Top Home Selling Tips and Best Kept Secrets

How to sell your Katy area home in 4 easy steps:

1. Contact Sheila Cox for a preliminary price analysis. Your choice: Call 832-779-2890       -or-        Email House Details To Me
2. Meet in-person to discuss your service level options.
3. Walk-through the home and decide on next steps.
4. Sign paperwork and get home listed.

That’s the beginning of the process. Getting a home ready to go on the market, marketing the home to buyers and their agents, handling contract negotiations and repairs, dealing with problems in the sales transaction (title commitment, surveys, lenders, inspections, HOA compliance, and more), and then finalizing the sales transaction involves many more steps!

In my experience, home owners need 4 to 8 weeks to get their home ready to go on the market. Please contact me EARLY in the process so you don’t waste time or money! And so you don’t miss your own deadlines/goals. 

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Best Way to Sell = VIDEO TOURS!

If you want to get the highest price for your home, then make sure the largest group of potential home buyers can see it. There are many buyers that are out-of-state or out-of-country who will pay TOP-DOLLAR for “site unseen” homes, if you provide a detailed video walk-through like mine. I’ve sold many homes via HD video posted on my YouTube channel and I know the “INs and OUTs” of the process!

Make sure you change Quality settings to at least 780p or higher

NOTE: I also staged this home with extra furniture, artwork, curtains, and decorations. At the Closing, the Home Buyer
commented that the decorating was one of the reasons they bought this particular home. 😀

I can provide high-quality HD videos with my listings
This is a great way to advertise your home on social media!

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How I Stage To Sell!

This is a short video showing one example of how I staged a home to sell! This home sold in 2021 for full price in 4 days to an out-of-town buyer (who didn’t walk the home in person until the day before Closing). She told us at Closing that the decorating was what “sold” her. Even beautiful homes in HOT real estate markets can use a little bit of staging.

Check Out More of My Staging Samples

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My Seller Testimonials

As you consider how to sell your Katy home, you may want to review what some of my previous clients say about me (below). You will notice in the following reviews that I often help my clients sell their existing home, and buy a new home, at the same time. Let me know if you need help buying a home too!

“Sheila was amazing in every way imaginable. We opted for the full-service package and it was worth every penny. She gave a thorough and detailed explanation of the process with a recent market analysis and how she determined the list price. She staged, took photos and videos of the home herself. We received a full list offer after one day of being on the market sight unseen because of the quality of her work. We really appreciated everything Sheila did for us and highly recommend her services!” — Callahan

“Sheila was the best realtor we could have ever asked for. We could always depend on her to get the job done and she was always looking out for our best interests. I was going through the tragic loss of my mother during the sale and purchase of our home, and Sheila went above and beyond in ensuring that all was being taken care of and everything was moving along smoothly on BOTH ends. Where the other realtor failed during the process, Sheila jumped in to pick up the pieces and kept things moving along. She is dependable and trustworthy, and has great knowledge of the market and lenders. Her superb advice and expertise made the whole process, which could have been very stressful given the circumstances, move along as smoothly and possible. People like Sheila are few and far between, and we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to work with her.” –Worley

“Sheila was OUTSTANDING!!!! Well beyond the call of duty!!!! I could not recommend any service provider higher, in any industry, that I have ever experienced.” –Post

“In an age when good customer service is hard to find, Sheila is a gem. She handled both the sale of our old house and the purchase of our new one, and I was completely pleased with both transactions.” –Compton

“Sheila is simply the best. She was our selling and buying agent and made what I wasn’t sure was possible, happen. This was our second time to work with her and I would highly recommend Sheila to anyone.” –Boykin

“Sheila is an experienced and knowledgeable realtor. She did a great job of shepherding us through the arduous process of a successful house sale. I would definitely recommend her services.” –McNulty

“Sheila does a great job of listening to her clients and then direct them down the right path. She is a joy to work with.” –Veltri

“Have worked with on 2 real estate transactions. Her level of service and knowledge has not waivered. Would recommend Sheila to anyone looking for a good quality service Provider who is honest and willing to ask tough Questions when needed.” –Henry

“Sheila has a very outgoing personality and I found her very easy to get along with. She proved to be very professional and knowledgeable about Katy real estate and I discovered many important things I did not know about before in respect of selling a property and buying a new one. Even though I was out of the country for a while, she took over my house and prepared it for the Open House and other showings until we received an offer. Thereafter Sheila very patiently helped me to find the right house for my needs. I would definitely recommend her to future buyers/sellers.” — Mokwe

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How It Works

Once you contact me via phone or email, then:

1. I create a preliminary price analysis.
2. Schedule a time to meet with you in-person to discuss price and find out more about your needs.

