 Home Sellers Whether you need to sell your personal home or your rental property – Excalibur can help! Our Real Estate sales team handles property throughout the Metro Atlanta area. We will help you connect with the agent best qualified to represent you and your property. In that our office handles so many rental properties, we are very familiar with real estate taxation and financing alternatives. We can help you postpone or avoid paying capital gains taxes by using tax-deferred exchanges, installment sales, or lease-purchase methods to help you achieve the highest profit from your property. If there is any maintenance or repair work needed on your property, we have a long list of reliable contractors through our property management operation. We can help you put your property in the condition, which will get you the best price for your property. There are two multiple listing services in the Metro Atlanta market. Excalibur Realty, LLC is a member of both. We also utilize internet: www.excalhomes.com, www.realtor.com, www.realestatebook.com, www.bobvila.com, www.lycos.com, www.realestate.com, www.livingchoices.com, www.homegain.com, www.bellsouth.net, www.homelocator.com; newspaper, and other advertising vehicles to give your property maximum exposure. Our agents are trained and supervised by an experienced sales manager that stays informed of the status of each transaction. We have support staff in the office to help our agents get their work done more efficiently and reduce the number of days your property is on the market. When you select Excalibur to list your property for sale, you haven’t selected an agent. You’ve selected a TEAM! Back to Top Request a free Market Analysis Report on your home. Click Here Why Sellers Choose Us Excalibur Realty agents serve all of Metro Atlanta. We are large enough to serve you yet small enough to care! Selling your home is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. Our experts will answer all your questions regarding pricing, marketing & negotiations. As top Realtors with years of experience and a proven track record, it is our job to guide you through this process, from beginning to end. We want you to get Top Dollar for your home, within YOUR timeframe. We will help you through the challenges. Free Market Analysis Buyers want to buy your home for as little as possible! You want to sell your property for as much as you can. We provide detailed comparisons between your home and recently sold homes. Together we can determine what your home is worth in today's market. Pre-qualifying Buyers We try to make sure Buyers don't waste your time by getting a pre-qualifying letter that can give us enough information to determine that we can have a quick and smooth closing. Marketing Our extensive marketing of your home assures you of maximum value. For example, this web site will market your property all across the web. We can place your home on our web site immediately upon listing the property. Other web sites include www.ajc.com and www.Realtor.com We immediately market your home to buyers we are working within our office network. We notify all the Realtors in your market so they can notify their buyers. Home Staging You and a member of our team will take a close look at your home from a buyer’s perspective. We will advise you how to present your property to maximize its selling price. Some improvements are worth their cost in the increased sales price you will get, and some are not! We know what to do and we have vendors that can get it done. Negotiations Contracts are complicated and intimidating. You will have the full benefit of our real estate experience and knowledge at a contract presentation for a smooth and successful closing. We try to review all closing statements prior to closing. We will advise you of any and all Georgia statutory disclosure requirements. We will also inform you of any inspections that might be required for a smooth negotiating process with buyers, and to ensure a successful closing. No Up front FeesYou pay no up front costs for our services! We serve you from day one because we don’t get paid until you close. We will also work within your timeframe and your needs. Remember, negotiating is a give and take situation. Ask for a free In-Home Presentation. No obligation! Just one of the free services we provide. Just complete the form and email or call anytime for a quick reply. Back to Top 10 Ways to Make Your House More Salable Get rid of clutter. Throw out or file stacks of newspapers and magazines. Pack away most of your small decorative items. Store out-of-season clothing to make closets seem roomier. Clean out the garage. Wash your windows and screens to let more light into the interior. Keep everything extra clean. Wash fingerprints from light switch plates. Mop and wax floors. Clean the stove and the refrigerator. A clean house makes a better first impression and convinces buyers that the home has been well cared for. Get rid of smells. Clean carpeting and drapes to eliminate cooking odors, smoke, and pet smells. Open the windows. Put higher wattage bulbs in light sockets to make rooms seem brighter, especially basements and other dark rooms. Replace any burnt-out bulbs. Make minor repairs that can create a bad impression. Small problems, such as sticky doors, torn screens, cracked caulking, or a dripping faucet, may seem trivial, but they’ll give buyers the