Kansas City is what many people would call a hot market – a seller’s market, if you will. According to Rocket Homes, the average price of a Kansas City home has increased nearly $25,000 over the past year and average listing age is down nearly three weeks from 119 days in March 2022 to 97 days in 2023.
Being in a seller’s market comes with a number of benefits, including:
- Increase in Home Value
- Increase in Bids and/or Bidding Wars
- Less Time on the Market
- Decrease in Potential Contingencies
After several years of waiting on the sidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, many homeowners are finding now to be the perfect time to sell as everything continues to turn to normal. The main problem is, many people don’t understand the basics behind selling a home in a hot market – such as Kansas City.
How to Sell Your Kansas City House in a Hot Market
Selling a home in a hot market is a delicate process that requires a distinct strategy designed to maximize the sale price, while minimizing the time on market. Sellers have to find a way to attract interested home buyers who are ready to submit their highest offer immediately – it’s possible, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Don’t worry, there are a number of things you can start doing today — like meeting with a real estate agent — to put you and your home in a good position to sell high and sell quickly – some of which we’re going to share with you below.
1. Get Your Inspection Out of the Way
The home inspection is something any buyer is going to want to see before placing an offer on a home. It only takes a couple of days to schedule the inspection and will only take a few hours once the inspector arrives at your home, but getting it done right away will speed up the process of selling the home.
2. Make Minor Repairs, But Only When Necessary
There’s a good chance your inspection will uncover a number of repairs – some minor, some major – that should be completed before someone else moves in, but don’t think you have to take care of all of them. In a hot market, cash home buyers are a little more forgiving about minor repairs if it means they can close quickly.
3. Stage the Home, But Don’t Go Overboard
Most home sellers spend a lot of money on staging their home to increase the level of interest it garners. While staging can certainly help in a hot market, it’s best not to go overboard with the staging – not only will it save you money, but it’s not going to make a huge difference if people are already heavily interested in it.
4. Limit and Restrict Showings Throughout the Day
If you’re trying to increase interest and incentivize home buyers to submit an aggressive offer, limit open house tours to certain times during the day. This will result in certain buyers touring the home when other buyers are present, creating a competitive atmosphere and tempting a buyer to step forward with an offer.
5. Take Professional Photos of the Home
Having a steady social media presence and maintaining quality info on listing sites is essential to selling a home in any market, but that need is elevated in a hot market. When people are ready to buy, they will often submit an offer based on the photos alone – all in hopes of making sure no one else buys it first.
6. Consider Hitting the Market on Friday
While listing a home can be done any day of the week, it’s best to go live with the listing on Friday – one of the hottest days of the week for home buyers. The best strategy here is to schedule the listing to go live on Thursday night at midnight, that way it’s ready for cash buyers first thing Friday morning when they wake up.
7. Gain Interest By Lowering the Sales Price
When selling a home in a hot market, it’s important that you trust in the power of bidding wars and trust the fact that you’ll likely receive a lot of offers. With that being said, it’s not a bad idea to lower the listing price – just a little bit – to increase the number of offers and increase the chances of a bidding war.
8. Be Prepared for Issues With the Appraisal
In a hot market, sellers have a good chance at receiving an offer above what it’s appraised at. While Kansas City sellers might want the offer to be as high as possible, local buyers are going to have a hard time securing a loan if the offer price is higher than the appraisal – meaning the sale could be in jeopardy.
9. Review All Offers and Make Notes on Each
As you start to receive offers for the home, make sure you review each one and write notes down for each one – that way, you can properly weed out all the bad offers and shortlist the ones you’re likely to consider. And remember, the highest offers aren’t always the best offers – there’s more to it than that.
10. Have Paperwork Ready for the Potential Buyers
One of the most stressful aspects of selling a home is the amount of paperwork involved. Having this paperwork completed and ready will help increase your chances of selling the home quickly and free of hassle. It’ll also incentivize the buyer to follow in your footsteps and move at a rapid pace.
Are You Ready to Sell Your Kansas City Home?
Are you interested in selling your Kansas City house fast? Are you looking forward to taking advantage of a hot market? Are you having a hard time selling your home because of the condition or status of the home? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, then you should contact Troy Kearns today!
At Sell Your House Fast KC, we believe in a hassle-free, fast and simple process that allows sellers to receive the cash they deserve for their home in a timely manner. If you’d like to receive a real, free, cash, and absolutely no-obligation offer on your house in Kansas, call us at (816) 280-4138 or email us at tk@lacasaglobal.com.