Once you decide to hire me, we go through the following home sales process:

This is a simplified view of the over 100 tasks I perform as a listing agent…just sayin’ 😄

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My Services – What You Get When You List With Me

A real estate transaction can take 2-4 months or more. There are MANY things that Realtors do behind-the-scenes. My To Do List as a Listing Agent has over 100 action items! There are lots of moving parts in a real estate transaction and you may not even be aware of all your legal obligations as a home seller in Texas. And if you don’t properly disclose as required by law, you can be sued for treble damages under the Deceptive Trade Practices act.

That’s why I’m here…to guide you through the 2-4 month process and work not only to get your home under contract with a qualified buyer…but to get the transaction ALL THE WAY TO CLOSING & FUNDING. You only get paid for your home if the Buyer signs the Closing papers and FUNDS the money.

The following is a list of value-added services that I provide to home sellers. Many of these items are expenses that I pay in advance, out-of-pocket, to help sell your home. The sales fee/commission that you pay my brokerage at the Closing is intended to cover these costs and compensate me for my time, knowledge, expertise, and energy over the 2-4 month long process.   

My Services for Sellers

Virtual Tour Video

No matter how good the photos are, home buyers can’t see your home’s layout and floorplan through photos alone. Today’s home buyers love to  view video tours (walk-throughs) of potential homes.

This is especially true in the Katy area where so many people are relocating from other parts of the country (or the world). In this area, it is very common for one spouse to be viewing properties here, while the other spouse is located far away. A video tour, in that situation, can help encourage an offer…since the out-of-town spouse can view your home online.

Plus, offering detailed walkthrough videos expands your potential “buyer pool” to people anywhere in the world. The larger your potential “buyer pool” the better the sales price!

So, I create and publish a walk-through video of your home and make it available on your MLS listing and other websites.

If you are still living in the home, video tours can minimize the number of unqualified showings that you have to manage. It can be a hassle to pack up kids and pets and leave your home for hours at a time, and then get the feedback “floorplan doesn’t work for buyers.” So to try and prevent that, I post a walk-through video so that potential buyers can view it first, and then only set an appointment if it looks like the floorplan works for them.

My walk-through videos are not photo slideshows or those annoying 3D video programs that don’t show the back yard, pantry, laundry room, garage, etc. I actually take my video camera and walk your home as if I were a home buyer…including opening closet doors. This is a great selling technique that very few (less than 20 percent) real estate agents provide to their clients.

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Professional Photos on MLS Listing

High-quality photos are the second most important part of marketing your home to potential buyers. In “the old days,” before we could put photos on the Internet, buyers used to drive by houses and see what they looked like from the street. This is what we call “curb appeal”…how appealing a home appears from the street curb.

Today’s “curb appeal” is how good a home looks via online photos. Instead of driving neighborhoods, home buyers search on the Internet.

If you are also looking for a new home, you know that some photos are much better than others. Ugly photos do not encourage showings. When home buyers have other options, they will “weed out” the homes with ugly photos.

Buyers May Not Tour Your Home If It Looks Bad Online

To help you sell, I upload high-quality photos of your home when I list it to the MLS. I hire a professional photographer to ensure we show off your home’s best features. Research shows that the more photos a potential home buyer sees, the more emotionally attached they become to your home. So the more photos the better!

Staging Service

If your home doesn’t look it’s best, you may not get top-dollar for it. However, a little elbow-grease and some effective furniture arrangement and staging will go a long way to get your home in top “show condition.” I am an expert in getting your home in show-worthy condition.

If you need help staging your home, or if your home is vacant and you want it to appear as warm and inviting as possible, then I can provide staging services (for full-commission listings only, special conditions may apply). This service varies, depending on your home and what it needs to look as good as possible. If you already have furniture and decorations in the home, then my staging service helps to declutter and arrange it to show off the home’s best features. If your home is vacant, then my staging service adds art, decorations, and minimal furnishings to make the home appear more warm and inviting. Sometimes, we use virtual staging…where photos are digitally enhanced by professionals. Whatever your situation, I can help!

