The median price of a house sold today in the United States hovers around $300,000. That figure represents what the average family is looking to spend when relocating and is in line with the more careful spending going on in today’s stunted economy.
What if you’re trying to sell a house that’s worth well over $300,000 though? What if your property is worth millions?
In that case, you have a luxury home on your hands and are going to need to look at the sales process in a different light if you intend to get top dollar. Below, our team walks you through a handful of tips you may want to lean on to maximize your luxury home’s value to buyers.
1. Sell in an up Market
It’s exceedingly hard to get a full asking price on a house if you’re selling in a down market. That’s because the buyer pool reduces significantly when the market is slumped which means low demand and low bids.
If you can afford to wait for economic recovery when selling your house, do it. By waiting even just a year for consumer confidence to bolster, you may be able to drive an extra $100,000+ on your home’s price tag.
2. Work With a Luxury Experienced Agent
When you’re selling a luxury home, you don’t want to work with just any real estate agent. You want to work with an agent whose bread and butter is selling luxury homes.
The reason why it’s important to work with a luxury experienced agent is that these agents know buying agents and buyers in your market that have an interest in purchasing the kinds of properties you’re selling. That can make drumming up leads much easier than when working with somebody that doesn’t know luxury buyers and will need to drum up leads from scratch.
3. Get Your House Staged
When people are going to spend millions of dollars on a home, they need to buy into the vision of what that home could be. Rather than making people imagine your house’s potential, spend a little bit of money to get your home professionally staged.
A home stager comes in and furnishes a house with high-end pieces for the purpose of showing it off in its best light. You’d be shocked by how much additional interest a well-staged house can attract.
Can’t afford to stage your home? Consider having digital renderings done of your home where it’s artificially staged. These images can then be distributed on your house’s website, brochures, etc.
4. Invest in Professional Quality Photos
Today, the first point of contact people will have with your property will be through media (digital and print). The most important aspect of that collateral will be your home’s photos.
Nobody is going to waste their time coming to an open house if they’re not moved by the photos they’ve seen of the property. Hence the reason why investing in a professional photographer is such an integral step in the luxury home selling process.
When it comes to taking pictures, lean on quality over quantity and be sure to capture at least one exterior night shot of your home lit up as these photos tend to attract a lot of attention, particularly from the luxury buyers.
5. Make Most Viewings Private
Selling a luxury home means selling a home that the vast majority of home buyers can’t afford. To makes sure that unqualified buyers don’t waste your resources, consider keeping most open house events restricted to appointment-only.
Appointment-only open houses will give the feeling of exclusivity to those that go through the trouble of booking a viewing. Appointments may also intimidate unqualified buyers out of inquiring about your property just for curiosity’s sake.
You can have one or two public open house events to drum up general buzz about your property if you can afford to do so.
6. Reach Out to the Community
We’ve seen time and again members of a home’s community show interest in buying. It may be that your house’s neighbors have been admiring your property for years and are enticed by jumping at the opportunity of owning it. It may be that you have very affluent neighbors that want to control who moves in nearby.
Whatever the inspiration is for your neighbors showing interest in your house, show them their interest is appreciated by having a private showing of the home just for them.
Send them invitations, cater food to the event, and let locals have a look around. You never know if you’ll be able to get an offer from them or somebody they know.
7. Check With Investors
Selling luxury homes to “sell my house fast” investors that pay all-cash rarely nets you a great sale price. That’s because these transactions favor convenience more than maximizing money.
The beauty of selling homes to investors though is that they make quick, no strings attached offers for free. Because of that, it never hurts to ask how much they might be willing to offer.
Creativity and Networking Will Get Your Luxury Home Sold for Top Dollar
A luxury home takes additional leg work to sell versus a home that’s meant for the general market. If you have a great agent though and get creative when marketing, rest assured you can part ways with your house at a price that makes sense.
We hope your selling a luxury home process goes smoothly and welcome you to read more content on our blog for additional guidance.
