If you've been wondering whether it's a good time to sell your home in a 55+ community, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” About five years ago, the ample Baby Boomer generation began retiring, driving up demand for active-adult housing and communities. But they've just gotten started; over the next 10 years, they'll account for 10 million new retiree households in the US, as Forbes recently reported.
Developers and builders have been working hard to keep pace with skyrocketing demand for active-adult communities, especially in retirement hot spots like Central Florida. Still, the market remains strong for sellers with properties in this niche.
Selling under favorable market conditions is of course one of the best ways to maximize your home sale price. If you are preparing to sell, here are 10 tips to further help you get the highest price possible:
- Stage your home in a warm but neutral manner. Make sure everything's neat, immaculately clean, and shiny. Delineate functional living spaces, make the beds nicely, hang new towels in the bathrooms... all the little homey details matter. Clear out all clutter—especially in closets, on counters, and in cabinets; buyers love storage space!
- Pack up as much of your stuff as possible and store it off the premises. Remove photos of you and your family and anything else that makes the home feel like yours. Effective staging and depersonalizing lets potential buyers easily envision how they'll use the spaces and make the home theirs.
- Repair, touch up, or replace damaged doors and frames, walls, paint, window sills, baseboards, closet fixtures, shelves, blinds, light switch and outlet covers, dripping or leaky faucets, and anything else that's not in perfect shape.
- Paint all the interior and exterior walls a neutral color. Bold, bright, or unusual colors are a highly subjective matter of taste. Not only do they interfere with potential buyers' ability to envision the home as their own, it immediately prompts focus on needing work done if they purchase.
- Do whatever it takes to rid your home of odd or offensive odors, including from pets and smoking. These work against you big time, even if potential buyers are only affected subconsciously. Disinfect, deodorize, use specialty products, air the place out, and take the garbage out frequently.
- Boost curb appeal by tending to the house exterior and yard. Power wash the house or add a fresh coat of paint. Make any needed repairs to the roof, gutters, walls, windows, walkway, and driveway. Keep the lawn mowed and bring in a professional landscaping team to make your property look well-cared for, lush, and inviting. And don't ignore the deck or patio, if applicable.
- Bring in a professional photographer to stage and take pictures of your home for online marketing. The majority of potential buyers get their first exposure to your home on the web. Professional equipment and proper lighting, highlighting, arrangements, angling, and focus in the images go a long way toward making your home look as appealing as possible.
- Work with an agent with extensive experience in your area and 55+ communities. They know how to price high but realistically and how to reach motivated buyers. Look for a broker with a SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialist) designation.
- Use a real estate agent who develops a full marketing plan to sell your home. The more interested buyers you have, the better your chance of getting or even exceeding your asking price. Multiple potential buyers bid against each other, whereas if you're only dealing with one interested party, they're just competing against you, which means the price will likely only go down.
- Don't ignore lowball price offers. Sure, some potential buyers who make particularly low offers hope you're desperate, but usually they're willing to negotiate, and sometimes they're willing to go much higher than the first number they quote.
If you're getting ready to list your home in an active-adult community in Central Florida, we'd love to chat and let you know how we can help make the process as pleasant and profitable as possible.
