The Definitive Resource On How To Sell A House

I have finally compiled a single blog post that is loaded with tons of information on how to sell a house.

In fact, this is one of the longest posts that I have ever produced, so don't expect to ingest the whole meal in one sitting. But I promise you this, you will not find a better resource on how to sell a house.

I recommend that you bookmark this page (and share this article with your friends) if you really want to be an authority on how to sell a house.

This has been a long-time coming, but I suspect there is a niche of analytical homeowners who want to know everything there is to know about how to sell a house, so here's a compilation of what I have gathered over the past 22 years selling real estate in Tallahassee, Florida.

Top 51 Articles On How To Sell A House

Over the past five years, I have written some popular articles on how to sell a house, and below are listed the ones that received the most traffic. In fact, each of the articles below have been viewed 50,000 times or more, and they continue to receive steady traffic today.

For each bullet point below, you'll find a basic description and a link to the full article (simply click on the underlined words and your browser will be directed to the corresponding article).

If you take the time to read each of these included articles, you will have an incredibly rich foundation from which you can make the best decisions when it comes time to sell your home.

  • How To Sell A House In A Buyers MarketWhy Real Estate Is Always A Sellers’ Market - It is always a sellers’ market in real estate, and it is important to know this whether you are buying or selling real estate. This is a fact that is often missed by people who want to buy a home, as well as by sellers who want to sell a house. Here's how home owners can use this information to their advantage.
  • Why the traditional home selling plan no longer works - With roughly 60% of the homes on the market failing to sell over the past 5 years, it is obvious that most home selling plans are not effective.
  • Selling A Home On The Internet - The internet has changed the way that homes are sold, and many real estate professionals are not even aware of these fantastic changes. If you happen to be thinking about selling a home sometime soon, this article will show you how the real estate world has changed, why you should understand about selling a home on the internet, and give you some food for thought before you begin the process of interviewing agents for the job of selling your home.
  • How to sell your home even if your neighbors are giving theirs away - One thing that home sellers really want to know right now is how they can sell a home without giving it away … in a market loaded with distressed properties for sale. 

We will sell your house in 4 to 14 days ... ask us to show you how!

Planning To Sell Your HouseThe National Association of REALTORS conducted a survey and found that 72% of home sellers hired the first agent they interviewed.

Maybe that is why so many sellers fail to sell on their first attempt, or even worse, sell their home for less than they would get had they used a progressive home selling plan. It doesn't have to be that hard, and you don't have to give your home away either! Let us help.

Tell us who you are, we'll reach out to you to set up a time to simply talk about the sale of your home. No strings attached, use Joe Manausa Real Estate to start your home selling preparation, you'll be glad you did!

