How To Sell A Home In The Summertime

10 Tips For Selling A Home During The Summer

We’re still a few weeks away from the beginning of summer, which begins on June 21st this year, but it’ll be here before we know it!

If you’re thinking about selling a home during the summer, it’s extremely important to know what the top tips are.

The fact that summer is a good time to sell a home in most places.  If you put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer, would you prefer walking through piles of snow or through a driving rain, or have to deal with some hot weather?  Yup, we’ll take the hot weather as well!

In this article you’re going to find out 10 sizzling tips for selling a home during the summer!  The 10 tips discussed below are all very important to be aware of if you’re thinking about selling your home during the summer season.  Remember, waiting until the last minute to get ready to sell a home is one of the top mistakes made when selling a home.

1.) Prepare The Exterior Of The Home For The Summer

A couple of the most important areas to focus on when selling a home in any season is the exterior and the curb appeal.  A home with poor or a neglected exterior will take longer to sell and likely will sell for less than it should.

When selling a home during the summer, it’s extremely important to prepare the exterior of the home.  The exterior and curb appeal of a home can give a potential buyer a pretty good idea of what to expect in the interior of the home, so make sure it’s clean, crisp, and attractive.

In the past, we’ve discussed important spring home maintenance tips, so hopefully you’ve completed many of the tasks that should be completed when selling a home during the summer.  Below are several things to do when preparing the exterior and curb appeal of a home to prepare it for a summer sale.

1. Mow the lawn
2. Water the lawn to avoid a burnt lawn
3. Trim bushes and shrubs
4. Water the plants to avoid dead plants
5. Weed and mulch the flower beds
6. Touch up any exterior peeling paint
7. Paint and/or clean up the front door
8. Seal the driveway

These are just some of the most important things to do when preparing the exterior of a home for a summer sale.  There are tons of other sizzling ways to boost the curb appeal of a home!

2.) Highlight Outdoor Living Space

Highlight Outdoor Living Space When Selling A Home During The Summer

Since we’re discussing the exterior of a home, another excellent tip for selling a home during the summer is to focus on the outdoor living space.  In many areas of the country, summer is a fairly short season, so many buyers spend as much time outside enjoying the weather as possible during the summer.

Many buyers put a premium on a great outdoor living space so highlighting the outdoor space is a great way to impress potential buyers.  One of the best staging tips is to help buyers envision themselves spending time relaxing outside.

If you’re home has an incredible outdoor BBQ or a large concrete patio, make sure it’s staged!  Showcasing to a buyer how amazing a homes outdoor living space is for entertaining friends and family will have buyers lining up with a purchase offer in hand.

3.) Address Necessary Repairs Prior To Listing

One of the quickest ways to scare away potential home buyers is by not addressing necessary repairs.  For example, if a home has a very old roof with visible damage, not addressing this prior to listing will likely result in the owner potentially losing out on a fair amount of money from their sale.

Whether a home is sold during the summer or any other season, another very important tip is to make the necessary repairs prior to listing the home for sale.  Homeowners who complete repairs prior to listing their home not only will likely end up with a higher sale price, but also reduce the chances that a buyer will request a lot of repairs be made after a home inspection.

A few examples of common “necessary” repairs to be on the lookout for include broken windows, peeling or damaged siding, and damaged roofs.  It’s important when selling a home during the summer that a buyer is not distracted by repairs that have been neglected but is focusing on all the positives a home has.

4.) Keep The Home Cool

One of the most important tips for selling a home during the summer is to make sure to keep the home cool, at least while the home is being looked at by potential buyers.  If your home is not equipped with a central air conditioning unit, it’s still important to focus on keeping your home cool.

Alternative ways to keep a home cool without central air conditioning include installing window air conditioners, turning on ceiling fans, keeping lights off and blinds drawn prior to showings, and placing floor fans around the home.

If your home is equipped with central AC, make sure it’s performing efficiently and has been serviced recently by a professional HVAC technician.  One of the biggest reasons to have a home inspection is to ensure the homes HVAC systems are working properly, so if a homes central AC unit isn’t, it’s another potential red flag for a buyer.

5.) Depersonalize & Declutter The Home

When selling a home during the summer, another simple but effective tip, is to depersonalize and declutter the home.  Home sellers who actually take action and follow this tip will give themselves an advantage over sellers who decide it’s not important.

Clean Up Clutter & Remove Personal Items When Selling A Home During The Summer

A home that has personal effects all over the place, such as family portraits or a report card on the fridge, provide another opportunity for a buyer to be distracted from viewing the home.  Some buyers get distracted easily and will be more interested in seeing what the owners family looks like rather then looking at the features of the home.  Not only is depersonalizing a home a way to avoid distracting a buyer but it’s also a great safety tip to follow when selling a home.

As for decluttering a home, regardless of the season, it’s highly recommended.  When selling a home during the summer, take the time to walk through your home and evaluate what you actually need to live comfortably while selling your home.  If you believe you can live without something while selling your home, consider moving it into a storage unit or into the basement or garage.  Decluttering a home is one of the best tips for staging a home on a budget.

