Selling your Lake Wallenpaupack home requires a lot more than just putting a “For Sale” sign out front. It actually involves many steps: There’s advertising to plan and implement, open houses and private showings to coordinate, purchase offers to negotiate, contract contingencies to handle, an assortment of complex paperwork to fill out, and the list goes on. Our team of experienced Lake Wallenpaupack real estate professionals provides full-service client-level agency representation. When you hire us to represent you, we have a responsibility as well as a legal, moral and ethical duty to ensure that your best interests are always protected.

 

As our client, you can expect to receive the following high-level real estate services:

 

  • Evaluate the local market and comparable home values
  • Suggest an appropriate listing price
  • Advise you on how best to present your home, including providing referrals to painters, repair persons, and more
  • Help coordinate preparation of disclosure and other needed forms and documents
  • Create advertising materials and arranging for photographs
  • Place ads on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and in other media, and sending out postcards to potentially interested buyers on our mailing list
  • Arrange for individual visits to the property — if you’re no longer living there, most likely by providing a lock box for use by other Realtors®, and meeting with individuals who don’t yet have their own agent
  • Answer questions and providing documents such as disclosure packets to potentially interested buyers and their agents
  • Hold one or more open houses, possibly including weekday open houses for other real estate agents to visit, and weekend open houses for the public
  • Receive offers to buy your house via email/mail or in person if other agents wish to formally present their offers
  • Help you evaluate the strength of each offer and strategize on issues such as whether to accept or reject an offer outright or make a counter-offer, and whether to also look for or arrange a backup offer
  • Negotiate with the buyers’ agent until the purchase contract is complete
  • Coordinate with the buyer’s agent throughout the escrow period, helping to make the house available for inspections and appraisals and make sure you’re doing your part to close the deal
  • Help you strategize over requests made while in escrow, such as for a reduction in purchase price due to repair issues revealed in the inspection; and negotiating such issues with the buyers’ agent, and attend closing

 

Pricing Your Home 

We understand the nuances of the Lake Wallenpaupack real estate market and how to accurately price homes in the area based on those specifics. Price your home too high and you run the risk of it languishing on the market and becoming a stale listing. Price your home too low and you stand to lose money on the sale. Both of these outcomes can be avoided. One of the first steps in the selling process is to have a comparable market analysis (CMA) or home evaluation performed, which will help determine the most appropriate price for your home.

 

A comprehensive home evaluation can provide valuable information that includes:

 

  • Local market conditions – whether home prices are rising or falling
  • Sales prices for similar homes nearby that have sold in the last month or two
  • Prices for homes currently on the market
  • Average difference between the list prices and sale prices on similar homes that have sold
  • Listings that expired (usually because they were priced too high and no one bought) within a reasonably recent time period
  • Prices of pending sales – rather than closed sales – as they are the most recent

 Preparing Your Home to Sell

The next step is preparing your home to sell, providing home staging advice, and suggesting outside changes as needed (landscaping, power washing, painting, etc.) that will help draw more buyers in. The exterior of your home is the first impression that prospective buyers formulate and creating curb appeal is key to getting them in the door. Even the smallest enhancements can make a big difference in creating that “love at first sight” impression for homebuyers.

 

Always keep your home clean, tidy, clutter-free and in the best shape possible while on the market. Also, by taking the extra step to stage your home, it can also make a difference in how a buyer values it and the price you might get for it, according to the National Association of Realtors® (2015 Profile of Home Staging).  At a minimum, conduct a thorough cleaning, haul out any extraneous clutter, make sure your home is well-lit and fix any major aesthetic issues.

 

Marketing Your Home  

We strive to provide the best marketing tools online and offline to bring your home maximum exposure and the best services to get your home sold!  In a market like the Lake Wallenpaupack area, where homes for sale are added on a daily basis, your home listing needs to be seen in a variety of places to reach the widest range of qualified buyers. We have extensive experience marketing Lake Wallenpaupack Area homes as well as showing them to their best advantage. We will advertise your home through a variety of methods, including local publications and online MLS® listings (a database of current homes for sale.

 

Information about your listing will then be instantly available to agents and their buyer clients all across your area.  In addition, we’ll utilize the Internet, and feature your listing on our own professionally marketed and optimized Lake Wallenpaupack area real estate website to ensure that your listing is highly visible. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 82% of all potential buyers start their search on the Internet. We provide potential buyers access to up-to-date property listings 24/7 on our website. 

 

The Negotiating Process

When you start to get offers on your Lake Wallenpaupack area real estate, we’ll be there to represent you during what can sometimes be an emotionally charged negotiating process. The majority of homes on the market are typically not sold for asking price. As soon as a buyer expresses interest, they’ll offer a price and negotiations proceed. Each party attempts to seek leverage that will get them the price they want. You want an experienced and objective negotiator on your side during these discussions.  We will work together so that you get the best price along with favorable closing terms that are clearly spelled out. In reality, the best deals are always those in which both sides feel they got most of they wanted and didn’t have to give up too much to the other side.

 

Closing 

Once you’ve entered into an agreement with a buyer, the final step in the selling process is the closing. We’ll help you understand contract contingencies and the details o the closing process, in addition to handling all the paperwork for you. Typically, the seller, the buyer, and their respective agents are present at closing along with a closing agent who works for the title company or lender as well as a representative from the lender and the title company.  Either side may also have an attorney present. The seller and buyer will sign a stack of closing documents – and once all papers are signed and funds are disbursed, the seller hands over the keys to the new owner.

 

Alicia Kowalik, REALTOR®
Lakeview Realty Inc.
Wallenpaupack Realty
2449 Route 6
Hawley, PA 18428
Direct: (570) 470-5076
Office: (570) 226-6300
E-mail: Aliciat@ptd.net