  • How To Sell Your Home In 4 To 14 Days - You should plan to sell your home in 4 to 14 days, or you are crazy to enter today’s real estate market with a home for sale in Tallahassee. Home values are still dropping, so the time that you waste with a poor marketing effort is time that your home is falling in value. Home sellers need to make a deliberate decision on what they plan to do with their home, and then ensure they do everything possible to achieve success.
  • Would Yogi Berra Know How To Sell A House Today?What Yogi Berra Would Say About Selling A House In 2012 - Yogi Berra has said a lot of things about baseball, but what would he he say if asked about selling a house in 2012? Berra was a fifteen-time All-Star, and the Major League Baseball MVP three times, in 1951, 1954 and 1955. While he is arguably one of the best baseball players of all time, he is better known for his “yogi-isms,” his wonderful way with words. I thought it might be interesting to apply some of his most often quoted expressions, but use them in reference to selling a house.
  • Don’t Let Your House Stop Your Move - Are you stuck in a house that is stopping a big move for you and your family? Recently, I have met with several homeowners in Tallahassee who want to sell a home so that they can relocate to a different market area, but they are either upside down in their home, or they will not get enough proceeds for them to buy a home in their next market. So what should they do?
  • How Long Does It Take To Sell A Home? -  Occasionally, I have to get up on my soap box and harangue real estate professionals who provide statistics about “days on market,” or how long it takes to sell a home. This is the most visible evidence of somebody in the real estate industry having no clue about what it takes to sell a home, so I will attempt to explain why it not only is misunderstood, it is also mis-measured.
  • Home Selling Technology - Today’s home selling technology requires home owners to have an understanding of where their house fits into the flow of the real estate market when it comes time to sell a home in Tallahassee. You can no longer afford to “test the market” without suffering costly consequences if you are serious about moving from your current home to the next.
  • Why Is My Home Not Selling? - When I first meet with a home owner who has recently failed in an attempt to sell their home, this becomes the base theme for our discussion. They start by asking me … why is my home not selling? They are frustrated for many reasons, and most of them had not realized just how competitive the housing market was going to be. For those with past experiences selling a home, they thought they would just hire a real estate agent to sell the home, give the property a good cleaning, have an open house, and then be on their way. What they found was something all together different.
  • Selling A Home: Are You The “Set-Up” House? - There are many people who think they are selling a home, but in fact they only serve the market as a set-up house. Could this be you?
  • How To Sell A House To AnybodyOpen House Visitor Arrives In Nothing But Bathrobe And Slippers - If you have ever tried to sell a home, then I suspect that you’ve had a conversation or two about Open Houses and how they are used to sell a home. Traditionally, when people were thinking about moving, they would “prowl” their favorite neighborhoods by car to see if any homes were for sale. Sundays were always popular prowling days, because many real estate agents would hold open houses for the purpose of letting interested people see inside.
  • Best Advice For Understanding Your Own Motivation To Sell A Home - If you are thinking about whether or not to sell a home in Tallahassee, you must first understand your true motivation for wanting to sell a home. When I first meet with a prospective home seller at my office, my most critical task is to determine the motivation level of the homeowner.
  • Pricing A Home To Sell Today - Pricing a home to sell has always required a balance between science (looking at comparable sales and current competition) and art (determining the initial market positioning and key marketing features), but today it is more important than ever. With roughly 60% of all MLS-listed homes failing to sell over the past 5 years, we know how important every part of our progressive marketing program is going to be for the home seller.
  • Three Keys To Selling A Home - I would encourage you to prepare a successful plan for selling your home. During the planning stage, if you realize you cannot sell your home due to conditions beyond your control, then make a wise decision to stay out of the market!
  • VIDEO: Progressive Marketing Plan For Your Home - The real estate market has changed! If you want to sell your home, you had better be thinking “internet” and you certainly need a well thought-out, strategically sound home selling plan!
  • How to sell a house on the internet7 Tips To Help You Avoid Choosing The Wrong Home Selling Plan - So many people get off on the wrong foot when they first launch their home selling plan. The National Association of REALTORS claims that 64% of homeowners hire the first real estate agent that they speak to, and the hiring decision is based upon two simple factors: 1) Do they like the real estate agent? and 2) Do they like the price the agent gave them for the value of the home. At face value, that seems relatively harmless, but if you dig deeper to understand the way a modern home selling plan works, then you will quickly discover what more than 50% of all home sellers find out the hard way.
  • Selling A Home That Did Not Sell Previously - If you have recently left the real estate market with a home that did not sell, it is time for you to make a tough decision. The wave of foreclosures that has been forming in the sea of distressed properties in Tallahassee will be hitting the market soon, and the competition will be far too fierce for people who are trying to pull equity from their homes. The race is on to beat them to the market.

SELL FAST TO GET TOP DOLLAR

With the rare exception for homes that must be marketed in a low-liquidity environment, homes that take longer than 4 to 14 days will likely yield less money for the home seller than a home sold within the proper time frame.

Give us a try, talk to us about the "why" of this, and we'll start by taking a look at the current inventory of homes like yours that are listed for sale in Tallahassee. Whether you want to sell your home now or sometime in the future, our meeting will help you prepare to get top dollar for your home.

