That’s right, we’ve been talking about selling season and all the wonder it entails pretty much every blog entry that I can remember. The reality is that it’s always selling season. Lots and homes sell in December and January for sure and if you are looking to sell or buy there is certainly nothing stopping you from doing that most any day of the year (yes, we get calls on Christmas day, New Year’s Eve, my birthday, etc.). The key difference is selling season is the time when the most folks are most excited about most of our Lake Keowee property. Because the weather is more conducive to lake frolicking this time frame is also more conducive to buying and sellicking (more the Tom Sellicking of Ferrari, Hawaii, etc. not the Blue Blood cold and dreary Sellicking).

There is always a gradual uptick in activity as we get closer and closer to July 4th. Then things begin to crest a week or so later and then activity descends slowly  and gradually to a low point along about January and February. Your property can sell any time of year naturally, but if you are going to pick a prime time for it to be out there for the consumer to see, do it during selling season. That hopefully will lead to you happily sellicking in Hawaii with a smile on your face after you’ve sold one of your most prized possessions (a Lake Keowee home or lot) through Mike and Matt Roach of Top Guns Realty, of course.

Business-wise we’ve been working like little squirrels adding listing nuts to the stash. New pictures, new video walk-throughs, new aerial videos, new subdivision videos, etc. We even found the time to close a Lake Keowee waterfront lot whilst also in the middle of a negotiation for another Lake Keowee waterfront lot! The weather has been cooperative; though were you on the lake Saturday? Crazy winds as a front blew in. I took the kids to The Cliffs Beach Club on the jet-ski and thought maybe I should have driven the car. Fortunately the winds tamed themselves a couple of hours later leading to an incredible afternoon. I digress, again. Business! Lots of good listings, tell your friends, send them our way. It’s selling season!

Lot 34 Cliffs at Keowee

Lot 109 Keowee Bay – Just Listed!

Selling Season Learning

It’s time for us to dazzle you with our knowledge again with step 3 of the 29 essential tips that get homes sold fast:

3. Do your homework before setting a price.

Settling on an offering price shouldn’t be done lightly. Once you’ve set your price, you’ve told buyers the absolute maximum they have to pay for your home. The trick for the seller is to get a selling price as close to the offering price as possible. If you start out by pricing too high, you might not be taken seriously by buyers and their agents. A price too low can result in selling for much less than you had hoped for.

Setting your home’s sale price can be a fairly easy process. If you live in a subdivision comprised of homes with similar or identical floor plans, built in the same time period, then all you have to do is look at recent sales in the neighborhood to give you a good ballpark figure.

But many people live in older neighborhoods that have changed quite a bit over the years. Every home in your neighborhood may be different in minor or substantial ways – the house next door may have added another bedroom, for example, or the one across the street might have been built recently to fill a vacant lot. As a neighborhood evolves over the years, you may find that there aren’t any homes that are truly comparable to your own.

If you decide to sell your home on your own, the most common way to set a value is to look at homes that have sold in your neighborhood within the past six to 12 months, as well as those now on the market. That’s certainly how prospective buyers will assess the worth of your home.

You can usually learn what homes have sold for in your neighborhood by making a quick trip to City Hall; home sale information is in the public records in most communities (but not all).