3 Tips to Help Sell Your House – Or the House of Your Loved One – When You’re Over 50

Prepare yourself to be insulted.

If you or your loved one is over 50, chances are you’ve collected a few mementos over your lifetime which you have beautifully displayed in your home.

If those items are extremely unique... if they are expressions of deeply held religious or political beliefs...or if you’ve owned them for more than a couple decades, there’s a chance that those items that you love so much, could hurt your ability to sell your house.

I know it’s hard to hear, but when it comes to selling a house, it’s essential that you
depersonalize and genericize your home as much as possible.

Why? Because if people are sending their time looking at your things, they’re not spending time looking at the house.

What’s better is a staged, generic looking house that other people can imagine themselves living in. And the more the home looks like something they’ve seen on HGTV, the better.

Don’t repair everything you think you need to repair.

At least not until you get the expert advice of a real estate agent.

If you think there are things to repair in your house or your parent’s house, you’re probably right. But not all repairs are created equal. The person who actually makes an offer to buy the house may not care about something that you think is important... and they may think something is important that you don’t think is a big deal.

Now of course, if the deck has fallen off your house, that’s going to be a problem for most
anyone who considers buying your house.

But before you go through the time and expense of repairing every little thing, talk to a real estate agent first.

Find a Professional to Help

 I’ve met children selling their parents’ house who their parent said to do a for sale by owner. And the child wants to honor their parent’s wishes. Sometimes the parents had a bad experience with a real estate agent. I get it. I have too.

Sometimes the parent wants to save money on the commission. A good real estate agent will more than pay for their commission by setting you up for success and getting you the best offer possible on the house.

In addition to helping with the items above, a good real estate agent can help you get the house ready, can give you the most exposure to the most people to draw a bigger crowd in to see the house, knows what to look for in an offer because it’s more than just looking at who offered the most money, can help you negotiate, and so much more.

Plus, 88% of people buying a house use a real estate agent, and by using a real estate agent to sell the house, you have a better chance of getting in front of the clients of those real estate agents.

And for the over 50 crowd, using an senior real estate specialist, can help you connect to
resources beyond selling the house, including connecting you to senior placement specialists who can help you explore senior living communities, in home care so maybe you can stay in your home longer, organizations that can empty a house or sell personal property, help for caregivers and more.

Kelly Vandever is a Realtor and Senior Real Estate Specialist® with Keller Williams North Atlanta. If you or a loved one has a property to sell in the metro Atlanta area, Kelly would love to help. If you need a referral to an agent outside the metro Atlanta area, Kelly can help with that too. Connect directly with Kelly Vandever - [email protected] - 770-597-1108.