  • Should You Wait Until Next Year To Sell A Home - There are a lot of people who have decided to wait until next year to sell a home. I know this is true because the inventory of homes for sale in Tallahassee continues to drop, even as the rate of home sales has hit a 20+ year low. Will it be a smart move … all those homeowners deciding to wait until next year to sell a home?
  • Home Selling Tip For Smokers - I am sure that you have heard by now, cigarette smoking is bad for your health. According to the American heart Association, 24% of males in the US and 21% of females are active smokers. But did you know that smoking is bad for selling a home?
  • 3 Best Tips If Your Home Isn’t Selling - Recently, an army buddy “from way back when” found me on Facebook and saw that I now owned a Joe Manausa Real Estate Real Estate Office. Upon discovering that I had 20 years of experience in selling homes, he asked me to give him some advice. Apparently, he had hired a real estate agent to sell his house four months ago and nothing was happening. He wondered what a homeowner should do if a home isn’t selling. I reminded him of an old Ray Kroc saying we used to hear all the time: Are you green and growing, or ripe and rotting?
  • How To Sell A House As A Short SaleShould I Short Sale My Home - As the leader in Tallahassee short sales, we get questions all the time about how they are used to sell a home. Four years ago, short sale questions came from people who were behind in their mortgages and wanted to know how selling short could help them avoid foreclosure and its long impact on their credit ratings. But times have changed. People with excellent credit and who are current on their mortgages are faced with staggering losses when they try to sell a home they purchased or refinanced in the past 6 years. These people are now understanding the benefits of short selling a home.
  • Where You Should Advertise A Home For Sale - A reader questioned how we “advertise a home for sale” to make it stand out among listings of homes for sale in Tallahassee, and I think this is a great question because my answer today is so much different than it would have been just five years ago. And why is that so important to know?
  • Does It Take A Realtor To Sell A House? - I was searching the term “how to sell a house” on several real estate message boards to see if any good ideas were posted and found a question from a new member. He wrote: "I need to sell house in Florida, should I get a Realtor? I am selling a home for what I owe the bank. So, my property is being sold for less than other homes in the same community. If I get a Realtor, I would have to raise the price to the same price that everyone is selling. So, I can cover the realtor expense. But it will give me more exposure. Should I get a realtor?" The answer is not necessarily "yes."
  • 4 Tips For Selling A House In Tallahassee - If you own a house in Tallahassee and want to move, then read these tips for selling a home and you should be able to reach your goals. Currently, half of the homeowners who put their house in Tallahassee on the market last year failed to get it sold, and it simply was the result of not understanding a few simple things.
  • How To Sell A House And Negotiate The Best DealHome Sales Negotiation 101 - Understanding how to triumph in home sales negotiation should be simple to understand, but I find that is not always so. Much of my advice on real estate negotiation is counter intuitive, but that is why I believe most people are not very good at it. I believe negotiation is the process two parties use to come to an agreement, but in my experience, most negotiations in real estate start from a position of isolation, where each party ignores the needs and wants of the other.
  • Empirical Proof That A Home Seller’s Initial Asking Price Matters - If I’ve heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times from home sellers … “Why can’t we just start at this (higher price) and reduce it later if we’re not getting any offers?” After all, if somebody is not in a hurry to sell a home, what can it hurt to try to get a higher initial asking price than current market conditions indicate for a home’s value? Many home seller’s are hurting for cash or equity and they are hanging on to the hope that they can beat the market, so today I went in search of empirical proof that the initial asking price is so very critical for today’s home seller.
  • How We Implement Modern Real Estate Marketing - Real estate professionals seem to fall into one of two camps when it comes to selling a home with a modern real estate marketing plan. Many real estate agents believe that exposure (= being on many websites) is the most important aspect to getting a home sold. The more websites used to promote a home, the more people who will see it, the better the chance of getting the home sold. The other group will tell you it is all about price. If you properly price your home, it will sell right away. What we have found through diligent measurement and testing over the past five years is that both camps are missing an ingredient.
  • How To Sell A House From Out Of TownHome Selling Advice For Out Of Town Homeowners - There is a growing list of people who are seeking home selling advice for out of town homeowners. While the advice is very similar to what a “local” would receive, people who no longer live in the Tallahassee area have additional concerns.
  • How To Decide What To Do With Your Upside Down Home - I have been receiving the same question from a lot of people lately …. “What do I do with my upside down home?” Having purchased a home when the market was booming in 2004 through 2006, many homeowners find themselves “Upside Down,” meaning they owe more money on the home than they can net from its sale. So I decided to commit a blog post to this very hot and important topic.
  • The Minimalist Guide On How To Sell A HouseWhat William Shakespeare Would Say About Selling A Home - Who better to turn to than William Shakespeare when assembling the best words to guide us to a successful home sale? Shakespeare has written many phrases that became part of the English language, as he artfully conveys a thought or action most efficiently. I have “borrowed” four quotes from Mr. Shakespeare that serve to bind the Minimalist Guide to Selling a Home. They are short and sweet, and nobody communicates more clearly than he. These are simple thoughts that are worth sharing and should be highly prized if you plan on selling a home in the next few years.
  • The Dramatic Change In How To Value A Home Today And Why It Will Be Around For Years - If you are thinking about selling a home, you should have a solid understanding of how to value a home. And before you go off thinking that you already know how to value a home, I would strongly recommend that you keep reading to ensure that you understand what the foreclosure crisis has done to change everything for home sellers.
  • Do Pictures Really Help Sell A Home? - I was up early this morning, reading a bunch of great real estate blogs from around the country. One blog that I find myself returning to from time to time was ‘ranting’ about one of his favorite pet peeves. You see, this guy really doesn’t understand why real estate agents post new listings (new homes for sale) in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) without a full complement of pictures. I also decided that this would make a great case study in which we would use actual numbers to determine if pictures are really that important in how to sell a house.