impression that the house isn’t well maintained. Tidy your yard. Cut the grass, rake the leaves, trim the bushes, and edge the walks. Put a pot or two of flowers near the entryway. Patch holes in your driveway and reapply sealant, if applicable. Clean your gutters. Polish your front doorknob and door numbers. Back to Top 5 Things to Do Before You Sell Get estimates from a reliable repairperson on items that need to be replaced soon, such as a roof or worn carpeting, for example. In this way, buyers will have a better sense of how much these needed repairs will affect their costs. Have a termite inspection to prove to buyers that the property is not infested. Get a pre-sale home inspection so you’ll be able to make repairs before buyers become concerned and cancel a contract. Gather together warranties and guarantees on the furnaces, appliances, and other items that will remain with the house. Fill out a disclosure form provided by your sales associate. Take the time to be sure that you don’t forget problems; however minor, that might create liability for you after the sale. Back to Top How to Improve Curb Appeal Home Selling Advice to Help You Attract Potential Buyers A large percentage of home buyers decide whether or not to look inside a house or take it seriously based on its curb appeal—the view they see when they drive by or arrive for a showing. You can help make sure they want to come inside your house by spending some time working on its exterior appearance. It's difficult to look at our own house in the same way that potential home buyers do, because when we become accustomed to the way something looks and functions, we can't see its faults. Decide right now to stop thinking of the property as a home. It's a house—a commodity you want to sell for the highest dollar possible. Back to Top Curb Appeal Exercise The next time you come home, stop across the street or far enough down the driveway to get a good view of the house and its surroundings. What is your first impression of the house and yard area? What are the best exterior features of the house or lot? How can you enhance them? What are the worst exterior features of the house or lot? How can you minimize or improve them? Park where a potential buyer would and walk towards the house, looking around you as if it were your first visit. Is the approach clean and tidy? What could you do to make it more attractive? Take photos of the home's exterior. If you have a digital camera, view the color versions first, then remove the color and look at it in black and white, because it's easier to see problems when color isn't around to affect our senses. Make a list of the problem areas you discovered. Tackle clean up and repair chores first, then put some time into projects that make the grounds more attractive. Kill mold and mildew on the house, sidewalks, roof, or driveway. Stow away unnecessary garden implements and tools. Clean windows and gutters. Pressure wash dirty siding and dingy decks. Edge sidewalks and remove vegetation growing between concrete or bricks. Mow the lawn. Get rid of weeds. Rake and dispose of leaves, even if your lot is wooded. Trim tree limbs that are near or touching the home's roof. Back to Top Don't Forget the Rear View Buyers doing a drive by will try their best to see your back yard. If it's visible from another street or from someone's driveway, include it in your curb appeal efforts. Evening Curb Appeal Do your curb appeal exercise again at dusk, because it isn't unusual for potential buyers to drive by houses in the evening. One quick way to improve evening curb appeal is with lighting: String low voltage lighting along your driveway, sidewalks, and near important landscaping elements. Add a decorative street lamp or an attractive light fixture to a front porch. Make sure lighting that's visible through front doors and windows enhances the home's appearance. Back to Top Landscaping Decisions There are times that adding elements to your landscaping can improve curb appeal, but there are other times when removing something is even more effective. For example, we had a listing for a large brick house with large white columns. Tall evergreens, planted in front of each column, had grown taller than the roof. They obscured the columns and windows and made it difficult to see the front of the house. We suggested that the owner remove them. She trimmed them back, but it didn't do the trick—they were unattractive and still kept potential buyers from seeing the true character of the house. I sold the house to a couple that could see past the trees.
One of their first tasks after closing was to yank them out of
the ground, instantly boosting the home's curb appeal. Most buyers
cannot visualize changes, and often won't take a second look
at a house if the first look doesn't appeal to them. Home buyers
who can visualize changes, and are prepared to make them, expect
you to reduce the price of the house to compensate for the work
they plan to do. If you can budget it, a fresh paint job does wonders for a dingy house. Drive around your town to find color schemes that are appealing. Install a more attractive front door; maybe something with leaded glass inserts. If you can't justify the cost of a new door, consider replacing plain doorknob hardware with something more attractive. If new hardware is beyond your budget, repaint or stain the
door and polish the hardware? |