15 Things homeowners can do to make up to 3% more on the sale of their home

I call it the “3% Rule.”

And it means that the average homeowner can potentially make up to about 3% more on their home sale.

After decades in real estate and selling hundreds of homes, I truly believe that the average homeowner can do certain things to influence the sale of their home. In my estimation, homeowners can increase their net profit by up to about 3% compared to if they DIDN’T do these things (or compared to the competition).

Of course, this isn’t an exact science. But even a 1% increase in a $300,000 home sale would equal an additional $3,000 in a home seller’s pocket. And 3% would equal a whopping $9,000 – enough extra profit to hire a moving truck and take the family on a nice vacation before you move into your next house!

Remember that while some of the items on this checklist may seem fairly insignificant – or even obvious – it’s my experience that if you do them all and do them well, you’ll get more for your home and see a higher profit. The best part is that these are all things that YOU can do – influencing your own destiny without being subject to the whims of the market, real estate agents, and buyers.

But no matter if you end up making an extra $100, $1,000, or $10,000 on the sale of your home, it’s all a net positive. So what are the things you can do to help profit a little extra – maybe be even 3% in some cases – when that “For Sale by the Alfano Group” sign goes up in your front yard?

1. Clean
Before we even list your home for sale, it’s time to roll up your sleeves because it's time to clean your house from top to bottom. A thorough pre-listing cleaning will including getting in the corners, dusty shelves, tops of cabinets, packed garage, etc. that’s often missed with regular weekly cleaning. You’ll also want to make sure to steam clean your carpets, get water spots off of mirrors and shower doors, and recaulk and re-grout in kitchens and bathrooms where it's dingy or discolored. Definitely get rid of any trace of bad odors, like must, smoke, pets, etc. Just having your home sparkling clean and looking and smelling fresh will go a long way when the first prospective buyer walks through!

2. Declutter
Once you’re done cleaning, it’s time to go through your home and remove clutter, excess items, and two-thirds of your personal effects. A decluttered, de-personalized room will look bigger and more airy for the ever-important listing photos. It will also be easy for potential buyers to envision their own personal things in the space, and that’s a great first step towards selling for a higher price to help reach the +3% goal we set.

3. Evaluate the home’s condition
Buyers will order pest inspections, home inspections, appraisals, sometimes even roof certifications, and carefully go over the disclosures you send them. What will they see? You know your house better than anyone, so if you anticipate any issues or negative items popping up during these inspections, it’s better to address them – not mid-transaction when they could potentially slow down the sale, lead the buyer to ask for a price reduction, or, even worse, have second thoughts.

Short of hiring your own home inspector, you can pay your handyman or a licensed general contractor to walk through and give you a quick but thorough assessment of your home’s condition. He or she can tell you what will most likely need to be repaired immediately before the home sale closes, what will need some TLC a year or two down the road, and even give you prices to do the necessary work. Of course, essential repairs like a leaky roof, cracks in the foundation, and inadequate heat and air systems definitely need to be addressed before we put a For Sale sign up. Taking care of these things before the buyer ever walks through will help foster their perception that the house is squeaky clean and well-maintained, and therefore more likely to offer full price or negotiate less.

4. Spend on light repairs only
Yes, we want to take care of important home repairs, and fix anything that could compromise health, safety, or cause further damage to the home. But after that, we’ll want to focus our time and resources on the repairs that will drive up your price and cost you the least, ensuring that your ROI on these repairs is through the roof.

5. Spruce up your kitchens and bathroom
There are also plenty of small repairs and fixes that focus the ever-important kitchens and bathrooms that could boost your offer price. Low-cost (sometimes even DIY) projects like painting, replacing dated lighting or fixtures, etc. in kitchens and bathrooms always strengthen your sales price because those are the rooms that buyers tend of focus on the most.

Research into listing and sale prices reveals that putting money into improving kitchens and bathrooms yields the highest ROI of any home repair, and houses that have new, modern, and updated kitchens and baths consistently sell for more than similar houses without those improvements – maybe even for up to 3% more!

6. Curb appeal
Another way you can boost your home sale profit is by dolling up your curb appeal. Even if you don’t have the time or money for expensive upgrades, you can create a great first impression for buyers just by painting your front door a bold, bright color! Step out to the street and look at what a buyer will first see as they walk up to your home for the first time. A fresh coat of paint on the front exterior of your house, planting some flowers, installing a new mailbox, putting up solar walkway lights, power washing the driveway, and doing a little landscaping don’t cost a lot but will enhance your cub appeal.

