Buyers and sellers are feeling the uncertainty in the housing market. With rising interest rates and a slower selling pace, it may seem overwhelming. If you are planning to both sell your home and buy a new one, the current environment may be even more frustrating. Where do you start? Sell first? Buy first? The good news is with the right strategy, you can take the risk out of this kind of move by working with your agent and utilizing contingencies.

There are several good reasons for homeowners to make themselves scarce when potential buyers come to view their house. While one motivation is avoiding problematic comments, there are other benefits to giving prospective buyers space during showings.

When listing your home for sale, the most important consideration is how to get the most attention from potential buyers. It’s simple, the more buyers interested in your home the better. You have already considered how to build curb appeal and stage the home for marketing and home visits, but have you prepared your home for buyers who may wish to use FHA financing?

After all the hard work it takes to ready a home for sale, it can be so discouraging to find the first offer you get is a lowball offer. Regardless of the market, there are buyers who write offers 10%, 20%, even 30% below list price. While most of these offers are just “throw-aways,” it’s still possible to turn it into a successful sale.

Selling a home can be an emotional experience. As the seller, you want to make sure that the buyer loves the home as much as you do and will take care of it. In other words, you’re looking for the perfect buyer with the perfect offer. Home buyers understand this, and in the recent seller’s market, some buyers have written heartfelt letters to the sellers about how much they love the home, hoping it will tip the scales in their direction. But as a seller, making decisions based on these “love letters” could cause problems, leaving us with the question, “should you read them?”

Preparing for the home appraisal is always an important step when selling your home. In a declining market, it becomes critical. When home prices are rising or steady, one can expect the comps (comparable properties) will justify the sales price you negotiated. When prices are falling, this becomes less sure. Since appraisers use the most recent closed sales in their comparisons, a new sale with a lower price can affect the value of your home.

When you hire a Realtor as a seller, you should have high expectations. Most agents offer strong and vigorous representation. Here are a few things to ask yourself when you’ve listed your home for sale with an agent. Ask yourself: Is my agent properly marketing my home for sale…

The minute you list your home, everyone will want to know why. You will hear from your neighbors, family members, and friends. Of course, there is no harm in speaking freely with family and friends but be careful what you tell your neighbors and especially the buyers and their agents who visit your listing.

One of the most common questions from home sellers is, “do I really need to put my family pictures away”? The short answer is “yes,” but maybe not for the reasons you assume. The general principle is that buyers need to be able to visualize their own lives in the home in order to buy the house. There is nothing new about this, but in this complicated age of security challenges, there are also safety reasons to remove your items before showings.

The real estate market is shifting. In some areas of the country, it has flipped to a strong buyer’s market. Sellers challenged by this change are looking for creative ways to attract buyers. In addition, buyers suddenly in the driver’s seat are asking for more concessions from sellers than ever before.

Seller concessions are a useful tool in real estate. Used correctly, it can benefit both buyer and seller.

Sellers all over the country are confused and worried they may have missed the best time to sell their home. Prices are dropping, mortgage rates are rising, and the pace has slowed but the impact on any individual seller is unclear.

While the days of any home selling for any price are behind us, the current housing market is still strong.

Over the past few years, most of the US has been in a strong seller’s market. Historically-low interest rates coupled with rising incomes resulted in buyers who were ready and able to buy a new home. It was a crazy time when sellers needed to do little more than put a sign in the yard to attract multiple offers.

The most important aspect of listing your home for sale is the asking price. Unlike many other items we purchase, home prices are based on what a willing and able buyer would pay for the property. Sounds complicated, right? This is why real estate agents bring comps (short for comparable properties) information with them to the discussion. Yet are you using the right comps to successfully sell your home?

Many times, sellers make quick decisions and hope for the best, even as home prices continue to climb.

This is where a kick-out clause can help.

A kick-out clause allows a seller to continue to market the home for sale after accepting a buyer’s offer with contingencies. It also outlines the conditions under which a seller can cancel, or kick-out, the contract if they get a better offer.

Even a vacant home needs attention before it’s ready for showing. The key is to remove anything that would distract from a buyer seeing the home in its best light and highlight its best features.

While certainly it’s important to find an agent you can communicate with, the right agent brings more than a pleasant demeanor to the transaction and it’s critical to choose the right one.

Decorating with plants takes more strategy than adding a pretty pot to a coffee table. Here are a few tips for incorporating plants into the design scheme that home stagers use to make a home more appealing.

One of the most common reasons for a home sale to fall through is the presence of property liens. Often the sellers are not even aware they have a lien on their home and the delay caused by having them removed can cause a qualified buyer to look elsewhere.

When you first list your home for sale, the goal is to see an offer or two from a highly qualified buyer quickly. Unfortunately, sometimes days and weeks go by without much interest. When this happens, it may be time to reevaluate the listing and cancel the listing. Here are 6 signs that it’s time to take your house off the market.