A Guide to the Realities of Selling Your Home

What you need to know about the real cost of selling a home

At GWG Properties, we believe that knowledge is power, and the more you know about the reality of real estate – and the real cost of selling a home financially, emotionally, psychologically, and physically – the more you’ll understand what we can do for anyone who needs to sell their house quickly. The truth is that – if you need to sell your home quickly because of a difficult financial or personal situation – you need help. You need help on all levels, because selling a home is far more difficult than anyone believes it is.

Selling a home is like getting married or having a child – nothing can prepare you for it

The truth is that 99.4% of the clients who come to us in desperation – after enduring months of frustration and disappointment – were completely unprepared for how difficult it is to sell a home in today’s real estate market. Every single client has told us that they just had “no idea” how much work it was to sell a home, how long it would take, or how much money it would cost. The reality of the real estate business is that – just like raising a child – no one is ever prepared for it.

GWG Properties can help you sell you home easily – because we buy homes without all the “requirements” a traditional sale would mean

Our mission at GWG Properties is two-fold: first – we want to advise, guide, and educate homeowners who are either facing the loss of their home or need to sell their home very quickly because of a difficult personal situation. Second – we want to help homeowners by offering them the opportunity to sell their home quickly, as is, without repairs or “improvements,” so that they have cash in their hand often in a matter of days.

Why? Because when we created our business model, we realized that true success isn’t possible without creating a positive situation. This is why our mission statement is based on giving, guiding, and service to our community. If we don’t create a “win-win” positive experience for you – we aren’t doing our job. We aren’t successful if you aren’t successful, it’s as simple as that.

The goal at GWG Properties is your success; a happy ending for you and your family. That goal defines what we do – we help our clients work their way out of a bad situation – and into a good one. We make sure your needs are met, and that you and your family are in much better shape after we work together than you were before. Your satisfaction is why we do what we do, and that’s what makes our business model work.

Real Estate Reality Checks examines all aspects of selling a home – and tells the truth about them

This is why, in our series on Real Estate Reality Checks, we’re going to look at some actual facts and figures on the real costs of selling a home. We’re going to talk about some of the situations a homeowner will have to deal with in order to sell a home. We’re going to explore what people call “insider secrets” in some cases, and examine why they don’t work. We’re going to bust open a few myths, and try and give you a wake-up call so you can protect yourself, and your family. We believe that if you know what you’re getting into, you’ll be in a position to make the best possible choices.

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.

— Kofi Annan

So how much do you actually know about the real costs of selling a home?

Stop and think for a minute; what do you actually know about how much money goes into selling a home? Do you know anything for a fact? Do you have actual dollars and cents figures? Do you know what the timeline is for different steps to selling a home? Do you know what will happen, what might happen, and what could happen if push comes to shove and worse goes all the way to worst?

Nope. You don’t. This is why we created our series:

REAL ESTATE REALITY CHECKS

In spite of the proliferation of online research and DIY programs on HGTV like “Get it Sold,” “Love It or List It,” and “Curb Appeal,” we have discovered that very few people – and that includes actual realtors – have a handle on what really goes into selling a home. So we’d like to offer you some insight into the process, and we’ll start – of course  – with the money.

Money – or – “You Have to Spend Money to Make Money – and Sometimes It’s a Lot of Money”

One of the most important – and expensive details that homeowners just don’t take into consideration is that they absolutely need to fix up their home in order to “get it sold.” In the real estate business – these are known as “cosmetic upgrades,” and they include everything from minor repairs and maintenance, to re-painting and re-carpeting an entire home, to replacing appliances and remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. We can virtually guarantee you that you have no idea how many “fixes” your home may require in order to bring in a solid offer – or even to just get a possible buyer inside your front door.

This is why we created our series:

REAL ESTATE REALITY CHECKS

The truth is that Georgia’s housing market is still a buyer’s market, like other areas of the country where we work, and buyer’s are picky. They can afford to be, because there are so many homes on the market that they can have their pick. And again – because of the

current glut of homes available indicators point to the fact that – if a house isn’t attractive – it will be passed over. Realtors are in the business to make money, and unfortunately – a home that’s not in tip-top shape isn’t going to be an easy sell.

Do you have the time and money to fix up your home so it will sell quickly?

It’s simply a fact: if your house isn’t “pretty” – If it needs some cosmetic or maintenance help – buyers won’t even give it a second look in today’s market.  And if your house has “problems” inside or out – realtors won’t take it on, and buyers won’t give it second look. And if it has problems, and it’s in a bad location – well, it’s going to be tough to get anyone to even drive by it. The bottom line is that – unless your home is in mint condition and in a fabulous location – it’s going to be difficult to sell. This is the reality of the real estate market today.

This means that there’s no way around it; unless your home is brand new or you’ve kept it in pristine condition, if you decide to sell it any realtor is going to tell you need to do some “cosmetic upgrades” so your house shows well enough to get a decent price. Do you have the time and money to fix up your home so it will sell quickly? No? Well, then –

This is why we created our series:

REAL ESTATE REALITY CHECKS

It’s hard to sell a house in today’s market even if it’s in fantastic condition

So, of it’s hard to sell a house in fantastic condition right now – where does this leave you? One of the first things we ask people to do is to look at their home from a stranger’s viewpoint, someone who has no emotional connection or financial investment in your house. Ask yourself, honestly and realistically, what kind of condition your home is in right now? If you were thinking of buying your home, what would you see as you looked at it today?

