4 Questions You Should Have Answers to before Listing Your House for Sale

When you decide to interview real estate agents to sell your house, it’s easy to focus on how much they’ll say your house is worth, and how they’ll get every dime of that for you with their marketing plan and expertise.

But there are some things agents will want to know, in order to give you the best advice on how to proceed, and be able to get you the best price possible…

Here are 4 questions you should have answers to, so that your agent can take them into consideration when customizing their advice to your situation:

1) “Why are you selling?”

People move for many different reasons, and each individual situation can impact how an agent will advise you to proceed.

For instance, someone who has recently inherited a large amount of money, and is looking to upgrade to a new home, probably doesn’t need to worry about timing as much as someone who is on the verge of foreclosure. Or, someone who is expecting a child and wants more space is likely approaching the sale of their home with a different mindset than a couple who is getting divorced.

Getting you the highest sales price possible hinges upon your agent knowing the behind-the-scenes motivation, so they can help you manage the mental and emotional aspects of selling a house.

2) “How much do you owe on your mortgage?”

The amount of money you get for your house isn’t dictated by how much you still owe on it, but it will impact the advice agents give you.

A house is only worth what ready and able buyers in the current market will pay for it, not how much you want or need to get in order to sell. Your agent will do a thorough analysis of recent sales and give you an objective opinion on how much your house should sell for, but in order to help you figure out the estimated net profits of your sale, they’ll need to know how much you still owe on your mortgage.

3) “When would you like to close on the sale of your house?”

It’s almost impossible for an agent to promise a precise date they can get your house under contract and/or closed, but having a general timeframe to work with will help them give you the best advice.

The amount of time it takes to sell a property varies from one area to another, and even from one price range to another. So, if you want to close on the sale of your house in 4 to 5 months, but houses tend to sell very quickly in your area and price range, they may advise you to wait a couple of months to list your house. On the other hand, if you need to sell as quickly as possible, and similar houses often take months to sell, they may advise you to price your house more aggressively.

4) “Are there any past or present issues with your house?”

Your agent will likely notice if you have some glaring issues that are obvious to the naked eye, but there are some issues only a person who has lived in a house could know about.

It may be tempting to keep any issues you know about to yourself, and hope that the buyer or their home inspector doesn’t catch them, but you shouldn’t try to hide anything. At some point, the person you sell your home to will live in the house and become aware of any problems you didn’t disclose, and that could come back to haunt you.

Make a list of all of the things you know are an ongoing issue, and even ones you’ve resolved, so that you can include them on the seller’s disclosure forms. But it’s also information that your agent can use to help you decide whether it makes sense to fix things before the sale, or address during the home inspection process.