I think you can start talking to realtors right now, it will take some of the pressure off you in the spring. But you won't get a very good fair market evaluation now for what prices might be like in the spring.

But you'll get an idea of which agents and companies you like.

If you do some research on this forum, the real estate section of some newspapers etc, you will some excellent ideas. You might start a notebook of the ideas and look at your home as if you were going to buy it to get it ready for sale. That information is avaiable here also. Will you be in the same area? New---if so is that really where you want to be? Medical? Shopping? Friends? Churches? etc.
Good luck
Marie

Thank you for the responses. We are looking to build in a development very close to where we live now in the same town. I realize that we won't know where the market will be in the spring , so it would be impossible to know how to price our existing home at this point. We did just have any appraisal done and it came out about where I expected. I can only hope the market increases more by the spring.

I was hoping to get feedback from the realtors on what things we should concentrate on improving in our house over the fall/winter. We have done a large amount of improvements over the past 4 years (whole 1st floor remodel, windows, furnace, roof to name a few) so I really don't want to put a huge amount of money into the property that I won't get back.

Is it best to use the same realtor for both selling and buying? I'm thinking we could negotiate a smaller commission. If we are comfortable with the realtor who is marketing the development we are looking to move to, is there any advantage or disadvantage to using them for both?

We've lived in our current home for 19 years, so I'm not up on the best way to handle this...and using HGTV as a model is certainly not the way to go. :)

I'd use a different real estate agent. Many who work primarily at selling in new developments are not good for selling pre-owned homes.

Be cautious about what you list as improvements. I wouldn't really consider a new roof and a new furnace as improvements (they're maintenance issues).

Unless you've done something like changing a normal shingle roof to a fancy slate roof. But even then, I don't think you'd be able to recover that cost with a higher sales price.

Roofs and furnaces are VERY important selling tools even if some people don't qualify them as an "improvement."

If you are planning to sell in the spring ... when are you going to build? And where will you live while building?

I'd do a major landscaping clean-up this fall, removing and pruning overgrown trees and shrubs, planting some bulbs and seeds that will sprout and bloom in the spring, doing a really good job on fall lawn care. You want everything to be ready to go when spring comes.

As for the rest ... clean it until it squeaks, and take care of all the minor repairs.

Again, thank you for everyone's input.

Lazy, building would occur during the spring, but not commence until we are under contract on our house. I'm prepared to have to rent for a period of time in the interim. I plan to fine tune the floorplan over the winter and will be looking for input over on the house building forum.
Thanks for bringing up the landscaping. We've painted the outside this summer and have done some landscaping, but could certainly do more. I agree, having bulbs popping up is a plus in the spring.

Duplicate post.

This post was edited by nhbaskets on Tue, Sep 3, 13 at 17:50