5 Tips for Selling Your House in Seattle

Selling a home can be an overwhelming prospect, whether it is your first time or third time in the Seattle area. 

It signifies taking another step up the property ownership ladder, and there are plenty of great homes to choose from in Seattle. Yet you want to make sure you can secure the best sales price for your beloved home. This way, you bolster your purchasing power as you get ready to upgrade or relocate. 

While some parts of staging a home make sense, other tips go a long way in the Seattle real estate market. If you plan to sell your Seattle home, the team at Prevu Real Estate share some quick tips to help you set the perfect stage for your home.

Tips for selling your house in Seattle

• Be competitive with your pricing
• Partner with an experienced listing agent
• Set the stage by depersonalizing
• Spruce up the exterior
• Get creative with closing costs

Be competitive with your pricing 

Everyone has different goals when they list their home, but pricing requires precision no matter what. And if it is a home you invested time and love in, that makes pricing an even taller order when it’s time to sell. 

But you have to remember that your time in this house is unique to you, and you are ready to create new memories. That is why you should be competitive with the market when choosing a listing price. Consider what kind of house you have, how popular your neighborhood is, and what buyers recently paid for other homes in the area. 

Prices have gone up over the past few years, and bidding wars over low inventory played a part in driving the market. Yet as the Federal Reserve has begun to raise interest rates, lenders are bringing up the cost of borrowing. Use this as a guide for your listing, and price it accordingly to sell. 

List it too high, and you might wait for a buyer able to finance the purchase amid higher mortgage rates. But if you price it too low, you can leave money on the table. You have to consider the price point buyers in the area are working with, asking yourself if the extra $25,000 or $50,000 you are asking for will make or break your deal. 

Luckily, you can partner with a local expert to help you price and set your home up for a sale. 

Partner with an experienced listing agent 

Deciding to sell your home is hard enough, but managing the sales process alone might push you to take down that for sale sign. 

From organizing open houses to navigating negotiations, there are a lot of moving pieces involved in selling a home. That is why you want to find a real estate agent to help guide you through selling your home. But you do not want to just work with the first agent you meet. 

Shopping around with the right set of questions about selling is vital. Ask potential agents about their experience selling homes across Seattle and think about their responses around their marketing plan. Can they explain their prior deals and educate you on the selling process? If so, they might be right for you. 

Your listing agent can help figure out pricing, using historical data and current sales in your area to create the best listing price for your dwelling. The agent can then court potential buyers and help deliver the best and highest offers on your property. 

And in that all-important final mile, your agent will be your trusted advisor to secure a deal for you. As you interview agents, ask if they are flexible with their commission structure. Fees are not set in stone, and if you can negotiate the rate down, you can really save.

Yet one of the most important things your agent can help with is making sure your home is ready to sell, which starts with staging. 

Set the stage by depersonalizing

As you get ready to list your home, one of the essential parts of the process is creating a blank canvas for buyers. 

While you've worked hard to collect all of those Funko Pops from the Marvel movies, would you want to buy a home where you can't layer your imagination into the rooms and halls of the property? That is why you have to take some time to declutter and tidy up the mementos and depersonalize the home. 

This task is easier said than done, and that is where an agent can come in. An unbiased eye can help you clean up the house and advise how to best orient the room. Usually, most buyers focus on the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms. 

In the kitchen, keep the counters free of appliances and kitschy cookware. In the living room, make sure to extoll the size of the room and brighten it up. For the bedroom, remove any photos from dressers or shelves, inviting would-be buyers to picture their life in the home. 

While you're going through this process, make sure to fix up any issues you find like loose tiles, squeaky doors, jiggling door handles, and water fixtures with an ongoing leak. You don't want to put all the effort into fixing up the kitchen to have the din ruined by a consistent drip from the faucet. 

Spruce up the exterior 

Curb appeal is an integral part of staging your home. There is a unique charm in the Pacific Northwest, and it is apparent in the Seattle suburbs. 

Many homes in the area are set back from the street, with a lovely lawn and pine trees flanking the edges of the property. Some lucky few even have waterfront homes on Puget Sound or Lake Washington, adding an extra layer of beauty to the house. 

To maximize the impact when buyers pull up, you will want to make sure the property is in peak condition. Edge up the lawn, plant new flowers, and lay down fresh mulch. Even giving hedges and bushes a trim can go a long way when selling your home. 

Once the yard is clean, turn to the house and consider getting the siding power washed. If you have a wooden porch, consider sprucing up the boards with a fresh coat of deck sealer or treating it with a power washer. The powerful water jet can even help clean tire tread marks off a driveway to enliven the yard. 

Get creative with closing costs 

All of the other tips consider the physical state of your property, but there are ways to woo buyers beyond touching up the home. 

Buyers must consider expensive loan origination fees, survey, and inspection fees. But you can use this to your advantage and offer to cover certain closing costs, attracting qualified buyers. 

If you work with a listing agent that is flexible with their commission, you can increase your savings by reducing the largest closing cost for sellers in Seattle.

Interested in selling your house in Seattle? Discover how Prevu Real Estate can save you thousands in commission.