6.) Stage The Home To Reflect The Summer Season

First and foremost, staging a home alone will not sell it.  There are some professionals who convince home sellers that staging is absolutely necessary to sell their home and it’s simply not true.  In fact, many sellers will hire an agent solely because they have a staging “designation,” which is one of the worst mistakes made when choosing a real estate agent to sell a home.

Staging certainly can enhance the appearance of a home though, which can make a positive impact on a sellers bottom line, as long as the cost to do so doesn’t outweigh the potential return on the investment.

An excellent opportunity for home sellers who’re selling their home during the summer is to stage it to reflect the season.  Summer staging tips such as placing bright flowers on a dining room table, planting bright flowers in a window box, and having summer scented candles are all relatively simple and cheap, but can make a home stand out!

7.) Hire A Top Selling Real Estate Professional

There are dozens of reasons why choosing a top real estate agent when selling a home is vital to the success of the sale.  In most real estate markets across the world, there are thousands of agents to choose from.  Choosing the wrong real estate agent can be the kiss of death for a home seller (and buyer).

Hire A Top Real Estate Agent When Selling A Home During The Summer

When selling a home during the summer, or actually any season, having a top agent in your corner cannot be understated.  Knowing how to interview real estate agents when selling a home is a skill that must be learned because asking or not asking the right questions can be the difference of making the right choice.

What are some of the most important things to ask real estate agents and to consider when selling a home during the summer?  Below are just 5 of the most important!

1. What real estate marketing strategies actually sell homes?
2. Do you use those marketing strategies?
3. What methods do you use to determine what price to recommend to your sellers?
4. What is your list price to sale price ratio?
5. On average, how long do your listings take to sell?

One key takeaway when choosing a real estate agent to sell a home is that not all agents are the same.  Even real estate agents who work for the same company, are not the same.  Each real estate agent uses different techniques to price a home and market a home, among other things, so choose carefully!

8.) Strongly Consider Having A Pre-Listing Inspection

Before listing a home for sale during the summer, another great tip is to strongly consider a pre-listing home inspection.  There are many benefits of a pre-listing home inspection, one of the most important being that it can reduce the chances of a buyer being scared away after completing their own inspection.

If you’re unsure whether a pre-listing inspection is a good idea or not, an experienced real estate agent can help you evaluate whether it would be money well spent or not.  In the majority of cases, having a pre-listing inspection is well worth the cost because even newer built homes can have issues that the owner is not aware of.

9.) Price The Home Right…From The Beginning!

Generally speaking, there are 2 major factors as to whether a home sellers or not.  The first major factor is that the home is getting enough exposure and being marketed correctly, which should be taken care of by hiring a top real estate agent.  The other major factor is whether the price of the home is right or wrong.

An extremely important tip to keep in mind when selling a home during the summer is that the home must be priced right, from the beginning.  One of the worst real estate pricing mistakes made is overpricing a home to leave room for negotiation.  Pricing a home incorrectly, for whatever reason, often results in a seller actually taking less for their home than if they were to price it correctly from the start.

How is it possible that if a home is priced incorrectly that a seller will actually sell their home for less than if they were to price correctly from the beginning?  

Simply, an overpriced home generally will sit on the market until the sellers decide to reduce the price to an acceptable market value, which sometimes can take several months.  When a home sits on the market for an extended period of time, buyers begin to wonder if there is something wrong with the home, which typically results in them not making an offer or submitting a low ball offer.

How can you be sure that you’re pricing the home right, from the beginning?

There is also a simple solution to this question.  An experienced real estate professional will provide a seller with a pricing recommendation, typically generated by completing a comparative market analysis, frequently referred to as a CMA.  A CMA is an analysis of one home to other similar homes that have been sold within the past 6-12 months.  An experienced agent will know how to make adjustments, both positive and negative, for features that the subject property may or may not have when comparing to the similar homes that have recently sold.

The bottom line of this important tip for selling a home during the summer is to make sure it’s priced correctly, from the beginning.  There are very few (or zero) home sellers who want to leave money on the table because they overpriced their home.

10.) Get Ready For Showings

This last tip for selling a home during the summer is certainly not the least in importance.  A seller to this point has maneuvered through the process of getting their home ready for the market, hiring a top agent, and pricing their home correctly, the last thing they want to do is not prepare their home for showings.

Home sellers are often not educated enough on how to prepare a home for showings when selling.  A home that is not prepared for a showing can be spotted from a million miles away.

There are lots of great tips for preparing a home for showings when selling during the summer.  Below are a few tips to consider while preparing a home for showings during a summer home sale.

1. Put out a refreshing beverage for potential buyers, such as lemonade, iced tea, or cold water
2. Turn on all lights
3. Open blinds to let natural light in
4. Set the thermostat to a comfortable temperature
5. Clean up after your children and/or pets

Final Thoughts

Summertime is an excellent time to be selling a home, if the proper tips are followed.  The above 10 tips for selling a home during the summer all will make a difference in respects to the amount a home sells for and the time it takes to sell.

Since the summer in many areas of the world are relatively short and people are busy enjoying the weather or vacationing, it’s important to that home sellers put their best foot forward from the beginning.  Most home sellers don’t want to spend their entire summer attempting to sell their home, so completing the right pre-listing tasks and also tasks during the actual listing period can save lots of frustration and time!