NOT EVERYBODY SUCCEEDS

Realtor waiting for sale should not be your listing agentDid you know that more than 30% of home sellers fail with their first listing agent?

That's right, they end up waiting and hoping for a lone buyer to come in and offer anything for the home when they instead should be seeing multiple buyers competing for their home.

Sell your home fast and for top dollar, we'll show you how!

  • How To Sell A House In Less Time Than Realtors Will Tell YouIt Does Not Take 230 Days To Sell A Home - Do you ever wonder how long it takes to sell a home? According to numbers reported by the National Association of REALTORS®, the time is roughly 7 1/2 months. Of course we all know that number is grossly inaccurate, but do you know where and how they get this “statistic?”
  • VIDEO: How Much “Negotiation Room” Should I Add To My Asking Price? - This question is fairly common from new home sellers who have not sold a home in the past few years. Since nobody wants to “leave any money on the table,” it makes sense that asking a little bit more than you are willing to take would guarantee getting the best price possible …. right? Well, watch this video and discover a paradigm shift on how the internet is changing how to sell a house today, and that by understanding how to best price your home can get you sold quicker and with more money to show for it as well.
  • Using Cost Benefit Analysis To Decide On Selling A Home Or Leasing It Out - If you are like many home owners and you are trying to decide whether to sell a home or lease it out, then you are in luck, as I have prepared a Home Seller's Cost Benefit Analysis Model in order to help you weigh the ramifications of each decision.
  • The Difference Between Active And Passive Internet Marketing (and why it matters to home sellers) - There really is a huge difference between the two different types of plans for marketing a home for sale on the internet. It has taken me three years to complete the evolution from where I was based in traditional realty methodologies to being a much more active marketer on the internet. You see, the two methods are diametrically opposed, but very simple to understand.
  • The Real Key To Marketing A House For Sale In Tallahassee - Anybody who has been in the real estate business for more than a week can tell you that “real estate is local,” so why are most real estate companies focused on marketing a house for sale in Tallahassee on the large aggregate sites that are anything but local? I suspect it has something to do with the hype about traffic, the fact that these sites get millions of visitors from all over the world. I guess if you think that raw exposure is the key to promoting a house for sale in Tallahassee, then simply advertising the house on the most active websites should certainly get it sold. Right?
  • Free Webinar Teaches Modern Home Selling Techniques - To sell as many homes as Joe Manausa Real Estate, you have to understand the process that the HOME BUYER undergoes … and this is always changing. Just as other industries have had their standards of practice turned upside-down by the internet, so too has the real estate brokerage business, and why it has pushed us to learn how to sell a house using modern home selling techniques.
  • How to sell a house that is upside down on its mortgageWhat Is A Short Sale Going To Do To Help A Upside-Down Homeowner? - You might be wondering what is a short sale going to do for a homeowner who owes more money on a property than it is worth, and who really needs to relocate right now. After all, there are options for homeowners beyond just doing a short sale, right?
  • Open Houses Help Sell Homes - When I discuss the techniques used in selling a home with new home sellers, most are curious about my opinion on open houses. For those readers who missed my past article on real estate open houses, I addressed conversation rates and REALTOR® motivation for conducting them. But what about the relevance of holding an open house in 2012 and is it really necessary in the process of selling a home?
  • House Under Contract? You’re Only 1/3rd Of The Way There! - So you’ve been trying to sell a home for quite some time, and you finally have the house under contract. Considering only half of home sellers over the past year have succeeded in selling their homes, you feel relieved to know that you will be joining that all-to-exclusive group. But would you be shocked to discover that two out of every three real estate contracts actually terminate without the house under contract going to closing?
  • Wait Until Next Year If You Are A Homeseller? - “We are going to have to wait until next year to sell our house,” is perhaps the concern that I am hearing most from upside-down homeowners, or those who have lost much of the equity in their homes. Perhaps they hope to rent the house out to a tenant for the next year or so, and then put the home on the market when it will sell for the values found back in 2006.
  • how to sell a house with the short sale paradigmHow To Use The Short Sale Paradigm To End Your Real Estate Dilemma - Everybody knows the basics of getting a home sold. Of course, everybody used to know that the Earth was flat and that the Universe rotated all around us. There have been many other examples in history where rock-solid beliefs were changed, and now I suggest you consider the short sale paradigm as a way to end your current real estate dilemma.
  • Creative Home Selling – Taking A Lesson From Wall Street - In today’s tough real estate market, where Sellers far outnumber Buyers, it is important to have a complete “bag of tools” when you desire to sell a home in Florida. This article will show you how to use an instrument that is fairly common on Wall Street that we do not see very often on “Main Street,” and that is the Zero Coupon Bond. For those readers who do not invest their money in bonds, I will briefly define a zero coupon bond as an investment that generates no monthly payments, but rather accumulates interest and is repaid in full, plus interest, on a future maturity date.
  • How To Find Comparable Properties For Your Home - Frustrated homeowners are accumulating, and traditional real estate pricing practices are not making them any happier. It is time to recognize that there is a new way to determine the best asking price for getting a home sold in today’s difficult real estate market.