7. Consider having your home staged
When it comes to netting more from a home sale, the adage, "You have to spend money to make money," may apply to home staging. In fact, for higher-end and luxury home sales, enlisting the help of a professional stager is a must. It won't cost much at all but will offer huge returns when your home sells.

In fact, national statistics show that staged homes sell in an average of 13.8 days while non-staged homes sell in 30.9 days, and staged homes sell for an average 17% higher sales price, offering a 586% return on investment. Furthermore, 9 out of 10 potential buyers said they had trouble visualizing how an unfurnished home could appear if they lived in it, and 81% of buyers report that a staged home is easier to visualize the property as their future home.

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Look for part two of this blog with 8 more things homeowners can do to possibly make up to 3% more when they sell their home!

5 More home selling science and psychology secrets that will make you big money! (Part 3)

When it comes to selling your home, everyone wants to walk away with the highest profit possible. Fortunately, there is a whole hidden science to selling a home, based on mountains of data, copious independent research, and the psychology of perceptions and human behavior. When you list your home for sale with The Alfano Group, you not only have hard work and great service at your disposal, but strategies and tactics developed over decades of successfully representing home sellers. 

We'll share more and more of these home selling tips so stay tuned, and of course contact us if you want to find out how to make the most money when you sell your home!

1. Your greatest marketers could be your neighbors!

Your neighbors are one of your best assets to help market and sell your home, yet rarely utilized. But it makes perfect sense to spread the word about your home hitting the market to those live around you, as they have a vested interest in choosing a great new neighbor. In fact, if you go knock on their door (or have us do it) and let them know the details of the sale and even provide them flyers or brochures, they’ll do a great job telling their friends and coworkers, providing a boost of serious and motivated buyers.

They’ll actually thank you for briefing them before the listing even officially hits the market, and will hustle to generate interest. In the same vein, you can also spread the word about your for sale home to neighborhood associations, local schools, and other community organizations.

2. Personalize your listing with a quick introduction video.

When buyers are in a competitive offer situation, Realtors often advise them to write a personal letter about how much they love the house and a little bit about themselves. In some cases, it can absolutely sway the sellers into accepting their offer, as the personal touch balances out all of the contracts and numbers inherent in a real estate transaction.

The same tactic can work for sellers if they put together a very short (maybe one minute or less) video about their family and their home. Talking candidly about how much they loved the house, the great memories they had there, how they loved the neighborhood and schools, their favorite local parks and restaurants, and giving a valid reason why they’re selling and moving can all be part of a seller’s video.

It’s not the information in the video per se that will make a difference to buyers, but psychology shows that it will humanize the listing, allowing it to stand out from the pack and establishing positive feelings of trust and familiarity. Ask us more about what would be appropriate for a great seller video and how we can use it on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc. to help market your home.

3. Focus on low-cost home improvements in kitchens and bathrooms.

To fix up or not fix up, that is the question for many homeowners before they list their home. Research shows that it doesn’t pay to undertake huge and expensive home improvements before listing your home, unless they are essential or safety concerns, like leaking roofs or faulty electrical systems. But additions, adding a pool, remodeling every room, and other significant upgrades will probably only yield you 20-40 cents on the dollar once the home sells.

Instead, data shows that the wisest investment is to put resources into smaller, cosmetic improvements into your kitchen and bathrooms. Repainting the walls, replacing dated appliances with stainless steel, modernizing light fixtures and possible retiling floors in the kitchen all keep the budget under control but will be a huge selling point when buyers walk through. In fact, that will yield an ROI of 85% or higher, and buyers pay most attention to the kitchen and master bathroom when making a first impression of a home.

4. Impress buyers (and their agents) by having your inspections all done.

There is a lot of uncertainty in any real estate transaction, with inspections, appraisals, disclosures, and contingency periods all reason for a buyer to get cold feet – or choose to renegotiate. But one great way to relieve that uncertainty from the get-go is for sellers to get all of their inspections done before they even list the home. Potential buyers (and their agents, especially!) will love reading in your listing description that the house has a clear pest report, a roof certification, a completed home inspection with the appropriate fixes already done, and maybe even a current appraisal.

