When you contemplate selling your home, you’ll receive many tips and advice.  As a real estate broker-sales associate in town, let me give you a Home Seller Pledge to keep handy to help spell success.

5 TIPS FOR WEST ORANGE NJ AREA HOME SELLERS

1.  Knock Down Tax Barriers.

Buyers are concerned with the total monthly mortgage payment. In West Orange, many of our taxes are more than $10,000, which inflates the monthly payment. Before lowering your list price to account for the taxes, like many real estate agents suggest, focus on making your property more affordable on a monthly basis.

If you reduce your $400,000 house to $375,000, you’ve cut out $25,000 for you but only about $150 a month for the buyer. Every $1,000 increase in mortgage, on average, costs about $6 more a month. Now, if your taxes are $15,000 a year, and you offer a $6,000 tax credit for 3 years, you will reduce your proceeds by $18,000. The buyer, though, will save a whopping $500 a month off the mortgage payment. Figure that a $15,000 annual tax adds $1,250 a month, whereas $9,000 adds just $750. Hopefully when the credit wears off the market will show signs of building equity again. As homes appreciate in value, the taxes won’t feel as daunting. This only works if your asking price is in the right range. My partner Bob and I always think outside of the box and that is what makes a difference when there are more homes than buyers.  

2.  Make Today’s Style, Your Style.

The goal is to entice the most buyers possible to consider your home as the place to be. Check if your style does that by asking a real estate agent with staging expertise or your pickiest, stylish friends to come by and give their opinion. This is when you have to throw your ego out the door. You’re no longer looking at how the house makes you feel; you only care about how it makes potential buyers feel. Know your target look before you start packing so you know what to box.   

3. Make the Box Your Friend.

Many owners refuse to pack a box until an offer comes in, but packing before you put your house on the market saves you time and helps you get the best price possible. Pack items like highly personal things and last season’s clothes. Your house will be clutter-free and people will actually admire the home’s features and appeal instead of the family pictures and extra toys. Before you box, do a garage/estate sale; donate to friends, services, and online friends and groups. Don’t just buy boxes, get free ones from all those being thrown away by schools, stores and Freecycle. Also check Craig’s List, local sites like WestOrangeNJ.net or with your real estate agent. Bob and I sometimes pick up boxes from our clients after they’ve moved to recycle them for another client. We collect boxes from Freecycle, too.  Store your boxes and extra furniture in a PODS storage system or neatly use your garage, shed or basement.  

4. Take What the Town Offers.

In West Orange, use the free mulch from the dump to spruce up your landscape. Call your town to see if they have any extra little trees or plantings for you to plant in your yard. Our neighbor did that a couple of years ago. Check out the county recycling days and use the bulk trash days, if available in your town. Take advantage of this and trash the things you can’t sell or donate, and don’t need. It’s better to trash it now than to pay to have it moved only to trash it later. Or to lose money on your home because a potential able and ready buyer says she can’t see the possibilities through the clutter.

5. See if a Short Sale Can Help.

If you owe more on your home than what it’s worth today and finding it difficult to make the payments see if a short sale can work before you risk completing the foreclosure or Sheriff Sale process. Of course, try a loan modification first if you can. Many people are in this situation now and many more will be in this position when negative amortizations begin re-setting.

A short sale is a real estate transaction where the outstanding loan balance on the home exceeds the current market value, and you’re able to negotiate with the bank to accept less than what is owed. Bob and I just started to really hear the words ‘short sale’ around here in 2008. Now, it’s part of everyday life.

There’s more to selling a property (not your home) than putting a sign out front. Make the Home Seller Pledge and keep these 5 tips for selling in Northern New Jersey handy. Contact us to activate your pledge today.