Considering Selling Your Home in Seattle in 2025? Know the 3 P’s for your Path to Success
THE 3 P's FOR PREPPING YOUR HOME FOR SALE
“We want to sell in the quickest amount of time, and for the most money!” This is a typical refrain we hear from nearly every seller we have represented in the greater Seattle area. We love this demand as it is direct, honest, and speaks to two truths in any business transaction, time and money. A client who wants us to help list their home in the Spring of 2025 in the Green Lake neighborhood recently reached out and asked how best to go about this process. Our response to this very familiar seller question is that there is a specific blueprint which will lead to great results for sellers. We refer to it as the 3 P’s (Preparation, Presentation, and Price) related to selling a home successfully. In all instances, each of the 3 P’s have to be well executed to achieve the most money in the shortest amount of time, the seller’s goal. If one of the three P’s is off, it will lead to issues. If two are off, there will be a pound of pain for both the seller and the listing broker leading to long days on market and potential price drops. Let me explain in greater detail.
PREPARATION
Preparation is the key and the initial building block for success. Preparation includes the list of home improvements we recommend to prepare a home for market. This home Preparation list will vary depending on the homes condition. In this particular case, the sellers are vacating the home prior to listing, creating the perfect opportunity to prep the home properly for sale. A deep house clean, window cleaning, repainting/touch ups of interior and exterior paint, repairs of all deferred maintenance, landscape refresh of front and backyard, and roof and gutter cleaning. Each task will be necessary given that this seller has done little of this work during their ownership. This scope of work will provide the clean slate needed to allow for the Presentation part of the process to begin.
PRESENTATION
Presentation involves creating all marketing in order to show the home in the best possible version of itself. Buyers shop for real estate on their phones predominantly and take deeper dives on their laptop/desktop before they decide to tour a property with their real estate broker or visit an open house. It is paramount that the presentation of the home is as perfect as possible to get these buyers off the couch or out of the office, so they actually see the home in person. Presentation includes quality professional staging, photography, floor plans, 3-D Walk Through(Matterport), interior and exterior video, and including drone imagery. These are the staples of doing Presentation the right way, and any shortcuts could lead to less buyer traffic at the home once it hits the market.
PRICE
The final P is Price, and it is generally what buyers and sellers are always hyper focused on as they should be. The seller’s list price should never be determined until the first two P’s have been dialed in flawlessly. It is at this time that the home is the best version of itself and the one which buyers will see once the home is listed. As you can imagine, a home which is brought to market when occupied and has that “lived in” feeling will present far differently than the picture perfect staged home. We always provide sellers with multiple market analysis, especially when there is a bit of a runway of time from our initial conversations to actually listing. When a seller is determining their list price, they should be reviewing the data shared by their trusted real estate broker. This data will include market analysis with “comps”(comparable sold or pending properties) which are very similar to the sellers home. There is always a sweet spot in which a home should be priced. This is an amount that the seller would be happy with, but also a price that buyers/buyers broker will find as unobjectionable and the home will be perceived as priced at a reasonable market price.
We have helped sellers execute the 3 P’s many times leading to fantastic results(shortest time on market and most money). And we have seen other broker’s listings completely ignore this process resulting in long days on market, price reductions, and eventually an expired listing. In all events each of the 3 P’s has to be executed for this plan to work. The seller can do an amazing job with Preparation and Price, but may hire an incompetent real estate broker who does a terrible job of Presentation. Or, you can have a seller make the right choices with Preparation and Presentation, and then list the home at an above market Price. Even worse, I have seen a seller do zero Preparation, the listing agent do next to nothing for Presentation, AND price the home too high! If you are considering selling in the near future, remember to follow the 3 P’s as your guide for your success.