In some situations, your home may need some remodeling and updating to compete with other homes on the market. The following video shows an example of how I helped a home owner remodel and stage his home. You will also see the difference between “bad” photos and “great” photos (which includes wide angles and lighting).

BEFORE & AFTER VIDEO

You can also view videos on my YouTube channel

Floorplan

I can create a floorplan of your home. Buyer’s love to get that level of information.

Advertised on Social Media

I will post your video and photos on various social media accounts to advertise there as well. And you can share those posts with your friends and followers too. Home buyers are not really using social media yet to find homes, but it never hurts to spread the word to more people. Word-of -mouth represents about 9 percent of all home sales.

Monthly Check-Up for Cleanliness (if vacant)

If your home is vacant for more than a few weeks, then dead bugs will start to appear and make the home look unkempt. So, if you select the Gold plan, I will check your home at least once a month to vacuum dead bugs and make sure it stays clean and in top showing condition.

Detailed Price Analysis

I will provide you with detailed pricing data and a complete CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) so you can make a wise pricing decision. Unlike most agents, I also do a Market Analysis (for your specific neighborhood) and a House Analysis, and help you understand how those two factors also effect your sales price.

Pricing is important! If you price your home too high, it will “linger” too long on the market and then, possibly, become “stigmatized.” Buyers never say, “This house has been on the market for 2 months? Let’s pay them full price.” Instead they say, “This house has been on the market for 2 months? There must be something really wrong with it. Let’s move on.”

We also don’t want to price your home too low and “leave money on the table.” Typical CMAs average out average homes. If your house is a Premium house (looks like a model home and in top condition) then a typical CMA will under-value your price.

Detailed MLS Photo Descriptions

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what room you are looking at when you are viewing a photo. Or you can’t tell if the floor is tile or carpet. So I also take the time necessary to write detailed descriptions of each photo so that potential buyers know what they are looking out and notice all the best features of your home. This helps to “sell” your home before a buyer even walks through the door!

Prioritized Home Preparation Plan

A few home owners do not need help with decluttering and staging their home to sell, but most do. I will walk through your home, take detailed photos, and create a prioritized preparation plan, so you know exactly what you need to do to show off your home and get through the home inspection phase of a real estate transaction.

I will also give you a copy of my 25+ page Home Selling Tips & Checklists with very detailed, prioritized checklists and other tips for getting your home in top-dollar condition, including my “Sixteen ‘Must Do’ Items To Prepare Your Home for Inspections.”
This helps make the process for preparing your home as quick and painless as possible.

Weekly Showing and Activity Reports

If you want to stay well-informed on showings and activity, then starting with the SILVER plan, I can provide you with weekly reports so you always know exactly what’s going on with your home listing.

Market Watch Emails (to monitor the competition in area)

When you are selling your home, it is useful to keep your eye on the market activity in your neighborhood, and monitor what your competition is doing.  So with the SILVER plan, I set up a customized Market Watch for you, which will let you know when homes in your neighborhood: go on the market, reduce their sales price, when they are sold, or when they go off the market. You will be able to view the details and photos on those homes as well. Smart!

Listed on MLS

The most important thing to do to get your home in front of as many potential home buyers as possible is to have your real estate agent list it on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). This is where buyers’ agents in the area search for homes to show their clients. It is also the source of the data that gets sent to all the other real estate websites, such as HAR.com, Realtor.com, Zillow, Redfin, etc. When I list your home on the MLS, it can be found by the 30,000+ real estate agents in the Houston region. It will then be sent out through the Internet (via “Internet Data Exchange” or “IDX”) within a few days (or hours!) so that anyone can do a Google search on your address and see your listing.

If your home isn’t listed on the MLS, then it won’t be advertised all over the Internet on Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. The MLS is the database that send your listing to all those other websites. This is the best advertising service that real estate agents offer consumers. Without the MLS (which REALTORS created BEFORE Zillow, Redfin, or Trulia even existed!), your home would not be advertised across the Internet on other websites like it is now.

