The process of selling your home from an out of state location can be daunting. You may not know who to contact, where to look or if you will be able to sell it. Depending on you situation you may be paying a second mortgage, no matter what you will be paying taxes, maintenance costs and utliity costs. This can take a toll and any individual who ends up in this situation.
Whether you had to relocate because of a new job, there is an illness in the family, possible divorce the first action you want to focus on is the sale of the home ( a quick sale if possible ). For the reason discussed earlier, the quicker the sale, the less money that will be coming out of your pocket each month towards the expenses of the home in question. So if you are caught in this situation, you want to focus on selling your house for a fair price and in quick time frame.
1) Choose a great realtor
If you know that you are going to be moving out of the state, I would start this process very early. You want to get referrals from any one you may know in the industry or anybody you know who has had success dealing with a good realtor. A great realtor will allow you to breathe easy and will take a lot of the focus off of your back. They will price your home right, do the marketing, run the open houses, contact buyers do all the leg work to get your home sold. Just make sure that you hire a GREAT real estate agent in your area, because if you just hire a good or average agent, you may be sitting on the house for longer than expected. Remember we want a quick sale also.
2) Price your Home right
Choosing a great realtor is the most important step in getting the results you want when selling your home from an out of state location. The second biggest component is going to be pricing your home right. Now, pricing your home right is very important no matter when you are trying to sell your house, but if you are in a situation where your selling your home from another state, pricing your home is even more important. By pricing your home right you will be able to draw many more customers and much more interest in your home. This will also allow you to get a fair price and sell the house quickly. So be sure the house is priced right, if you hired a GREAT agent then this is something you shouldnt have to worry about.
3) Take out the Trash
When I say take out the trash I am referring to doing a little cleaning before you leave the state. If you cant do it yourself, hire a cleaning company to come by and get rid of all the junk that you are leaving, clean the rugs, floors and anything else. Since most likely you will be able paint and fix certain items in your house, try to atleast get some cleaning done to make the house look as good as you can.
4) Stage
If you really want to increase your odds of selling your home from another state, you should serioauly look into staging your home. Since you are moving, I am sure that you will be taking all the furniture with you. If this is the case consider hiring a staging company to dress up your house a little bit. Staging a home increases the chances of selling by a tremendous amount.
5) Professional Photos
Photos are a great way to illustrate your home and show customers the value in there home. Since photos are so important in this process, try and get some professional photos taken of the property to maybe make it look a little better than it truely is. Once again, if you did step #1 right (hiring a great agent) then professional photos will be taken.
6) Selling to an Investor
If selling your home the traditional route didnt exactly work for you. There are those companies out there that purchase homes for cash. So if you are sick of waiting to get rid of your house and you are willing to sell your home for a little more of a discount then you should consider selling to an investor. The positives with selling to an investor is that they will purchase your home in cash, so they will be able to close quickly and get the home off your hands.
7) Rent It
In my opinion this is the last option. It is hard enough to be a landlord when you are right down the street from your home but being a out of state landlord can be a disaester. Now if you have experience being a landlord then this option may work for you. I just beleive that if you are going to go this route then you better do some planning.
Conclusion
Selling your house as an out of state owner can be a headache but there are some steps you can take to eleviate some of this pain. If you take your time and carefully plan these steps you will have a much smoother process. So take your time with each step and get started once you find out you may be leaving the state. You do not want to be left with a home --- It can eat away at your expenses.