None of us enjoys being pressured, but many times we just have to get moving; we don't really have a choice. These days, in most parts of the country, the real estate market is extremely sluggish, maybe even stagnant. Facing this situation, I get moving whenever I need to sell my home by taking on most of the project myself.
Let's face it, selling a house is quite a project. If you think of it like painting a house you'll see the point I'm making. First, you get some equipment together and set it all up, you cover the windows and anything else you want to protect, and then you start spraying. Or, alternatively, you hire others to start and complete the whole job. What I'm saying here is, first you have to get ready, and then you do whatever needs to be done, step-by-step. Generally, I get things started whenever I need to sell my house, meaning I participate in the process myself, and even if I contract with a real estate broker I continue to participate in the house-selling project because it takes plenty of attention to sell a house today.
When a house is being painted things are basically in an uproar. It's a messy time, and it has an effect on everybody living in the house. I'm sure you can see that selling a house is a little bit similar to this description. Whoever is living in a house is personally affected by having to keep it ready to show, a big responsibility, and a challenge if children and pets live there, too. Whenever I am preparing to sell my house I make sure everyone involved is ready to cooperate with me when trying to sell a house quickly.
So, getting prepared when I need to sell my house is not a task I choose to delegate to an agent and then simply forget, going about my other business expecting the agent to do everything necessary to make a sale. It's been my observation that most sellers think the opposite of the way I think. They believe listing their houses with an agent is all they have to do, and if they wait long enough a sale will happen eventually.
Over the years I have bought and sold houses as investment properties, I learned that whenever I need to sell my house I should not expect anyone, including listing agents, to meet my own sense of urgency and my strong desire to sell. My point in this article is simply to encourage you to take on the responsibility for the project when you need to sell your house, too.
