Selling Your Home is Easier if You Prepare First

Selling a house is a complicated thing to do. It involves a lot of paperwork, a lot of meeting with people and most of all, a lot of time. That being the case, it helps to prepare ahead of time. There are a few things that anyone who wishes to sell a house should do prior to putting the "for sale" sign in the front yard. The sooner these things are done, the easier the job of selling the house will be.

Here are a few suggestions for things that you should do prior to putting your house up for sale:

Do you plan to hire a realtor? If so, you should probably do some research to find one. You want to find someone with whom you are comfortable and who has experience selling homes. You don't want to be dealing with a realtor who is still "learning the ropes. If you want to sell it yourself, you should probably pick up a book on the topic or do some Internet research. Try looking up "FSBO", which is short for "For Sale By Owner."

Get your house ready to sell. Is it in tip-top shape? Does it need paint? Roof repair? Yard maintenance? These are things you want to have ready ahead of time. First impressions make a lot of difference; you want you house to look great when it's time to sell. That applies to the inside of the house, as well. Before you show it, you need to make sure that it's clean and tidy.

Get pre-approved for a loan. If you are going to need to buy another house after you sell this one, you should get pre-approved for a loan now. That will make it much easier for you to shop for your new home. An even better idea would be to apply now for a home equity line of credit on your existing property. That will insure that you have an adequate down payment for your next home should you find that one before your current house is sold.

Consider having the house appraised. While realtors have a good idea of how much a home should sell for, you may not if you are selling it yourself. Plus, both mortgage and appraisal fraud are quite common these days. It wouldn't hurt to have an appraisal that is independent of the realtor or lender. Selling a home isn't particularly complicated; millions of them are sold every year. But the more prepared you are to sell yours, the easier it will be.

Posted by Glenda Ide on December 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM

About Glenda Ide
Glenda Ide is affliated with RE/MAX of St. Joseph, Inc., which is located in St Joseph, MO. For further assistance please use the contact information located on the right.

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Local Information for St Joseph, MO

Latitude: 39.757944 -- Longitude: -94.836541

ZIP Codes for Saint Joseph, Missouri	64501 64502 64503 64504 64505 64506 64507 64508
Area Code for Saint Joseph, Missouri	816
Time zone for Saint Joseph, Missouri	CST

Other Area Cities: Saint Joseph, MO Savannah, MO

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Saint Joseph was founded by Joseph Robidoux, a local fur trader, and officially incorporated in 1843. In its early days, it was a bustling outpost and rough frontier town, serving as a last supply point and jumping off point over the Missouri River toward the "Wild West", this due largely to the fact that it was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail until after the American Civil War. Several events of particular historical note occurred in Saint Joseph. Between April 3, 1860, and late October 1861, Saint Joseph was one of the two endpoints of the Pony Express. In 1882, also on April 3, the notorious Jesse James was assassinated. Jesse was living under the alias of Mr. Howard. An excerpt from a popular poem of the time is: "...that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard has laid poor Jesse in his grave." The Heaton-Bowman-Smith Funeral Home maintains a small museum about Jesse James. Their predecessors conducted the funeral. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Missouri 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Saint Joseph	Missouri	United States
Population	73,990	5,595,211	281,421,906
Median age	35.6	36.1	35.3
Median age for Male	33.8	34.8	34
Median age for Female	37.4	37.4	36.5
Households	29,026	2,194,594	105,480,101
Household population	69,372	5,433,153	273,643,273
Average household size	2.39	2.48	2.59
Families	18,463	1,476,516	71,787,347
Average family size	2.98	3.02	3.14
Housing units	31,752	2,442,017	115,904,641
Occupied units	29,026	2,194,594	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,726	247,423	10,424,540

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Selling Your Home is Easier if You Prepare First

Local Information for St Joseph, MO

Latitude: 39.757944 -- Longitude: -94.836541

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