If you can, imagine people who might buy your house traipsing through your kitchen, your living room, your bathrooms, and your bedrooms today – just as they are right now. What would a potential buyer see? Do the walls need painting, does the carpet need cleaning? Is the kitchen old, are your appliances outdated? Does the bathroom tile need to be repaired, do you have flooring that needs to be replaced? How about the outside of your home? Does your landscaping need to be re-done because its brown or non-existent?

If you answered, “Well, uh – yeah, maybe….” to any of these questions, then it’s time to ask yourself honestly – could you sell your home exactly the way it looks today, in the shape it’s in right now? Would anyone buy your home “as is,” if you did absolutely nothing to it except move out? If your answer is “no” –

This is why we created our series:

REAL ESTATE REALITY CHECKS

When a homeowner suddenly realizes how much work they will need to do to their home in order for it to sell, reality begins to sink in. And if they need to sell their home quickly for financial reasons, this is where they realize that they may not have the time and money it takes to sell their home before they ruin their credit – or lose their house entirely.

Cosmetic Upgrades 101 – do you know what kind of “cosmetic upgrades” you need to do to sell your home?

So this is where we’ll start our Real Estate Reality Check series. We’re going to begin with educating you on what you need to do to your home so it will be appealing to a buyer. We’re going to walk you through some of the details of what you’ll have to do and what you’ll have to spend in order to sell your home.

In this series, we’re going to look at some actual facts and figures about the real cost of “cosmetic upgrades,” but to begin with, here’s a [very] short overview of the repairs and upgrades that are considered necessary to make a house “show” well enough to sell quickly, compiled from a survey of realtors and other real estate sources:

• Paint – light, neutral colors, preferably whole interior, but at minimum do major rooms that people see first, and where they spend time, especially living room, kitchen, bathrooms
• Clean, clean, clean; strip home of all personal effects – pictures, knick-knacks – anything that identifies the home as yours, empty closets as much as possible
• Furniture – have the home professionally staged if you don’t know how; clean and repair your furniture or rent furniture to show the home
• Carpets – have carpets professionally cleaned or replaced
• Floors – wood, tile, & linoleum – have hard-surfaces professionally cleaned, sealed, or replaced
• Bathrooms – upgrade
• Kitchen – upgrade
• Lighting – upgrade
• Maintenance – repair and/or replace anything that’s broken and/or worn: sinks, tubs, walls, doors, windows, screens, cabinets, latches, locks, steps, railings, fixtures, etc.
• Yard & porch – clean and clear, paint, install, repair, or replace outdoor lighting, replace grass, plant new landscaping (especially flowers), clean and refurbish pool
• Garage/carport – get rid of all clutter, repair/install shelving
• Exterior home, roof, & driveway – pressure wash, patch cracks

Do you have what it takes to make your home appealing to buyers?

What do you think? Are you ready to do upgrades like this yourself, and/or do you have the funds to hire people to do it for you? At GWG Properties we’ve discovered that people are rarely aware of – or have never been told what needs to be done to sell their home, and they’re usually shocked and disheartened to discover that a home that they’ve put their heart – and money – into needs so much work to become sellable.

Cosmetic upgrades like PAINT cost money, time, and they’re harder to do than they look

Unfortunately, what the HGTV/DIY programs do is make homeowners believe they can spend a little bit of money, upgrade their home quickly and easily, and then sell for a lot more money. But what you need to know is that the DIY “fix-‘em-up” shows are pure, unadulterated TV fantasy. These shows have about as much to do with the real world of fixing up a home to sell it – as the Brady Bunch has to do with how much fun it is to live in a blended family of six kids, two of which are teenagers.

You don’t have the TV crew to do the work, but even more than this – you don’t have the TV budget to do those kinds of upgrades. The time and money this kind of work takes is truly amazing. So, at GWG Properties, we truly think a homeowners deserve and need to know what they’re getting into if they decide to do some of the cosmetic upgrades a realtor will ask them for.

This is why we created our series:

REAL ESTATE REALITY CHECKS

We deal with homeowners every day who call us in frustration – or desperation – because they haven’t been able to sell their home through a realtor who has been “representing” them and “showing” their home for months, without a single offer. We also get calls from people who have been told by a realtor that they won’t represent them at all – or even try to sell their home because of the condition of the home.

When a realtor has either failed to sell their home – or refused to even represent their home because of the condition it’s in – people will often try to sell it themselves out of desperation, as a last ditch effort. The problem here is that – if the pros are having a tough time selling it – or they refuse to even try and sell it – you can be sure that it’s going to be even more difficult to try and do an “FSBO” on your own. A national survey of FSBO’s – homes that are “For Sale by Owner” – show that homeowners fail to sell their home 90% of the time.

At GWG Properties, we see the actual value in your home “as is” – no repair, replacement, or maintenance needed

No matter what kind of condition your home and yard is in, GWG Properties can see the value of your home that realtors and buyers don’t see, and we can give you a fair cash offer for it, often in a matter of hours. Not only that, but we can often close in a matter of days. If you’ve missed some payments on your home, or even if you’re in the middle of foreclosure – we can help you and your family get your lives back on track by buying your home quickly, easily – and for a fair price.

We know what you’re going through – that’s why we know how to help

We understand where you are because we’ve been there ourselves, and that’s why we created GWG Properties. Whether you work with us or not, we are more than happy to offer any help or guidance you might need in making this difficult decision, with no obligation whatsoever, financial or otherwise. Our business model only works when we’re in true service to the community and our clients. If we can’t help you find a “win-win” solution – then we aren’t doing our job, because helping you is our job, our only job.

Watch for our ongoing Real Estate Reality Check series; we’re working to address and answer the hard questions that no one else will. And if you run into a problem or a question we haven’t covered – then pick up the phone and call us – and we’ll talk to you about it personally.