Luxury Home Selling Tips

Selling your luxury Portland home can be a complicated process. With a buyers expecting impeccable presentation and the home of their dreams, it’s important to make a great first impression. In this month’s post, we’ll answer some common questions we receive from luxury home sellers, offering advice on how to best sell your luxury home in a competitive market.

Should I Remodel Before Selling?

A common question we receive from Portland homeowners is whether they should “fix up” or remodel their luxury home prior to putting it out on the market.

While home improvement projects are never a bad idea per se, in most situations you should not remodel your home prior to putting it on the market.

While remodels can be a great investment if you plan on living with the renovation, remodeling right before selling is not the time Any renovations the new homeowners want they will often prefer to complete themselves.

Since any remodel will reflect your taste and not the buyers, you likely won’t even receive the money back you put into it.

Don’t waste the time or money on remodeling your home before selling.

Are There Any Exceptions To This?

Yes! If the home has a section or room that is damaged or significantly lower quality than the rest of the home you should consider a remodel. If you leave it as-is,the discrepancy between the one room and the rest of the house could be off putting to potential buyers.

If homebuyers are likely to be scared away, or see it as a house “needing work,” it may be worth it to remodel that section of the home. You don’t want to give prospective buyers any reason to not buy the home or give a low-ball offer.

Does What You Price Your Home Make A Difference?

Where you first price your home will make a massive difference in the response you get to your listing. While this is true for any home on the market, it’s particularly true for luxury homes.

You don’t want anyone to be scared off by the price and for your home to sit on the market for months with no legitimate offers. That said, you also want to ensure you get fair value for your home and are not leaving any money on the table.

When determining your selling price, you’ll need to consider:

• Current real estate market conditions
• Current inventory of homes
• The sale price of comparable homes
• Estimated net proceeds of selling your home

Luxury homes makes this task significantly more difficult, as there will be fewer comparable homes to reference. There will also be fewer potential buyers, making the margin for error smaller and mistakes that much more costly.

When you work with an experienced luxury real estate agent, they will help you price your home correctly given the particulars of your home, neighborhood, and market.

Should I Be Present For The Showing?

It’s never a good idea to be present for the showing of a luxury home.

While you may feel like you will help sell your home by pointing out what makes your home special, this is not the case.

Luxury home buyers are generally seasoned, intelligent buyers who will want to ask questions and feel comfortable finding out everything about your home. When the homeowner is present, the buyer may feel uncomfortable asking questions you may interpret as offensive. This will leave your potential buyers feeling unfulfilled during the showing.

Even if buyers do ask the questions they want, you may feel it necessary to defend your home. This can lead to an awkward confrontation between you and the potential buyer, again potentially scaring off this potential buyer.

Is Home Staging Important?

Tasteful staging can help prospective buyers picture themselves in your home.

While you likely have decorated and furnished your home to represent your tastes and preferences, staging will set up the home to best appeal to a prospective buyer.

Home staging…

• Allows buyers to understand the function and size of each room
• Looks beautiful to a range of people so it can stand out
• Accentuates the strengths of your luxury home

Taking out family photos and using furniture and decor to complement your home will create a blank slate for prospective buyers. This will let them imagine themselves in your home and make them more likely to make an offer.

Is an Investment In High-quality Images and Video Worth It?

The online presence of your home is more important now than ever. 90% of home buyers search online to find their perfect home. This is only likely to go up as time goes on.

Given this increased reliance on the internet to find homes, high-quality photos and video are not an option; they’re a necessity. There are simply too many high-quality properties available for buyers. Any property without high-quality photos and videos will make buyers brush yours aside.

Homebuyers want to get a sense of the home even before they make the trek out to see it. Can they imagine themselves living in it? Are they able to get a sense of what makes this house so special? If they can’t answer these questions, you can be sure they will likely not be exploring your home any further.

Is Marketing Luxury Homes Different From Marketing Other Properties?

Marketing luxury homes takes a certain finesse that is unique to appealing to luxury home buyers and needs to ensure two things:

• Your home is seen as a place prospective homebuyers will want to live.
• High-quality homebuyers who can afford your home know it’s out there.

Using unique and effective copy enhances accompanying high-quality photos and videos. This combination allows buyers to discover why your luxury home is truly special.

It will make them excited about coming and seeing your home in person.

Once you have great copy and images, finding the most effective ways to get the word out to the right buyers is the next most important thing. We recommend using everything from:

• Online outlets such as Zillow
• Social media
• Local print publications
• Open houses

No two marketing efforts should be the same for two different and unique luxury homes. It’s best to come up with a custom plan tailored for your home.

Talk To A Luxury Home Seller Who Knows Portland Luxury Real Estate

At PEGGY HOAG REAL ESTATE, we specialize in selling luxury homes and properties throughout the Portland area. Our team has decades of experience in the Pacific Northwest and can help your price, market, and sell your home.

Contact us today to find out how we can work with you to sell your home today!