11 Insider Home-Selling Drama-Free Secrets!

The joys and horrors of home selling

Are you planning to sell your Waukesha home? If you are, you’ve probably heard some, if not many, of the joys and horrors of home-selling. If this is not your first rodeo, you may already know what to expect.

But if this is your first experience, brace yourself! Home-selling is like a roller coaster ride, with plenty of highs and lows, at least for the part of many sellers. The emotional anxiety is real, and it doesn’t really end until both seller and buyer meet on the closing table.

Fortunately, there are ways you can minimize, if not avoid, the drama and emotional stress that come with selling your house. Admittedly, some level of stress will always be present, but if you follow the tips and techniques I’ll be sharing with you, your stress will be at low to a manageable level.

Here’s some things you can do:

1.  Establish your why’s. One of the best ways to avoid the drama and emotional anxiety some sellers feel during the selling process is to have a clear reason why you’re putting your Waukesha house on the market. 

Are you upsizing or downsizing? Is it because of career change? Could be it because of divorce or the loss of a loved one?

Know your why’s. Write them down. When the going gets tough, revisit your why’s. They will help you stop second guessing your decision to sell.

2. Set your expectations. Having the right mindset can really help get over the drama of home selling before it even began.

Accept that you cannot control the timeline. Sometimes the selling process takes longer than what you want.

It can be easy to get frustrated when your house hasn’t sold after four months, despite you and your seller’s agent doing the right things and marketing the house correctly.  

In cases like this, just remember that the buyers are being subjected to different homes for sale, and they are taking their own sweet time deciding which one to buy.

3. Detach yourself emotionally from the house. One of the many difficult challenges you face as a seller is to detach emotionally from the house. It has a lot of memories, and you’ve formed a certain attachment to it.

It could also be that you’ve made upgrades in the house that makes you fond of it, which makes it difficult to hear buyers criticizing the home.

But if from the onset of the home-selling journey, you’ve established that you will not take buyers’ comments personally, you can easily overlook the harsh comments and focus on improving the areas that got negative feedback.

4. Price it right. Another source of home-selling drama is when you overprice a house.

It could be because you think the improvements you made boosted its value, or you’re simply too prideful to accept that your home’s worth is not as high as you think. In any case, overpriced homes rarely sell. Most often, they stay on the market for a long time until they get stale.

5. Find the best Realtor®. Do you want a buffer from the challenges and stress of home-selling? Hire the best local real estate agent! 

Getting the help of an experienced and professional agent means you’ll have someone to help you set the right price for the home, give advice on what repairs and updates to make, market your property, suggest best contractors for any works to be done, take care of home showings, help in negotiations, the list goes on.

Having the help of the best real estate agent in Waukesha who has been professionally selling homes for years means less mistakes, efficiency in handling things, and having someone answer any of your home selling questions. While selling your home without a realtor is possible, it is not the way to go if you want your home-selling journey to be stress-free. 

6. Know the local real estate market. You don’t need to have an extensive knowledge of the local market to know what kind of market is prevailing. Is it a seller’s market, a buyer’s market, or a neutral market?

When you know what kind of market you’re in, you can adjust your list price accordingly. That way, you don’t shoot the price too high that it will be overlooked by buyers.

7. Require a pre-approval. It can be really stressful to wait for a good offer, only to have that offer fall through because the buyer’s budget was way lower than your home’s listing price. To avoid this situation, choose offers from buyers who already have pre-approvals.

A pre-approval is proof that the buyer has met the guidelines for a lender’s mortgage plan, and the buyer is good for the amount stated on the letter. This way, you can be sure that the buyer is serious in his offer and has the means of paying for the price.

8. Get to know your competition. How can you battle an enemy you don’t know? If you want to be better prepared over the rest of the competition, you need to at least have an idea what their strengths and weaknesses are.

One of the agonies of home selling is the waiting part. Waiting for the potential buyer to visit for home showing, waiting for the offer. Waiting can cause undue stress.

But if you’ve checked out your competition and upped your home’s repair and updates, and you know that your price point is fair, then you have one less things to worry about knowing that your home offers the best deal in the neighborhood.

9. Stalled listing? Amp up your marketing! When your home has been listed for almost three months and you still haven’t received any offers, you’re probably sinking fast in stress and worry.

What to do? It’s time to reconsider your marketing! Generate interest by price reduction, re-marketing, and marketing beyond the MLS. This way, it will be much easier for prospective buyers who are looking for Waukesha homes for sale to notice your property. 

10. Be flexible. Selling a home requires flexibility, being able to adjust to what is needed.

It means adjusting to the buyer’s time frame and not closing your doors on lower than market price listings. It means dropping your price when there’s heavy competition. It means knowing when to negotiate so that the outcome is fair to both parties.

Keep in mind that there are many variables at play in a selling process, so learn to go with the flow.

11. Keep the house tidy. You never know when a buyer’s gonna show up, so keep the house clean.

This is a challenge especially if you’re still living in the house and have small kids, so allot a certain amount of time each day purely for maintenance and clean up.  

At this stage of the home selling process, I’m assuming that you’ve already packed most of your things, cleaned the house, and staged it. All you’ve got to do is to maintain it so it can be ready for showing anytime.

Follow these tips and you’ll sell your Waukesha home drama-free.