Not only will it eliminate any surprises during the transaction so it’s psychologically comfortable and safe, it signals that you are serious and ready to close. By having all of your inspections completed ahead of time, you’ll attract a better, more motivated breed of buyer that won’t waste your time or nickel and dime you on every fee and issue that comes up. This strategy works especially well for higher end and luxury listings, but for all sellers it ultimately saves a lot of time since the deal can now close as soon as their loan clears, saving days or weeks, and we all know that time is money when you’re selling your home!

5. Have your home professionally staged.

For any high end or luxury home, enlisting the services of a professional stager is a must. But is it really worth it? If you’re worried about the cost or inconvenience, consider these statistics from Realtor Magazine and The International Association of Home Staging Professionals:

95% of professionally staged homes sell faster than non-staged homes.

Homes that are staged stay on market only half as long as homes that aren’t.

Staged homes sell for an average 11% higher purchase price than non-staged homes.

Only 4% of homes in high price brackets are staged (which means two things: some real estate agents aren’t doing their jobs correctly, and your luxury home will stand out like a diamond in a pile of coal when you do stage it.)

The median dollar value for home staging services is only $675 (but higher based on more work and the nicer the home/higher the listing price),

But the great news is that surveys show that staging generates a Return On Investment of 8-10% when the home sells

With those benefits and financial returns, can you afford NOT to stage your home?

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If you'd like to check out more home selling secrets from The Alfano Group, try these past blogs: 

http://thealfanogroup.blogspot.com/2016/04/home-selling-science-psychology-and.html

http://thealfanogroup.blogspot.com/2016/05/home-selling-science-psychology-and.html

The 15 most common items reported by home inspectors (Part 2)

When you’re buying or selling a home, the home inspection is a critical step in the process that ensures there are no major health, safety, or functionality issues with the structure. Of course almost every house has a list of items the inspector finds that need addressing, but most of these are usually easy to address or fix without disrupting the sale.

In part one of this blog we covered a little background on why home inspections are so important, as well as the first five items that home inspectors most commonly report, and here are the remaining ten items you’re most likely to find flagged in a home inspection:

6. Pest infestations
One of the most common worrisome findings in home inspections is evidence of termites and other pest infestation and damage. In fact, making sure the house you are buying (or selling) is free from harmful critters, water hazards, and other wood-destroying pests of mass destruction is so crucial that most lenders mandate you have to sign off on your pest report before they’ll issue a mortgage.

Termites, dry rot, and the other hazards can cause irreparable damage, but the damage is often hidden below subfloors, structural beams, or inside the wood that makes up your home, making detection during a home inspection or pest inspection invaluable. Home inspectors can point out obvious problems they see, but a more detailed pest inspection is always recommended.

7. Foundation issues
Home inspectors will thoroughly inspect the foundation of the home, or, for homes with a crawl space, will actually get under the house and check everything out. They’re looking for serious structural problem like cracks in the foundation, evidence of faulty construction that is putting the stability of the house in jeopardy, as well as leaks, drainage problems, and standing water under the crawlspace. Far from cosmetic, the implications of finding foundation issues can put a yellow light on the whole transaction until they are further investigated and remedied.

8. Doors and windows
All doors and windows on the property need to open, close and lock properly, and shouldn’t show evidence of shifting, “catching” as they close, or locks that were damaged or kicked in. Even garage doors and automatic garage door openers need to work properly, and your home inspector will flag these doors if they do not, as it’s a safety issues, not jut inconvenient.

9. Missing Fascia
One of the most common problems home inspectors write up is missing fascia boards on exterior trim. It’s not uncommon for fascia boards, soffits, and other trim pieces to rot, fall off, or just be missing due to improper installation.

10. Improper fan ventilation
Home inspectors often find that the ventilation system does not work properly for a variety of reasons. It’s critical for a home to be adequately ventilated from bathrooms, the kitchen, attics or crawl spaces, and garages, as moisture buildup can cause mold or environmental issues. Improper ventilation can also boost the temperature of attics and crawl spaces, causing a fire hazard or just putting more wear and tear on the roof and other systems.

