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Selling your ​Sebastopol home is the kind of major undertaking that has so many facets just deciding where to start can delay liftoff. Since there is no actual “right” place to begin, like other mammoth projects, just digging in anywhere will do. The happy truth is that when you’re selling a home, once momentum gets going, the rest of the pieces tend to fall into place.

To get the ball rolling, here is a pre-sale checklist of major activities that selling your Sebastopol home will entail. To get started, pick any one:

• Nagging problem elimination. Very few of us attend to every home maintenance problem as they gradually develop. If there were a reliable poll on the subject, I’d guess that 95% of Sebastopol homeowners have at least a two or three areas that we’ve learned to live with—but which will need to be attended to before we get very far toward selling our home. Identifying them is a pre-sale first step…then fixing them is the action item that transforms the idea of selling your home into reality.
• First impression inspection. Any time you return from an outing you have the opportunity to get started on what will become your marketing approach. Do this by stopping and seeing what kind of first impression your property makes on someone setting eyes on it for the first time. What seems least fresh and appealing? Is it fencing that could use a quick coat of paint? A planter that needs colorful blossoms? The numerals on the mailbox? Selling your home starts with favorable first impressions.
• Lights! Camera! Action! An essential element to get prospective buyers clamoring for a tour is the photography that highlights your Sebastopol listing. To start preparing for that, pick a room—any room—and stage it: clear it of unneeded objects, furniture, etc (to see a complete staging tip list click this link). This will entail figuring out where to store the objects that you want to keep, but which clutter up the visual appeal…and once you’ve identified where they will be stored, you’re seriously on your way to selling your home.
• Getting down to business. Educating yourself about the competition means taking a look at this spring’s area listings to get a feel for where the market is. Which comparable homes have just sold, and which haven’t moved for months? Your home may not be ready for market for a while, but the earlier you start familiarizing yourself with today’s local real estate market, you better the odds that your listing price will be right.
• Exit strategy. (Our favorite of all) Be prepared to move! Any action you take in this direction, be it checking out reliable moving companies or beginning the hunt for your next house makes selling your home that much less of a long shot.

Each of these is a step that begins to transform the idea of selling your Sebastopol home from a looming cloud of uncertainty into a doable certainty. We didn’t even mention the easiest and surest pre-sale checklist item. It’s one certain to get the ball rolling:

Call us!

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