Selling Your Desert Home*

So, you're moving to Tucson - Fantastic! Or maybe you already live here, and you're about to move to a new house - after you sell your old one. If you're living in a rental currently, then you don't have to fool with selling a home, and this article will not be as helpful - but you should still glean loads of helpful techniques on keeping your new home sharper, eye-appealing, and ready for company (or selling later).

It's likely that if you are selling a home, you are going to be buying a home. This article is written predominately as a guide for sellers, but the information presented here actually serves two purposes. First, it will help sellers to prepare their home for sale. Second, it will assist buyers in the way they look at (and inspect) a prospective new home. Be sure to check out the article on termites, as they are a critical factor in Tucson homes.

All sellers want to sell their homes as expediently as possible, and without any hassles or undue expenses. But they also want to get top dollar when they do sell. These goals are not mutually exclusive, though it might seem that they are sometimes. Both objective are served by the seller who prudently invests the necessary resources to properly prepare their home for showing and sale. Of course there's a balance to be struck between the two goals. A home that has been freshly painted, re-roofed, has a new air conditioner, a new swimming pool and a new spa will doubtless sell faster, but will the seller recoup the investment required to accomplish those things? While this example is grossly exaggerated, it makes the need for a balance eminently apparent.

Your best help in preparing your home for sale will come from an experienced Tucson real estate agent. If you've not yet decided on an agent, and you want to determine what might need to be done to make your home more salable, this article (and other parts of this website link to realtors page here) is an excellent place to begin.

When you decide that you are going to sell your home, create a file on your computer, and/or in your home filing cabinet. You want to approach this task like a business. This strategy is necessary to ensure that you maintain the previously mentioned balance between quick sale and optimum profit. The need for this balance will become more and more apparent as you read this, and as you prepare your home for quick, profitable sale.

Another really nice thing to do (meaning it will help in the selling process) is to prepare a document of all those 'little things' that your house requires in order to run smoothly. Such things might include: operating the watering system with certain settings; opening or closing doors to improve house air flow for heating and cooling efficiency; contact information on all those service people who know your house, and do a good job of repairs or maintenance; the location of any GFICs [ground fault interruption circuits]. GFICs are those wall plugs (duplex receptacles) that have a black and a red button on them. If they trip, everything on the line can go out - including your heating and cooling. These are customarily located in bathrooms, kitchens and garages. If the one in your guest bath controls the heating and cooling (HV/AC), and it trips, the HV/AC won't work - but the fuse panel will be fine. All that needs to be done is the button needs to be pushed to reset the circuit. Knowing this can be very helpful, and save the high cost of an unnecessary service call.

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