11. Electric cable entrances
All of those cables that need to enter your home from the outside for cable TV, internet and phone lines may not seem like a big deal, but any times you have electrical connections and exposed wiring (cabling), it needs to be monitored. Improper connections at the breaker panel, frayed, weathered or damaged cables, and cables not equipped to handle the electric load (like if you have 200 AMP service but the entrance cable is only rated 150 AMP) are all items the inspector will check for.

12. Roof
Any homeowner knows that this is a big one, because roofs are extremely expensive to fix or replace. Most importantly, a faulty roof can let in water, causing catastrophic damage. So home inspectors will do a cursory review of for shingles that are curled or brittle, broken or missing flashing, tiles that are cracked, etc. to make sure your roof is in good working order - and still waterproof. This includes inspecting the entire gutter system to make sure none are clogged, bent or missing.

13. Bad chimney flashing
For those houses that have chimneys, or even roof ventilation on wood stoves and other heating devices, home inspectors often find faulty flashing. Poorly installed, broken, or just aged flashing can allow water intrusion in the home. While home inspectors will look for these problems, it may be a good idea to order a separate chimney inspection where they will also look for missing mortar, cracked bricks and tiles, missing chimney caps, and the build up of dangerous creosote.

14. Grading issues
Yards, terrain and landscaping that slope towards the house – not away – invite water to collect and run into the structure, which is can cause critical damage to foundations, basements, plumbing and electric systems, and cause a host of environmental issues. It seems like such a fundamental thing, yet home inspectors still find yards that have grading problems all the time.

15. Water heaters problems
One of the most common problems that home inspectors write up in their reports have to do with water heaters. Water heaters need to be properly strapped and braced per current codes, have the correct size piping and adequate exterior ventilation. Inspectors also carefully look for missing or incorrect temperature pressure relief valves (TPVR), which are a major safety protocol in case the water heats too high and the pressure builds but can’t release, which can cause an explosion.

15 Home-selling mistakes that could cost you a lot of money. (Part 2)

Your house is probably the largest financial investment you’ll make in your lifetime, and therefore selling it should be handled with diligence, care, and planning. But too often, homeowners make the same common mistakes when putting their home up for sale, ultimately costing them tens - if not hundreds -of thousands of dollars.

But if knowledge is power, then by identifying these most common home selling mistakes we can empower you to make better decisions and avoid them, ensuring you maximize your profit when selling, starting with selecting the right real estate agent to represent you.

In part one of this blog we covered the first 7 mistakes homeowners make when putting up their house for sale, and here are the next 8:

Mistake #8: Becoming too emotional

We understand that your house is your home, where you probably raised your family and have many years and memories invested. But selling your home should be viewed as a business transaction, not personal. By taking emotion out of the process as much as possible, you’ll make clear and logical decisions in your best interest. Ask any successful businessperson and he or she will tell you that emotion, fear, anger, ego, and personal feelings end up costing you money!

Mistake #9: Not listening to the market

When we list a home, we first run a comprehensive market analysis for the seller, showing the hard data about what similar homes in the same area are selling for, as well as what other competition is on the market. We’ll make our best professional recommendation on the listing price, but the final decision is up to the homeowner. No matter where you set your initial listing price, pay attention to what the market is telling you – what the data says. Ignoring market data and instead making decisions on emotion or hope for gain can be counterproductive and cost you in the long run.

Mistake #10: Failing to think like a buyer

Instead of thinking, “This is what I want for my home,” and “I want to sell at this price,” try to put yourself in a potential buyer’s situation. Imagine yourself hitting the home buying circuit on a busy Saturday and how you would view each listing. For instance, buyers usually start from the bottom of their price range and then work their way up, and as a home seller, realize they will be viewing a lot of other listings in the same price range as your home – your competition. Understanding the process from a consumer’s perspective will help you maximize your home’s presentation and strategically set your price to get the highest and best offers!

Mistake #11: Not having your home staged

If you are trying to sell your luxury or high-end home, enlisting the help of a professional stager is a must. Yes, you’ll have to spend a small amount of money up front, but it will offer huge returns when your home sells. In fact, national statistics show that staged homes sell in an average of 13.8 days while non-staged homes sell in 30.9 days, and staged homes sell for an average 17% higher sales price, offering a 586% return on investment.

Still not convinced? In a recent survey, 9 out of 10 potential buyers said they had trouble visualizing how a completely unfurnished home could appear when furnished, and 81% of buyers report a stage home is easier to visualize the property as their future home.

