How to Sell a House in Seattle 2023

Learn the nuances of how to sell a house in Seattle 2023 in this in-depth guide! This year can be a great time for you to sell your home, depending on your equity, your financial situation, and your specific goals. You will want to reach out to a real estate agent sooner than later so you can strategize and make a plan. Keep reading for our advice on how to sell your home in 2023!

In this blog, we are going to share the advice our team members are sharing with their clients as they prepare to sell a home in Seattle in 2023. We will also give you a ton of detail about how to sell a house in our multi-step guide.

Start Here – How to Sell a Home in Seattle in 2023 Video

Kim gives you special advice on how to sell a home in Seattle. There is a reason why we sold ALL of our listings during the Fall of 2022 market. They followed our Diva Difference listing process. Kim spills all of her secrets in this video.

Next – Download Our Home Seller Guide

Next Up – Check Out the Advice From the Team About Their Secrets

We asked the team what advice they are giving to their clients on how to sell a house in Seattle in 2023. And here are a few of the highlights of what they shared:

Price the Home Right: It’s absolutely crucial to price your home correctly and competitively.
Condition is Everything: Your home needs to be in excellent condition and shine both online and in person.
Every Part of Your Home Needs to Be Ready for Buyers: Go “all in” when selling your home. This means fixing what’s broken, staging, and marketing the heck out of it!

Jump to Our 10 Steps on How to Sell a House in Seattle Guide

Choose a Listing Broker That is a Good Fit For You
Conduct a Detailed Home Walkthrough with Your Listing Team
Fix What’s Broken
Make it Pretty
Market the Heck Out of It
Strategically Price Your Home
Diva Marketing Go Time
Evaluate Offers
Your Home Is In Contract
Closing Day!

Let’s dive in!

Tips From Team Diva on How to Sell a House in Seattle in 2023

Advice from the team on how to sell a home in 2023. Team photos and a link to the seller page on the website.

Our Team Diva team members work with both buyers and sellers in many neighborhoods throughout Seattle and King County. Because we are always actively working with buyers and sellers, we have real-time market knowledge. We consistently know about hyper-local market trends because they are even “official” reports. This also means that our team members know exactly what sellers need to do to successfully sell a home at any given time.

Here’s the advice that our Team Diva brokers have about selling a home in 2023:

Kim Colaprete’s Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“My first tip is this: Don’t assume it is NOT a good time to sell. It could very well be a great time for you to sell your home depending on your equity, your financial situation, and your goals. Always reach out to your Realtor to ask all the questions. And if you don’t have a Realtor, Team Diva is here to talk about whether now is the right time for you to sell. Next, if you definitely are selling, go all in, even if there is a possibility you will be selling your home for less in Spring 2023 than you would have in Spring of 2022. Today’s buyers are picky! If your home isn’t well maintained, shows poorly, is overpriced, or poorly marketed, it will sit on the market. And the longer it sits, the less money you will make. The best way to win in 2023 —or, frankly, in any year— is to be the best presented and best priced home on the market.”

– Kim Colaprete

Rocky Flowers’ Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“Get your house in tip-top shape. In a declining or stagnant market, it is important that your home shows at its best to get the maximum value for your home. If it’s broken, fix it, and if you can afford to stage, stage it. Hire an agent who has systems in place to help you get your home in the best showing condition. And hire an agent who knows how to market the property to potential buyers. The days of slapping up a sign and selling your home are over. Also, understand that the market is changing day to day. You may have to reduce the price if your home is sitting on the market and not generating showings. Agents and sellers don’t set the market value, buyers do. If you place your home on the market and receive a low offer, don’t take it personally. An offer is the first step in the negotiation process. Evaluate the offer and find a place where you can respond in a way that is reasonable for yourself and the buyer. But take the emotion out of it.”

– Rocky Flowers

Roy Powell’s Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“2023 will be your year! Even in slow markets, the best homes sell quicker than their neighbors. To make your home the best, you will need to be strategic and work with someone who will focus on the details that buyers will notice. I want your home to be an aspirational purchase for a buyer, no matter the price. Home buyers will know when you’ve cut corners, so don’t. Let’s make a plan to get your house looking awesome and get it priced competitively so that we can market the heck out of it.”

– Roy Powell

Lindsy Russell-Mitchell’s Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“Just because the market has shifted, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a good time to sell. It all depends on your personal goals, home equity, personal financials, etc. Finding an agent who understands your goals and this market is also KEY! At Team Diva, we look at every home as a Diva, and every Diva has her day! Fix what’s broken, deep clean, stage, and then market the home like crazy! It’s important that your listing really stands out among a sea of inventory, and that you know your stuff to be able to answer questions for potential buyers. Although it can be disruptive at times, for the best results I highly suggest going ALL IN when it comes to selling your home.”

– Lindsy Russell-Mitchell

Donna Burns’s Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“A great listing that yields the most interest and best price is going to be the home that looks worthy and cared for. At Team Diva, we believe that presentation is absolutely everything with a listing! Really great photos are a must since most of the time they’re the first point of contact with a house, but it has to look beautiful in real life as well! First and foremost, it needs to be VERY CLEAN and SMELL clean. In addition, staging of some kind is always mandatory, whether it be a full house of furniture in the style of the home or a few added pieces to accentuate already well-outfitted spaces. We always clean and beautify the exterior and believe that ‘curb appeal’ is super important, so keep in mind the old adage ‘you gotta spend money to make money,’ and go the extra mile for your listing!”

– Donna Burns

Hannah Wilson-Hillard’s Advice for Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

“Do the work, and make your home show ready! The things that are selling right now are not just priced right but they also look amazing and stand out from the rest! If it doesn’t look its best, it is going to sit on the market and become another crusty rusty!”