However, your listing needs to be added correctly to the MLS…and this is not as easy as it sounds. Many agents don’t know what they are doing and incorrectly list your home…which makes it difficult (if not impossible) to find. For example, if an agent doesn’t ensure the correct subdivision name for your home, buyer’s agents searching for homes in that subdivision won’t see your house listed. (That’s just one example.) Lots of agents leave important MLS fields blank which means your home won’t show up in a search for that field (such as size of garage, 2-car vs 3-car).

Professional For Sale Sign in Front Yard

It is important to put a professional-looking For Sale sign in the front yard, since up to 4% of home buyers find the home they purchase due to a yard sign, plus another 9% when your neighbors see your For Sale sign, and tell their family and friends. I use the the real estate post signs that are the highest quality.

Secure Key Box on Door

Buyers can’t purchase your home if they can’t view it in person. To make it super-easy, I put an electronic lock box (key box) on your home so that licensed (and finger printed) agents have easy access to show your home. The lock box that I use records every person who opens it, with the time and date. Only licensed agents and inspectors can obtain the electronic key to unlock these boxes.

Make sure your agent is properly securing your home with an electronic key box – manual combination key boxes are not secure. If the buyer sees the code, they can enter and leave your home without permission.

The old-fashioned push button or combination key boxes that some agents use are not secure. Those combination codes can be easily shared and I’ve heard of buyers unlawfully accessing vacant homes as often as they want (and without supervision), due to knowing the combination code. Plus, there is no record of who is accessing your key and when they are contained in the old-fashioned key boxes.

Automated Appointment Scheduling Service

Again, buyers can’t purchase your home if they can’t view it in person. To make it super-easy to set showing appointments, I am a member of both online appointment services in the Houston area and they are the fastest and easiest way to enable licensed agents to set appointments to show your home. When an agent requests an appointment you will be notified via text or email (whichever you prefer) so you can accept or decline the appointment, and the buyer’s agent will automatically receive showing instructions.

Buyers Can’t Buy Your House If They Can’t See It

If you hire an agent who is not a member of Showing Time, then they require buyer’s agents to call or text them to get permission to show the home, and to obtain the combination or code to the key box. If that agent is hard to get in touch with, or makes it difficult to set showing appointments, then you miss opportunities to show and sell your home. Unfortunately, you will never be aware that this is going on. Let me tell you, as a buyer’s agent, there are numerous times when I had clients who wanted to see a home but I could not get in touch with the listing agent to show it! Many times, these were vacant homes that had been on the market for months. No wonder, when the listing agent was making it difficult to show the home.

Online Contracts and Signature Service

Real estate laws in Texas are complex. To make sure your sale is compliant, and to help prevent future litigation, I will provide you with the necessary sales contracts and legally required disclosures. I use an online signature service to make it easy for you to review and sign documents online. This saves time and headache…no more scanning and faxing!

Contract Negotiations

When we receive an offer on your home, we will need to negotiate several aspects of the offer, including:

• Price
• Inspections & Repairs
• Closing Date
• Terms and Conditions
• Home Warranty
• Survey
• HOA Compliance

Receiving an offer to purchase your home is not the end of the process…it’s the middle! Even after the purchase contract is signed and executed, other negotiations often pop up. After inspections, there is typically a second round of negotiations for repairs. Plus, other issues can occur in the transaction that will require my help and expertise, such as handling appraisal issues or dealing with lender delays. A real estate transaction is complicated, but I will help you through it!

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How Sales Commissions Are Paid

A lot of home owners do not understand how real estate sales commissions are paid (see image below). Remember that sales commissions are negotiable between the seller and the listing broker/agent. There is no set commission rate. 

The following shows the Cooperative Compensation method of handling real estate sales commissions. Other ways of handling real estate sales commission include: Seller Concessions or Direct Compensation from the seller to the buyer’s broker.

With Cooperative Compensation, the home owner only pays ONE sales commission to the Listing Brokerage. Then the Listing Brokerage (and Listing Agent) are responsible for covering the other “costs of doing business” in your 2-4 month (varies) long real estate transaction. This may include paying for professional photography, videography, staging, secured electronic key box, online appointment service, MLS membership (so your house will be advertised all of the Internet*), Buyer’s Broker fee (which pays the Buyer’s Agent for the 2-4 months they manage the buyer during the 2 month transaction), open house costs, yard signs, Errors & Omissions insurance, etc.