Mistake #12: Not researching your competition

Buyers have a lot of homes to choose from, so before you even price your home or put a For Sale sign in the front year, your real estate agent should sit down with you and go over a market analysis thoroughly. Every home that is currently for sale within your greater geographic area and with similar dimensions and features (for instance, homes with 3 or more bedrooms in Folsom,) should be considered your competition. This is the same approximate list your pool of potential buyers will be looking at, so make sure you’re listing is strategically priced and positioned correctly against that competition.

Mistake #13: Not marketing your listing correctly

What sells homes these days? A great home at the right price is WHY a home sells and that never changes, but the HOW is something far different. Research shows that certain marketing strategies significantly impact home sales – and pay the most dividends for the seller. These include taking a good number of professional-quality photos, staging the home, making sure it’s easily accessible for any potential buyer’s agents, exposure through community and professional networking, and especially a great online presentation that includes a stellar MLS listing, web, email, and social media promotion. Marketing correctly through digital platforms is essential these days, especially with higher end listings, considering that 95% of luxury homebuyers are active and engaged on social media and 90% of luxury buyers start their search for a home online.

Mistake #14: Not consulting your tax advisor and other financial advisors

Some of the best tax breaks you’ll ever realize are tied to real estate, especially with capital gains exclusions and the ability to do a 1030 exchange rollover to avoid profit from some home sales becoming taxable events (especially with investment properties.) However, you never want to sell your home (or make any big financial decisions, for that matter) without consulting your CPA or tax planner. Since an additional hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions) of income you potentially might have to declare would surely throw your tax returns out of whack, failing to get expert counsel could potentially be the biggest home selling mistake you could ever make.

Mistake #15: Using the wrong Realtor

The home seller ultimately makes the important decisions about pricing, listing, staging, showing, and marketing their home. But smart sellers enlist the help of the best real estate professional possible to give them great advice, and it all starts with finding the right real estate agent. Too often, homeowners choose a Realtor just because they know the person socially or they bump into them at an open house, but you should really use a local expert who specializes in listing homes similar to yours. Interview the best candidates and ask tough questions, while also gauging whom you feel good about since you’ll be communicating and working closely with that person. If you follow this process, you’ll end up with the best possible real estate agent to help you sell your home and maximize your profits through a smooth transaction.

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The Alfano Real Estate Group would love the chance to compete for your business and earn your trust. When you’re ready to sell your home, so feel free to contact us any time with questions.

Home selling science, psychology and secrets that will make you huge money! (Part 2)

In part oneof this blog, we introduced the hidden science to selling a home, based on mountains of data, copious independent research, a combined centuries of home selling experience, and the psychology of perceptions and human behavior. Based on this information, we’ve extracted the best tips, secrets, and scientific principles that will help you sell your home for top dollar. Here 10 more home selling secrets, and contact us if you have any questions or need help selling your home!

1. First impressions

Just how important are first impressions when a potential buyer looks at your home? Research shows that 80% of all prospective buyers know within a seconds if a home is right for them. It’s probably happened to you, too – that feeling that a home has the “it” factor when you first walk in the front door. Based on that data, it’s important that home sellers focus on enhancing the elements of that first impression. Start with the curb appeal of how your home looks from the street when first pulling up, the walkway to the front door, the entryway itself, and of course the foyer and first impression when they walk inside. Luckily, fresh paint, flowers, landscaping, air fresheners, new lighting, etc. are all relatively inexpensive ways to boost your home’s first impression.

2. Light and mirrors

Small rooms or spaces that frequently lack natural light or sit in shadows can be a real turn off for prospective buyers, as they’ll gauge them as smaller than the actual square footage, unappealing, or downright uninviting. To help enhance a room’s brightness and openness, make sure you don’t have heavy curtains, but window coverings that allow as much light in as possible. Mirrors that are strategically set up to reflect natural light during certain times of day are also effective for re-shaping homebuyer perceptions.

