The spring market is in full swing and real estate activity is heating up. For sellers, this means the early bird special has already come and gone, but opportunity still knocks! The spring market is traditionally the busiest time in real estate, and all the market data we’ve seen since November shows the market is following those historic trends. Are you ready to capitalize on the current opportunities, or will you be left in the dust as spring turns into summer and vacation season takes over?
Join me this week as I briefly introduce some of the advice I share with my clients to ensure they get the most for their home with the least amount of hassle. From seasonal staging advice to safety reminders, here are some of my tips and tricks to help sellers win in the spring 2025 real estate market.
Present your home in its best light.
Curb Appeal
Even for buyers who’ve spent hours looking at your house in photos and on Google Maps, the first in-person impression they’ll have of your home is how it looks from the street. This curb appeal sets the stage and is the foundation for buyers’ opinions of your home.
Clean, Clean, Clean
A dirty home unconsciously reduces a home’s apparent value to buyers. Every little bit adds up, so be sure to get those nooks and crannies that might usually be skipped.
Depersonalize and “Stage”
I am not an interior decorator, but even I recognize that a home looks best when it has just enough stuff in it to make it feel lived in yet spacious. Unless the house can be empty before any showings start, you don’t want the place to look barren. Hooks where photos used to be often look worse than a tasteful family photo.
Plan your showing times strategically.
As soon as showings can be scheduled, you need to assume strangers will be walking through your house. You and your home need to be ready before showings are scheduled.
Be prepared to shift your schedule to accommodate showings, especially weeknight showings. At the same time, be careful not to neglect your own needs. Until settlement, it’s still your home, and you have the power to set showing schedules.
If there are others living in the home, remember their schedules and needs when you plan showing times. Partners, parents, children - housemates of any kind deserve as much consideration and respect as you give yourself. Pets, doubly so, since they rarely understand what’s going on and can become anxious with all the change.
Price your home according to your goals.
There are 3 major negotiable categories in real estate transactions: price, terms, and time. What’s the most important one of these 3 to you? Are you trying to wring the most money out of your property? Do you have special circumstances to account for in the terms? Is there a time component that’s vital, like a job change or school schedule? Keep your priorities in mind when pricing your home.
With the low inventory conditions we’ve seen, it can be difficult to find comparable home sales to price your home accordingly. Pricing strategies based on statistical analysis, like what most aggregators use, are more accurate the more data they can pull from, and there isn’t a lot of data available.
The data we do have shows that over priced homes are sitting on the market - we’re not so low on inventory that anything goes - while competitively priced homes are seeing a trend in bidding above the listed asking price. That shows just how impactful that sticker price is in attracting qualified buyers.
Protect yourself and your home.
When preparing your home before showings, take special care of any family heirlooms, priceless items, and sensitive items (like financial or medical information). If you wouldn’t want a random person off the street to be able to see or handle something in your home, stow it away. Strangers will be walking through your home, and you should prepare accordingly.
Any and all showings should be scheduled through your agent. Just because you’ve prepared for strangers to walk through your home during scheduled times doesn’t mean you have to let them in off the street. Anyone walking up and knocking on your door or approaching you in the community, even neighbors, should be directed to make an appointment. We need to be able to get back in touch after their showing, and the best way to do that is through registered appointments. Your agent has the experience and training to help you protect your assets and interests.
Until settlement day and you’ve handed your keys over to the new owner, you should treat any information about how the process is going as need-to-know information. Particularly, don’t go around posting updates on social media about offers and showings. There are few better ways to undermine a marketing campaign than to share details about its success.
Pro Tips
It’s mud season. As we already talked about, clean homes give a better impression than dirty ones. Plan ahead for how you’ll keep your home clean during and between showings. I like robust welcome mats and shoe covers, though hand sanitizer and face masks are still popular.
People will open your closets, cupboards, and other fixtures in your home. Closets look best when they have stuff in them and look like they could still fit more. I suggest keeping only seasonally appropriate items in closets, remembering that the goal is to make the closet look like it has more than enough room for all your stuff.
Little maintenance updates can go a long way. If you have old outlet and lightswitch covers, cracked paint, or other minor imperfections, minor updates can lead to major returns. Every little impression is impactful when buyers are hunting for their dream home.
For little maintenance and update projects that help maximize the value of your home, COMPASS Concierge is here. From painting to flooring and everything in between, Compass Concierge helps you easily prepare your home for market by advancing the funds for home improvement services.
Conclusion
Whether you’re selling a long-time family home, an investment property, or anything in between, the spring 2025 real estate market is awash with opportunities. Though the market still strongly favors sellers, don’t jump in without a plan. With the right strategy and preparation, your dreams can become reality.
The approaches I’ve introduced here are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how I help my sellers get the most for their properties. If you’d like to learn more, reach out and we can chat!
