A Look Back At Our First Year

The first “Smart Selling” column appeared a year ago this week, and we thought this would be a good time to summarize. 

Smart Selling: A New Way of Thinking
Smart Selling is a new approach to selling your house successfully in any market. It’s based on the seller’s leadership, teamwork and taking the right steps in the selling process, in the right order. Everything we’ve written about has been inspired by our experiences working with home sellers, buyers and their REALTOR®s. Over the years we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, and we began the column to share the information with you. You might have found that some of our key ideas were a complete departure from the way things have always been done!

Here are the three main areas we’ve covered, with a sampling of the topics:

How to be a Smart Seller

•  Selling is a High Stakes Competition
• Taking the Right Steps in the Right Order
•  Smart Selling is a Team Effort
  

How to Prepare Your House for Sale

•  Evaluating the Condition of Your House-Repairs
•  Evaluating the Condition of Your House-Cosmetics
•  Managing Your Belongings-Part I
  

How to Price and Market Your House

• A High Listing Price Could Be the Wrong Price
• Avoidable Selling Mistakes
• Is Your House Picture Perfect?
  

First Year Highlights

• Over 90% of buyers will see your house first on-line. Effective pictures are your most important marketing tools.
• Have the house picture perfect before anyone sees it, including the REALTOR®.
•  Price it right from the beginning to make the most of the first 30 days on the market.
  

“Why Your House Isn’t Selling” Course at Blue Ridge Community College
This Spring we taught a three-part course at Blue Ridge Community College, “Why Your House Isn’t Selling and What You Can Do”. We’ll be repeating the course for the Fall 2010 semester, and details will be in the Continuing Education Schedule that BRCC will make available in late July or early August. If you’re selling your house, or thinking about it, plan to come. We’ll show you how to be a Smart Seller, in any market.

Contact Us!
This column is for you. Please contact us with any questions, comments or requests for topics to cover.

Smart Selling Tip:

The back issues of the Smart Selling column are on the Sterling Property Services web site (http://www.sterlingpropertyservice.com/staging-redesign/smart-selling).