3. Smoking is bad for you (and your sale)

If you’re a smoker and regularly lit up inside your house, selling can be a big challenge. Even if you can’t whiff even a trace of cigarette or cigar, homebuyers can almost instantly sniff the remnants in your house – making them cringe, and probably walk right back out the front door. Since smoke particles can be 1/1000 the width of a human hair, smoke tends to permeate into walls, wallpaper, curtains, rugs and flooring, and even the heat and air system, and is hard to eradicate. It’s not enough to open the windows and place a lot of air fresheners in the house, but there are ways you can permanently treat the smoke particles. Replace heat and air filters, steam clean carpets, repaint walls with special odor-blocking primer, thoroughly wash curtains and bed coverings, and even change light bulbs. Then, place bowls of vinegar around the house for three days (you can also try this with baking soda). Once you open the windows after that, the vinegar should extract the cigarette particles and send them right outdoors!

4. Access should be easy

Is it easy for a buyer to view your home? And just as importantly, is it easy for a buyer’s real estate agent to set up a showing and prioritize your home as they go out house hunting? Research and anecdotal evidence shows that if a home is hard to get into, certain rooms are off limits, dangerous pets are home, has restrictive showing hours, is only available by appointment, or has other special instructions, it will probably go to the bottom of the stack of homes they are looking at that day. Of course your own convenience and privacy as a homeowner is first on your mind, but if you’re serious about getting top dollar for your home, you’ll prioritize the buyer’s experience and make it easy to display “your product.”

5. Clean out storage - but not all the way

You may have heard the advice (including from us) to de-clutter your home before listing it for sale by empting out closets, cabinets, and other storage areas. In fact, the perception of a potential buyer is that a home is larger, more inviting, and even lighter when there are less effects and possession around, and they can even subconsciously project their own things in the space. But you also don’t want a home to be completely devoid of furniture and decorations. A great tactic is to take out 80% of your stuff out of closets and storage areas and out it in off-site storage (not packed into your garage.) But by leaving a few choice items in your closets, cabinets, and on countertops, those areas and surfaces will look even bigger and more spacious, enhancing the buyer’s perception of utility.

6. A picture is worth a lot more than 1,000 words

When selling real estate, you can never have too many attractive and professional quality photographs. Since the vast majority of buyers and agents will first be exposed to your listing online, the first thing people do is look at the main photo and then start clicking on a few more. In fact, a recent study showed that listings with more than 6 pictures are twice as likely to be viewed by buyers as listings that had fewer than 6 pictures! It’s also worth to have your photographs taken by a real estate photography professional, and for higher-end and luxury listings, video tours and drone footage will yield great results.

7. Relocate the pets

Fido The Dog may be a beloved member of the family, but it would be wise to remove them from your home during the period when you’re selling. Buyers may be allergic to dogs or cats, annoyed by incessant barking, scared or have traumatic memories, or just turned off by the smell. It’s a certainty that having non-traditional pets like snakes, weasels, etc. will turn away a large chunk of your perspective buyers – and drop your price. You can bring them back into the home once you have a signed offer and you’re in escrow, but make other arrangements for the few weeks when you’re trying to attract buyers.

8. Stainless and uniform in the kitchen

Kitchen appliances should definitely be uniform (not mismatched between black, white, and stainless.) A brand new stainless steel refrigerator won’t be viewed as a positive if the rest of the appliances are different, but only highlight the fact that they’re not updated. For most properties, stainless steel appliances are well received because they are universal and perceived as higher quality. White appliances should be a second option and you probably want to avoid black kitchen appliances.

9. Incentivize those who are helping you

Your home may be priced correctly, immaculately staged, and even blow away the competition, but if you are offering a reduced commission for the buyer’s agent, it probably won’t sell. Of course everyone wants to save money, but reducing listing and buyer agent commissions only guarantees that you are de-incentivizing the exact people who can help you sell and net the highest profit. In fact, if your buyer’s agent commission falls below a certain acceptable level, most agents won’t even bother showing your home! Conversely, research shows that offering full commission or even .25 or .50% above the norm yields a much higher rate of showings, quality offers, asking price, and net profit for the seller.

10. Sell the lifestyle and amenities

Remember that you aren’t just selling your home, but selling the experiences, amenities, and lifestyle a buyer will have access to if they buy your home. Be sure to feature information/photos/and anecdotes about outdoor living areas, neighborhood schools, nearby parks, shopping, great restaurants, community amenities, and any gyms, sports fields, jogging trails, etc.

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We actually have even more home selling secrets and tips to share with you, so stay tuned for part three of this blog, and contact us any time you have questions about selling your home!