Shane McCarty’s Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Home in Nashville

Nashville is an exciting mid-southern city with an active housing market. Thanks to the city’s artistic vibes, lively music scene, amazing restaurants, and fun entertainment spots, there is a steady stream of home buyers looking for Nashville real estate. If you’re hoping to sell your property in Nashville, you should have no problem finding qualified buyers if you take the right steps to prepare. If you are willing to put in some effort and spend a few bucks as needed, you are certain to have great results. Follow these expert home-selling tips below to get ready for a successful sale in Nashville.

Creating a clean, inviting space is essential for making the best possible impression on prospective buyers, and it may be worthwhile to hire a professional cleaning service for this task. Decluttering is another vital step and involves removing personal identifiers from your home, such as knickknacks, memorabilia, and family photos. This helps to create a blank slate for your buyers — one where they can imagine their own lives within the home.

After cleaning and decluttering your home, it’s time to stage each space to look neutral, functional, and welcoming. Staging is the process of sprucing up your home with carefully selected furnishings and decor in order to make it more appealing to potential buyers. Overall, you want each room to have a purpose and flow well together.

While you probably could show buyers a completely empty home and still get it sold, consider the competitive advantage of showing off a staged property. Staged homes provide prospective buyers with an impressive vision of how your home will look after it is furnished and completely ready for living. This has a powerful psychological effect that has been shown to help homes sell faster and for higher amounts.

Fortunately, you have a lot of flexibility as far as how you can go about the staging process. In some cases, you may be able to just clean and depersonalize each room and then reorganize your own furniture and decor to set up an appealing space. Alternatively, many ambitious sellers actually purchase specific furnishings to create a whole new look. Another popular option is to rent furnishings for staging purposes. In addition, there are professional staging services that can assist you if you prefer taking a more hands-off approach.

You don’t need to renovate your entire home top-to-bottom in order to be competitive in the Nashville real estate market, but you should be ready to invest in making any necessary repairs prior to listing. Fix crooked door handles, recaulk the shower, and replace any worn-out light bulbs. Also, keep in mind that if you have an upcoming serious repair or replacement — such as a water heater or air conditioner that is beginning to have issues — it’s a great idea to take care of this prior to listing your home for sale. Otherwise, a buyer’s inspection will likely reveal the impending concern, and the buyer might insist on delaying the sale until this is handled. Talk to your agent for expert advice on which repairs may be important.

If you so choose, you can elect to get a pre-listing inspection. While buyers will typically get an inspection prior to moving forward with the sale, a pre-listing inspection will allow you to get a head start on any needed repairs prior to entering into negotiations with a buyer. If you’re wondering whether or not a pre-listing inspection may be a good move for your home sale, discuss this option with your agent.

While you’re shoring up the fine points of your home and creating a beautiful aesthetic inside, you don’t want to neglect the importance of curb appeal, either. Just as staging sets the scene for buyers when they step inside a home, curb appeal draws buyers in from the moment they pull up to the driveway.

Typically, online listings will feature photos of the home’s exterior as one of the main images, so you want to create an alluring, impressive space that invites buyers to click for more information. Make sure to mow and rake your lawn, clear off any debris from the driveway, trim the trees and hedges, and upgrade your outdoor lighting to give your curb appeal a major boost at a low cost.

Work with your agent to devise a selling strategy that gets results and works toward your goals. Your agent is well-versed in the local real estate market trends and has the knowledge to price your home competitively based on recent home sales in the area. In addition, they will be ready with top-notch marketing tactics to garner interest from serious buyers.

Once your home has been listed and your agent has identified some prospective buyers, home showings and open houses are usually the next step. Your agent will schedule, coordinate, and professionally represent you during home tours. They will be ready to answer any questions buyers have about your property, showcase all your home’s best features, and serve as an excellent resource for more information.

Above all, the best home-selling tip to help you reach success in the Nashville real estate market is to team up with a qualified real estate agent who knows how to get results. Shane McCarty is a trusted local agent who can provide you with additional insights and top-tier selling tips that promise higher offers and a streamlined sale. Shane has extensive experience working with buyers and sellers of Nashville luxury real estate, and he can assist you with finding your next Nashville home if needed.

Contact Shane McCarty to discuss selling your home in Nashville to see how easy and rewarding the process can be.

_{*Header photo courtesy of Shane McCarty}