If you are even thinking about selling your home, even if it is a year away, here is my number one piece of advice: have me come to your house as soon as possible.
Most people assume they need to wait until they are almost ready to list before reaching out. The truth is, the earlier we walk through your home together, the better. Seeing your home months in advance gives me the chance to help you figure out exactly what is worth doing and what is not. That means you can focus your time, energy, and money on the improvements that actually matter.
The goal is simple. We want to get your home sold for the most amount of money while keeping the labor, cost, and stress as low as possible.
A recent client is a perfect example of why this matters. He is planning to list his home this summer, and before I came over, he told me he was nervous. He felt like he had a million projects to tackle and was bracing himself for a long list of things he thought he would need to fix.
What he did not expect was that part of my advice would be about what not to do.
After walking through the home, I gave him a solid list of projects that would truly help prepare the property for the market. Some landscaping updates made sense. Painting the entire house was another recommendation, and because he has several months before listing, he now has the time to work through those projects without feeling rushed.
But there were also improvements he assumed he needed to make that I actually advised against. He thought about replacing the kitchen countertops and remodeling the primary bathroom. In his case, those updates were not going to deliver a strong enough return to justify the expense, the timeline, or the stress. The money he would have spent likely would have only brought him close to breaking even, and that kind of pressure simply was not worth it.
That is exactly why early planning matters.
Every home is different. In some situations, a remodel or countertop replacement may absolutely be the right move. In others, it may not make sense at all. The only way to know is to walk through your home together and create a game plan based on your specific property, your timeline, and your goals.
So if selling is even on your radar, do not wait until the last minute. Bring me in early. The more time we have, the more strategic we can be, and the more confident you will feel when it is time to list.