Wanna Know Why Most Real Estate Marketing Plans Don't Work?

Realtor at work in TallahasseeBecause most real estate agents don't work a plan!

With roughly half the listings in the Tallahassee MLS failing to sell during their initial listing period, you have to wonder if real estate agents are lazy or if they are ignorant.

Who would you rather hire, somebody too lazy to market your home EVERY DAY, or somebody who does not realize that daily marketing is essential?

If neither of those options appeals to you, let us know by making contact with us below. We'll take it from there!

  • Selling Your Home? Be Prepared - So you’ve decided to move and you’ve invited a real estate professional to interview for the job of selling your home. What should you do to prepare? What should you expect? These are very important questions when it comes to selling your home. Preparing to meet with a real estate agent is an important step in the process of selling your home. You see, the real estate agent is going to give you advice, and this advice will only be as good as the information that the agent uses to form the advice. With that in mind, let’s review what you should do to prepare for this meeting.
  • How to sell a house now instead of waiting for next yearWaiting To Sell Your Home? You Are Not Alone - There is a rather large group of people who are waiting to sell a home, hoping that the housing market and the economy turn around and start to improve. This might be a very wise strategy if it is what you are currently doing, but only if you are planning on waiting five or more years.
  • 4 Stages Of The Home Selling Process - If you are thinking of selling a home in Tallahassee, what stage of the home selling process do you currently find yourself? You see, I have found that home sellers go through several important stages, and if they are lucky, they meet a highly informed real estate agent who can help them make a proper decision to accelerate them through the home selling process.
  • Virtual Tours Help Sell Homes - There are marketing techniques that real estate companies should employ with virtual tours and a Tallahassee Real Estate Property Search Tool to ensure that a large percentage of the viewers are interested in homes in the specific market area. These techniques are even more important than the virtual tour itself.
  • Avoid Emotional Baggage To Sell A Home Fast - Over the past year, I had the opportunity to meet with two different homeowners to discuss selling a home in the same neighborhood. Their stories were similar and their needs were similar, and each felt that their individual home was worth more than I felt the market would bear. Now understand that these are highly educated people and they were presented with what I feel is solid market feedback about their neighborhood and home values. The decision that each made is just more anecdotal evidence that the emotion of selling a home is often far more powerful than any level of formal education.

Understanding Current Information On How To Sell A House

Joe Manausa Real EstateI hope you take the time to review the links and articles listed above.

You will have a far better understanding of how to sell a house, and you will understand pretty much everything you need to know to get your home sold fast, in any market.

Additionally, should you ever need to interview agents for the job of selling your home, it is likely that you will be better versed on the subject than most of the people that you interview. At a minimum, you should have great confidence in your ability to select the right real estate agent and real estate company to sell your home.

If you would like to more information on how to sell a house, you can always just drop me a note to schedule a time to discuss your specific situation.

Your Local Expert In Tallahassee

When moving to, in, or from Tallahassee, you will fare better if you work with a local expert. We are here to help. If you have further questions on the Tallahassee real estate market, you can leave a comment below, give us a call at (850) 366-8917, or drop us a note and we'll give you the local information needed to ensure a successful, smooth transaction.

As a local born and raised in Tallahassee with a focus on customer service, I promise you'll find great success when working with Joe Manausa Real Estate, just as have our past customers. You can read thousands of their reviews reported on Google, Facebook and Zillow right here: Real Estate Agent Reviews Tallahassee.

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