Selling your house during divorce can be a hard task to accomplish. You’re already dealing with a lot of stress on your plate, and selling a home only adds to this stress. Here are a few tips you should follow when selling your house during divorce.
Tips to Follow When Selling Your House During Divorce
1. Clear Your Mind
Take a few minutes and clear your mind. This is a highly emotional time for people and it’s really important for everyone involved to gather their thoughts together. People affect each other, and sometimes the thoughts, opinions, and beliefs of another person actually stop the first person from being able to take any action or even think for themselves.
Try to find a space where you can be alone. Sit down with a pen and paper, and start to write out a list of 5 or 6 thoughts/opinions/ideas that another person gave to you that immediately occupy your attention. Writing them down and organizing the noise going on in your head is going to bring to light things that were said to you which have kept you from getting into motion or even made you start to question your own certainty. Audit these thoughts out of your head by writing them on paper and take the time to clear out your mind.
Now immediately after, you want to start writing down exactly what you know in your mind are your own thoughts/ideas/opinions on the same exact subjects you wrote about above. What ends up happening all too often is the words that come from other people may actually put you in a state of confusion if they contradict what you know to be true. Sometimes other people can actually put a stop to your ability to take action and make decisions because they can have you convinced something is real/true and you do not see it for yourself. It’s better to reinstall your own thoughts/ideas/opinions so you can make your own decisions and re-affirm your certainty.
2. Learn to Trust Yourself Again
What if I was to say to you that your brain is the best computer that was ever invented and it can never make a wrong decision? You would probably want to tell me about all of the times you made the wrong decision! Well, let’s examine something. Why do we regret things? Regret only exists because we found out something after something else has occurred. You see, when in the moment of making a decision, your mind will compute all the information it has at that particular time and it will tell you the best possible decision to make right then and there.
Your perception of the reality you’re facing, your knowledge of the people involved, and your ability to imagine the likely outcomes are all working together in that moment and your brain quickly puts together a decision for you. You cannot beat yourself up for learning about a person, place, thing, or situation after a decision is made because if you knew in the beginning what you know in the end, you never would have made that decision in the first place. That’s why it’s called regret. Start to trust your decision-making skills again, because taking any action is better than no action.
3. Prepare the Family
You cleared out your mind, reaffirmed your thoughts, and now you learned to trust yourself again. It’s time to prepare the family for the market. Declutter, remove family photos, fill holes and cracks in the walls, and freshen up the paint (choose neutral colors). Let everyone in the house know it’s time to keep the place looking as clean and tidy as possible. Buyers can make appointment requests very last minute sometimes, and the last thing you want to do is scramble to clean up.
You should be feeling more calm and confident with yourself for taking the above actions and now it shouldn’t be so difficult for you to let others in the house know what you are feeling. Besides, a clean and orderly environment feels great! No leader can lead their army if they themselves are not prepared, well-informed, and feeling confident. First, you take care of yourself, and now, you take care of the home. You got this!
4. Work With a Realtor You Trust
A realtor can become one of your closest friends very quickly if they are good at their job. They spend a lot of time with you in your home and they communicate with you almost every day. When you meet the right person, they won’t need to “sell” you on their services. It will just feel right when you communicate with them. Use your intuition and trust the read you get on a person. As long as they have a solid plan, extensive knowledge of their craft, and the right kind of energy, then you probably have the right person in front of you.
Trust all of your senses when selecting your realtor because they can be the biggest determining factor in how much money you get for the house. They have to be a skilled negotiator and charming talker. This is the beginning of a new chapter for you, and a little bit of time spent affirming your own thoughts and learning to trust yourself is going to go a long way for the rest of your very enjoyable life!
Andrew Ragusa is the CEO/Broker of REMI Realty on Long Island, NY. He is a Licensed Real Estate Broker, Sellers Representative Specialist, Accredited Buyer Representative, & Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource Specialist. Andrew is a regular in the media, where he talks about real estate issues. www.remi.agency
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