buyer, which might cost you in property value more than you invested in improvements.
Garage Conversion – When it comes to home buying, buyers care about their garage space and size, you cutting into that with a garage conversion that might not match the rest of the house might be something to consider before taking the plunge.
Solar Panels – If you decide to lease solar panels instead of buying, keep in mind, that future home buyers might not want to take on that responsibility.
Quirky Wallpaper – it may look cute, and you might think it adds character but with quirky wallpaper, the odds of others not holding them as fondly as you do are very high. Consider investing in temporary wallpaper instead and removing it before selling if you have your heart set on it.
Custom Luxury Upgrades– They may be just perfect for you, but that’s just the thing, they probably won’t be for others, and the more custom you go, the likelihood the cost will go up for replacing the upgrades. Make sure you think through these decisions.
Wine Cellars– With so maybe individuals who don’t drink, or hate wine, or are simply committed beer drinkers, wine cellars take up a lot of square footage. They are expensive and difficult to renovate into a different space.
Remodeled basements and attics –If you are looking to add on a bedroom, using this space, there is a lot to factor in. There are ceiling height, closet, and emergency exit requirements that can end up racking up quite a cost so if you are thinking of doing this make sure you do your research and the math beforehand.
An oversized home addition –If you expand the home too far, it will start to look unplanned and not give the added appeal you may be thinking it will have.
New windows – If these are old windows we’re talking about, then they may add to your property value, but you need to check your local market to see if houses with new windows are going off the market faster than ones that haven’t made the upgrade, especially with windows being such a large investment.
Swimming pools – Swimming pools often scare aware new family buyers who have little ones around to worry about, while they may seem fun, keep in mind your target buyer before installing.
Lavish lighting fixtures– These can go wrong in so many ways, they can go out of style fast, dates themselves and your home, and aggressively tell other people your style and how much it’s not theirs.
Too much wallpaper – Once again, it’s hard to envision a space of your own, in a room with a distinct look because of the wallpaper. Solid color walls give homebuyers more room for imagination.
Textures on the wall and ceiling– Textured walls can go in and out of style, people who want this in their home will make the investment to do it themselves but for others who don’t want them, they may be discouraged by the mess of having them removed.
Overbuilding for the neighborhood – A house that doesn’t match the neighborhood, can stand out and make people feel it’s out of place.
Inconsistent high-end upgrades – This creates more work for the buyers to make the home more cohesive and it can sometimes give the impression that your home upgrades weren’t thought out.
Invisible improvements– If it’s not something you need to be done and not something homebuyers would see or ask about, it likely will be a good deed unrecognized, save your wallet the stress.
Quirky tiling – It is pretty hard to work with tiling if it is already setting the tone of the room all on its own. Try picking tiling that can mess well with many different design tastes, homebuyers often are interested in ripping up and replacing tile right after purchase.
Too much carpeting– Carpet can age fast, wear down and get messy. It may make sense in some rooms like the bedroom but with the market changing, committing to most of the rooms with carpet is a big no-no, especially in the bathroom! Not that we should have to say this.
Bright or bold paint colors – If new buyers cannot imagine themselves in your home because you have left so many traces of your design style that they might not agree with, they are going to be less likely to see it as their dream home.
Large Gardens – Gardens are amazing, but depending on the property price range, large gardens can be expensive and time-consuming to maintain, and not easy to get rid of if the new owners don’t share your green thumb.
In a fast-moving housing market, you may conclude that you don’t need to do much to sell your homes. But, selling a home “as is” may cost you more than you know.
Your listing contract will include a clause that says the home is being conveyed “as is,” which means you’re selling the property in its current condition with no intention to make repairs or improvements. That doesn’t absolve you of responsibility to the homebuyer—you’ll still have to provide a state-mandated seller’s disclosure attesting to what you know about the home’s condition.
If the buyer includes a home inspection contingency in the sales contract, it allows them to come back and ask for repairs before closing or they can ask for a price reduction. You can refuse, and the home will go back on the market, wasting precious marketing time. In the event that the buyer intends to tear down or gut the home, the sales contract can be drafted without an inspection contingency or it can be contingent to major systems only.
There’s also a stigma to selling “as is” which means the buyer is purchasing the property sight-unseen and will likely make a much lower offer—if they make one at all. Your home could stay on the market longer than you want, leaving you obligated to manage expensive carrying costs, including the mortgage, home insurance, HOA fees, utilities and taxes.
An arm’s length sale in real estate is a transaction between an unrelated seller and buyer. In this type of transaction, each party acts independently and in their own best interests. The property is exposed on the market for a reasonable length of time and is unaffected by special financing or sales concessions. Therefore, the sale price most likely reflects the market value.
What does non-arm’s length mean in real estate?
