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The Nashville real estate market is a friendly place for sellers right now, but there are always ways sellers can position their properties for the highest possible sale price. We spoke with Lacey Newman, founding partner and Estates Director at the Heard Newman Team here in Nashville, to learn the essential do’s and don’ts to ensure you get top dollar for your listing.
Lacey Newman is a founding partner and the Estates Director of the Heard Newman Team at Compass. Her most significant piece of advice to anyone selling a home in Nashville right now is to call an experienced agent who is familiar with your neighborhood as soon as possible.
Call an agent ASAP and invite them to walk through your home.
If you’re interested in selling your home, Lacey says the best first step is to get in touch with your real estate agent and have them come to your house for a walk-through. The real estate market is shifting quickly right now, so it’s more important than ever to work with someone experienced with selling in your neighborhood and who works in real estate full time. “Being in your home helps me understand what I’m selling, and listening to you and learning about your goals and pain points will help me craft a strategy,” says Lacey. When it comes time to figure out these goals, Lacey says some critical questions to consider are: Am I concerned with timing the market to sell my home for maximum value, or is finding my next home the priority? Would I prefer to sell privately with as few people coming through the house as possible? Once you answer some important questions, your agent can execute the best strategy to sell your home with your personal goals in mind.
Lacey recommends getting in touch with your agent as soon as you consider selling. This helps agents understand your goals and pain points as a homeowner.
Prepare your home to go on the market.
While it’s no secret the real estate market is a seller’s market right now, it’s still important to take the time to prepare your home for the selling process. Lacey says it’s essential that everything is clean, organized, and presents well when a potential buyer walks into your home. “It’s important to make sure your home shows as beautifully as possible, especially with prices as high as they are now,” she adds. “You want to make sure you’re doing what you can to meet buyers’ expectations.”
Luckily, the Heard Newman Team offers a few services to help you prepare your home before it goes on the market. Their full staging consultation service can help you determine items you may need to pack up before showing your home as well as which furnishings should be relocated or replaced with staging. Additionally, because the Heard Newman Team is a part of Compass, they offer the Compass Concierge program. This means they can front the cost for any home improvements without any additional fees or interest, and as the seller, you pay back the investment at closing. “This allows our clients to maximize the value of their home without spending any money out of pocket. Nobody likes to spend money on a house they’re getting ready to leave,” says Lacey.
By offering full staging consultations and the Compass Concierge program, the Heard Newman Team can help prepare and stage your home before it hits the market.
Pre-market your home to price it perfectly.
Once your home is ready to go on the market, it’s time to start thinking about pricing. A universal truth in real estate is that the less time a house spends on the market, the stronger the offers will be. “We want to make sure we’re priced perfectly before we start accruing days on the market,” says Lacey. “That way, we can contract it very quickly, our clients can get top dollar, and we can make sure we are staying in front of fluctuations in the market.”
Setting a price point is not always easy, so the Heard Newman Team recommends a two-stage listing strategy. Before your home officially becomes available to the public, the Heard Newman Team uses artificial intelligence to target market your home to the agents who are most likely to have the buyer for your home. Then, the price may be adjusted based on agent feedback. If your home generates a lot of interest, you may decide to increase the price. Or, if you don’t get as much traffic as you’d hoped, you may choose to lower the price before putting it out to the general public.
“It is critical not to overprice your home in the current market,” says Lacey. “Homes are selling in an average of 19 days, so if a home doesn’t contract very quickly, it may end up selling for under market value.” Image: Garett Buell
It’s no secret that selling or buying a home is a huge decision, so you should have a team of trusted professionals behind you. Heard Newman Team has five agents, each with different knowledge and experience in everything from luxury listings to buyer and investor representation to new development. “Our team wants to be considered advisors on the same level as your wealth manager, CPA, or attorney,” says Lacey. “We strive to provide the same level of service and professionalism as you would expect from one of those other trusted professionals you depend on.”
To learn more about selling your home and Heard Newman Team, visit heardnewman.com or call (615) 800-7076.
This article is sponsored by Heard Newman Team. All photography by Stephanie Sorenson unless otherwise noted.