What is your number 1 piece of advice for home sellers?

Get a pre listing inspection, and do it before you decide anything else. That is my number one, and I know it is not the usual answer. Everyone says price it right, and pricing is genuinely important, but pricing is a decision you can revisit. What kills sales is the thing you did not know about your own house, discovered by a stranger on day 12, at the exact moment you have the least leverage and the most to lose. Here is the asymmetry. Before you list, a problem is a project. You get three bids, you choose a contractor, you take four weeks, you pay retail. After you are under contract, that same problem is an emergency. The buyer's agent frames it, the buyer's imagination inflates it, and you are negotiating against a deadline with someone who now suspects there are other things you did not disclose. The same repair routinely costs two to three times more as a credit than it would have cost you as a job. A pre listing inspection turns that around. You find out in advance, and then you get to choose: Fix it, and market the house as inspected and repaired with the report available. That is a real selling advantage in a slow market. Do not fix it, price accordingly, and disclose it up front. Buyers punish surprises far more than they punish known conditions, and a disclosed problem stops being a negotiating lever the moment it is on the table before the offer. Either way you control the story instead of reacting to it. Since you are selling in the spring and starting now, that is the right timeline for this. Order the inspection early, while there is time to actually do the work and while contractors are not yet slammed with spring jobs. If you wait until March, you are competing for the same roofers as everyone else who listed. The other thing worth doing in the same window, and it is free: walk through the house with your agent, room by room, and take out everything you would not move to the new place. Not staging, just removing. Most sellers are shocked at how much larger their house reads once the surfaces are clear, and it costs nothing but weekends you already have. One honest caveat. In a few states, and depending on your disclosure obligations, learning something creates a duty to disclose it. That is not a reason to avoid the inspection, since you would have to disclose it after the buyer found it anyway and in worse circumstances, but it is worth a quick conversation with your Illinois agent about how disclosure works there before you order the report. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional working Los Angeles and the South Bay in California, so Chicago is outside my market. Happy to help you find a strong Chicago agent to walk the house with you this fall, which is the right time to start for a spring listing. Zoltan

PRICE PRICE PRICE! Make sure you are priced appropriately! Keith Jean-Pierre Managing Principal The Dapper Agents Real Estate Operations in ALL 50 States

Start early! Building the team before the real estate season starts is crucial!

Does it look good? Does it smell good? Pack away anything you plan on moving anyway, and stage it like you were going to be renting it as an AirBNB. Take some photos and video on your phone and watch them back. That always helps!

Good morning, It is best to have a broker walk through the property with you, they will be able to tell what a buyer feels is important when they are purchasing a home. This is the best way to know what needs to be done. I am located in Plainfield and would be happy to help.

How Exciting , preparing your home before listing is key to get top dollar, do any necessary repairs or updates To maximize sales price