A non-arm’s length sale in real estate is a transaction between a seller and buyer who have a connection by marriage, family, work, etc. Because of their relationship, each party may not be acting in their own best interests. Therefore, the final price may not reflect the market value of the property.
The 7 sale types in real estate
The type of sale can provide some clarity into whether the transaction was (or currently is) an arm’s length transaction, whether a comparable sale should be used, or whether an adjustment is warranted for the terms of sale for a comparable. By knowing the type of sale, you are better able to reconcile a current opinion of market value that falls above or below a current or recent transaction for the subject property.
For appraisals required to be Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) compliant, you must indicate the type of sale for the transaction. You may report any other relevant information regarding the sale type in the appraisal report, including whether more than one sale type applies.
Here are the seven valid sale types, explained in detail below:
REO sale
Short sale
Court ordered sale
Estate sale
Relocation sale
Non-arm’s length sale
Arm’s length sale
REO sale
A Real Estate Owned (REO) transaction is a sale of a home that has been foreclosed and the lender is the owner/seller of the home. The transaction is between the lender and the buyer. Usually these homes are sold “as is” and typically are priced to sell relatively quickly. Sometimes the home is in poor condition or may require extensive repairs.
Short sale
Unlike an REO or foreclosure sale, the homeowner still holds title to the property, but sells short for less than what is owed on the property. Usually, the homeowner is suffering some type of financial hardship which is preventing them from meeting the mortgage payments. The homeowner and the lender must agree to accept a shortage and must approve the sale. Sometimes these sales require extended time to negotiate with the lender and obtain approval for the sale, and there may be some additional costs or outstanding liens that need to be paid off.
Court ordered sale
A court ordered sale may be the result of a dispute among the owners, divorce, death of one of the owners, or a foreclosure where the borrower defaulted on paying the mortgage. Once the redemption period expires (if applicable), the court will issue an order directing the sale or other disposition of the property. This is the point at which the owner has lost control over the ability to sell the property. The property is sold by an official (trustee or sheriff) appointed by the court, usually to satisfy a judgment or implement another order of the court.
Estate sale
The estate is the real estate owned by a decedent at the time of his or her death. The estate is probated so that the real estate can be sold and the proceeds are distributed to the decedent’s heirs. The sale is handled by a representative (executor) named in a will and/or appointed by the probate court.
Relocation sale
Larger companies hire a relocation company to sell the property of an employee that is being transferred or moved to another state. The relocation company may buy the property at an agreed upon price with the corporate employee, then in turn sell the property to the market in an “as is” condition. Often, the property is attempted to be sold quickly, so the property may not be exposed as long as competitive properties in the market.
Non-arm’s length sale
As stated above, a non-arm’s length sale is a real estate transaction in which the seller and buyer have a connection by marriage, family, work, etc. As a result, this type of transaction’s final price may not reflect the market value of the property. Lenders and appraisers view this type of transaction as riskier because the parties involved are not necessarily acting independently of each other.
Arm’s length sale
As explained above, an arm’s length sale is defined as, “A transaction between unrelated parties who are each acting in his or her own best interest.”1 For this type of transaction, the property is exposed on the market for a reasonable length of time and payment is in cash or its equivalent. The property sold is unaffected by special or creative financing or sales concessions. This type of sale is the least risky to the lender and is most likely to be closest to market value.
What is market value?
In general, market value is defined as the most probable price a property should bring in a competitive and open market. This definition requires an arm’s length transaction with each of the parties acting in their own best interests. Additionally, it requires that the buyer and seller are not acting out of undue haste or duress and that the real property has been exposed on the market for a reasonable period of time.
Reference: The Appraisal Institute, The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal, 6th. Ed.
Cold weather won’t deter a motivated homebuyer. Corporate relocations often take place before the new year and those employees want to find a home now. Buyers want to get their children enrolled in school before the second semester begins. Homebuyers may feel they have a better chance of finding a home while their competitors nest at home until the snow melts.
You also have a timeline to sell, move, and settle into a new place, perhaps for a new job, birth of a child, up- or down-sizing, etc. Why not sell when there’s less competition from other homeowners who’re waiting to sell until spring?
There are a few things you’ll need to do to make your home attractive for cold weather shoppers:
Decorate for coziness. Some homes are at their best in the winter. Pull out your most fabulous afghans and quilts. Throw some logs on the fire, or keep the gas or electric fireplace on for showings.
Fill the home with evocative aromas. Cinnamon, cloves, and oranges boiling on the stove will stimulate pleasant memories. Use a pine or lavender-based cleanser on your floors and surfaces.
Make a place for muddy shoes. Buy a box of booties and put them next to a chair for homebuyers to put on. Taking their shoes off will make them feel welcome and more comfortable.
Keep the drive, sidewalks, and walkways cleared. Snow drifts are dangerous and could discourage homebuyers. Keep your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional informed of road conditions.