Think about buying a car. When you buy a car, you pay the dealership. Then the dealership has “costs of doing business” including paying the salesperson, service manager, receptionist, finance manager, etc. You do not pay those individuals when you buy a car…the dealership pays them out of the purchase price.

Likewise, when you sell a house, you do not write a check to the photographer, Buyer’s Broker, Buyer’s Agent, appointment service, MLS advertising service, secure key box service, sign company, etc. You typically pay one sales commission to the Listing Broker, as agreed to in your Listing Agreement. Then the Listing Broker and Listing Agent pay the other costs of selling your home.

What Do Sales Commissions Pay For? There is an old story that goes something like this. A home owner calls a plumber to his home to solve a plumbing problem. The plumber looks around the house for about 10 minutes, and then he grabs a pipe wrench and hits a pipe three or four times in the same place. The plumbing problem is quickly resolved. The plumber then hands the home owner an invoice. The home owner is shocked to see that the invoice is for $200. The home owner objects, “How on earth can you charge $200 for simply banging on a pipe three or four times with a pipe wrench? I demand that you itemize this bill.” The plumber takes the invoice from the man, recalculates it, and hands it back. The invoice now reads: Item one: Hitting the pipe with a pipe wrench–$2.00 Item two: Knowing to hit the pipe with the pipe wrench–$99 Item three: Knowing where and how to hit it–$99. So the plumber’s fee compensates him for his service (hitting the pipe), knowledge (know to hit the pipe), and expertise (knowing where and how to hit the pipe). Likewise, sales commissions compensate real estate agents for our services, knowledge, and expertise in real estate, as well as all our out-of-pocket expenses for selling your home. Remember that every transaction takes approximately 2-4 months of our time and effort. 😊

 

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About Buyer’s Agents

Data shows that 86 percent of home buyers use a real estate agent to help them buy a home. This is because a real estate transaction is lengthy (2-4 months or more) and has a lot of legal deadlines and requirements that most home buyers do not understand and are not trained to handle.

Buyer’s agents help guide home buyers through the lengthy process and handle problems along the way. That includes not only showing homes, but also doing price analyses, writing contracts and addendums, ensuring proper legal disclosures and notices, managing inspections and getting through the inspection phase, handling appraisal issues, title issues, survey issues, HOA issues, and more. 

Without the guidance of professional Buyer’s Agents, many real estate transactions would never begin and many would never complete at the Closing table.

It doesn’t do a home owner any good to just get “under contract” with a home buyer. Home owners do not get PAID unless the transaction is fully completed, Closed, and funded. That’s what professional Buyer’s Agents are trained to do.

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The Truth About Open Houses

Less than 5 percent of all homes sold are done so at an open house. It is very rare for buyers to make offers at open houses. The main reason that real estate agents host open houses is so they can meet prospective buyer clients. They figure that the people who attend open houses are potential clients for buying a house. Plus, a lot of people attending open houses are your neighbors, so they may also be potential selling clients.

Open houses do not (typically) sell houses, but they can lead to two problems: theft and insurance liability. A real estate agent can only be in one room at a time. Sometimes, multiple thieves will attend an open house, split up, and head for your bedroom and bathroom to see what they can steal. Also, if someone is trips or falls at your home during a open house, you can be sued. Always weigh the PROs and CONs before allowing an agent to conduct an open house at your home.

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The Problem With Some Discount Agents

A lot of discount real estate agents are part-time agents and are not easily available or hard to get in touch with. This may make it difficult for buyer’s agents to show your property. Plus, if they are not getting paid a full commission, they are not motivated to pay for all the extra services that a full-service agent offers…those services add to their operating costs. These two things may make it hard to sell your home.

Then, if your house sits on the market too long, the carrying costs (mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities, lawn service) add up and the final sales price will probably go down. Buyers never say, “This house as been on the market four months? Then let’s offer full price!”

All of this effects a final Seller’s Net. The following illustration shows what I mean.

Watch this video for more details on this topic.

You can also view videos on my YouTube channel

Let Me Help You Sell Your Home

Send me your address and contact info by filling out the form below, and I will contact you within 24 business hours. Let’s do this! 😀