Homeowners who want to list their home to sell, very rarely make an impulse decision to just throw a sign on the lawn and sell their home in a moments notice.

Usually the thought is in their mind many months to even a year or more before they actually list their home for sale.

Yet everyday, I meet with potential sellers who want to list their home tomorrow.  They are in a hurry.  The thought to sell has been on their mind for awhile and now it has come to fruition and they are in hyper rush mode.

But don’t call an agent two days before you want to list your home.  Call an agent when the thought to sell your home appears to be a reality, even if it is six months out.

I had 3 listings in the past year that contacted me days before wanting to list.  The funny thing is they all knew they were going to sell months and months ahead of time.

And they all tried to prepare their home on their own.

Yet, in each case they were not fully prepared to list their home.

My best home sales are typically the ones that call me in early so we can prepare the home with out pressure and extremely tight deadlines.

The Benefits of Calling Your Agent Early To List Your Home

There are certainly many benefits a listing agent can provide prior to listing your home.  An agent can:

• Help you determine if the move is viable
• Call in a home stager, if needed
• Lay out a list of what may need to be done to prepare your home
• Determine where to spend any money on improvement, if necessary
• Help by referring appropriate professionals
• Help you make the proper choices in preparing your home and help you avoid costly renovations that may cost you  more than they are worth
• Give you ample time to properly prepare your home
• Give your agent ample time to prepare marketing material for your home
• Removes doubt
• Reduce stress and anxiety by not rushing

When Should I Contact A Real Estate Agent to List My Home

You should contact a real estate agent the minute you think you are going to be selling your home.  Even if it is a several months or more away.

This is the time to choose the agent you want to work with in the sale of your home.  There is plenty of input and advise a listing agent can give pre-listing that can save you time, aggravation and even money.

Yet, so many home sellers miss the benefit of the pre-listing services a real estate agent can provide a home seller.

Know When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

For me as a listing agent there is nothing more frustrating than a home seller taking advice from reality tv, their neighbor, their mother, etc… on what needs to be done to sell their home. And, show up to find they have done all the wrong things.

I, and many of my professional counterparts across the country, practice real estate day in and day out.  We know how to sell a house and we know what it takes to make the very most of your home sale.

We know how home buyers choose homes to look at and we understand how home buyers think.  As well as we know how the local market is performing and have a good idea of how it will perform in near future.

Good listing agent know how to help you prepare a home for sale.

Understanding you don’t know what you don’t know is the first step!!

Is Your Plan to Sell A Viable Idea?

There are many reasons a home seller sells.  But the first step is to investigate if your move is viable.  A real estate agent can certainly help you with that.

Obviously if your moving for a job, or out of state for other reasons, you have to move, that is that.  But maybe your idea is to move to a better school system for your kids or a larger house for your family.

Is what you are planning viable?  Do you have the finances to make that move?  A real estate agent can help you make those decisions.

One of the things your agent can do is get you out to see a few homes in your target area to see if your move is worthwhile and you can obtain the housing goals you set out to achieve.

A Successful Home Sale is A Carefully Crafted Plan

A successful home sale, for most sellers, is getting the most money they can for their home in a reasonable amount of time.

For may sellers that does not happen overnight.  There are 3 critical component of a home sale that must fall in place to have a successful home sale.  The critical components are preparing your home, pricing your home correctly and presenting or marketing your home.

What takes time is preparing your home properly.  By contacting your agent when you first get the idea to sell your home, which is often many months before you actually stick your sign in the ground, you reduce the stress of trying to get all that work done in a short period of time.

De-cluttering your home along with removing all your personal belongings and neutralizing your decor are the first steps in preparing your home.  And, for many home sellers these are projects that don’t happen overnight.

Contacting Your Agent Early Helps Your Maximize Your Efforts

I can’t tell you how many times I have shown up to list a home and homeowners have gone on to prepare the home themselves.  Often they will spend their efforts on projects that are costly that won’t give them a pay back or just are the wrong projects to have impact.

I have had sellers paint most of their interior but picked all the wrong colors.  Your painting anyways, choose trending neutral colors to sell your home.  I even had a home seller open up a floor plan removing two much need closets and get rid of a bedroom.  Not only did it cost them time and money, it decreased the value of their home.

There have been sellers who have done costly renovations of bathrooms and kitchens that will only pay back fraction of the money they spent.  Or then the sellers who have installed central ac or a basement remodel only to discover they spent more money then they can get on those items.

But through experience, an experienced listing agent will know what projects will have impact both visually for home buyers and more importantly in your wallet!

Preparing Professional Marketing Takes Time

In this day and age of technology and the internet, slapping a few quick photos on the MLS is no longer good enough.  Many of your better agents are employing home stagers, professional real estate photographers and provideing drone photography, property videos and more to market your home.

This does not happen over night.  It takes time to pull all of this together.

More than ever, it is important to have your house fully prepared and marketed the day that you home hits the market.  The first week your home is on the market imparts the most impact for buyers and you do not want to waste that critical first week.

Reduce Stress

When you call your agent early they will help you formulate a plan that works for you to get your home on the market.  Having weeks or even months to prepare your home reduces stress by removing tight, often hard to meet deadlines.

Also you can move forward with confidence that you are doing the right things to provide maximum appeal to the home buyers in your real estate market while getting the most return on your home.

Summary

Contacting your agent when you are confident you are putting your home on the market even though it can be many months out is a smart idea.

You can get the full benefit of everything your  agent has to offer, as well as give you plenty of time to prepare your home with out the stress of impossible deadlines.

It will allow you to prepare your home with less stress and give your agent time to make sure the marketing efforts are perfect and ready to go.

Other Home Selling Resources:

• Bill Gassett  How to Choose a Real Estate Agent to List Your Home
• Paul Sian  Pick the Right Agent to Sell Your Home
• Anita Clark  Should I Renovate My Kitchen When Selling My Home
• Forbes  21 Ways to Prepare Your Home for Sale
• Luke Skar  Spring Home Selling Tips

When Should I Contact A Real Estate Agent to List My Home is provided by Kevin Vitali a Massachusetts REALTOR located in Tewksbury MA. If you would like to sell your home or buy a new home give me a call at 978-360-0422 and let’s get the process started.

Real Estate Services in the following areas: Northeast Massachusetts, Merrimack Valley, North Shore and Metrowest. Including the following communities and the surrounding area- Amesbury, Andover, Billerica, Burlington, Chelmsford, Dracut, Groveland, Haverhill, Lowell, Melrose, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, North Andover, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wakefield, Wilmington, Westford