– Hannah Wilson-Hillard

How to Sell a House in Seattle 2023

If you’re ready to sell your Seattle home in 2023, follow our step-by-step process to sell your home in a timely manner and for the most money possible!

10 Steps on How to Sell a House in Seattle

Choose a Listing Broker That is a Good Fit For You
Conduct a Detailed Home Walkthrough with Your Listing Team
Fix What’s Broken
Make it Pretty
Market the Heck Out of It
Strategically Price Your Home
Diva Marketing Go Time
Evaluate Offers
Your Home Is In Contract
Closing Day!

Step One: Choose a Listing Broker That is a Good Fit for You!

Selling a home is a very intimate process, and it’s crucial that you choose a listing broker who can take care of your biggest asset. Lucky for you, we have an entire blog that goes into detail about the questions you should ask a broker when you’re interviewing them. These questions will help you determine if a broker is a good fit for you. Dive deep into Questions to Ask a Listing Agent Before You Hire to Sell Your Home.

Pro-Tip: Just because the listing broker works in your neighborhood a ton, doesn’t mean they will be the best fit for you. We often get calls from people who have unique homes to sell, for example, because they know our online marketing will bring the right buyers to their extra-special home.

Step Two: Conduct a Detailed Home Walkthrough With Your Listing Team

At Team Diva, we have a refined process for doing a very detailed walkthrough of your home. During this walkthrough, we will determine everything that is needed to get your home market ready. And when we say it is a detailed walkthrough, we mean it. We make a list of things that might need to be done, including refreshing elements of your home, fixing things, upgrading necessary features, and more. Then we take this list and work with you to schedule vendors to do the work. This includes everyone from cleaners, landscapers, interior designers, stagers, and handypeople. If you want even more info, check out our blog How to Prep Your for Sale in Seattle or watch the video on YouTube.

Pro-Tip: An experienced, professional listing team will provide you with a very detailed list of updates and refreshes that need to be made in your home to help it sell quickly and for the most money possible. Anyone listing agent who says you don’t need to do anything is afraid of conflict and will likely be a pushover during the negotiation phase.

Step 3: Fix What’s Broken

When you’re getting ready to sell your home, this is probably the most important step. And it’s rarely talked about! Fixing what’s broken before selling can have a huge impact on your ROI. For example, we recently had a big old grand house on Capitol Hill that, based on market data, would have only sold for $700k (maybe $800k) if we did nothing. However, after having a long conversation with the seller, he decided to fix what was broken in the home. It took time and patience. In the end, he spent $20,000 fixing up the home, and ended up selling the home for just under $1.1 million. Check out Roy’s video of the before and after photos of this Capitol Hill home so you can get a better feel for the process.

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, make sure to check out our blog “First-Time Home Seller Guide: Fix What’s Broken.” We share even more about what we mean by “fix what’s broken”!

Pro-Tip: Recently, we won a home for some of our home buyer clients. This particular home had zero offers, and we know it was because the home sellers wanted to see the home as-is (aka they didn’t want to fix what was broken). Don’t be stuck in the position of having to sell your home for less money because you didn’t want to put in some work!

Step 4: Make it Pretty

We want your home to show at the top of its class! As soon as someone walks through your door to tour your home, we want them to sit down, settle in, and fall in love. This is how you sell a home in Seattle! Beyond the fresh paint, new carpeting, and updated lighting, you’ll also need staging. Home staging is the foundation of how we market your home. We know that staging costs money, and it might feel unnecessary. But over and over again, we see real results (aka $$$!) when our clients stage their homes. Be sure to read out blog “Staging Your Home Will Help it to Sell for More Money” for the details.

Pro-Tip: We sold a home in Seward Park when there was a lull in the market. To our delight, we sold it for 26% over the asking price! This home did not even have the classic Seward Park view. So, we dug into why exactly this home sold for so much over asking. And we figured that it definitely was a result of us using a high-end stager. Read more about this story here: Just Listed | Just Sold Seward Park View Home.

Step 5: Market the Heck Out of It

One of the things that makes Team Diva so unique is that we have an entire marketing team working behind the scenes. When it’s time for “lights, camera, action!”, we make sure your home is a blockbuster hit! And we’re constantly innovating. How do we make sure that people will pay attention to your home when it’s on the market? In our Home Seller Guide, we share an entire list of what we do to market homes compared to other average brokers and even other top brokers. Our philosophy is that Selling Your Home Requires an Effective Online Marketing Strategy.

Pro-Tip: Investigate potential listing brokers online. Google their names and look them up on social media. Are they doing anything interesting or unique to market their listings? Are their photos inspirational, or are you bored looking at their marketing?

Step 6: Strategically Price Your Home

When pricing your home, our goal is to always be strategic. Even though Seattle has seen some hot markets in recent years, we cannot assume that a home is going to sell in multiple offers. The key piece of information we use to determine a home’s listing price is the Demand Rate. If you watch any of our monthly “Coffee with Roy” videos, you will hear Roy talk about Demand Rate every time. And in Roy’s first “Coffee with Roy” episode, he explains exactly how we use the Demand Rate. Check out the blog and video Coffee With Roy | February 2022 Seattle Real Estate Market Update to learn what Demand Rate is.

Knowing your neighborhood Demand Rate will give us the insider info we need to track how the market is trending right before we list your home, not how the market was, say, two months ago. Read our blog How Do You Price a Home to Sell in Seattle for more detail.

Pro-Tip: There are a couple of main reasons why a home doesn’t sell in Seattle. The top reason is that the home is overpriced. And another reason is that there is something wrong with a home. We dive deeper on this topic in our “Why is My Home Note Selling in Seattle” blog.

Step 7: Diva Marketing Go Time

As soon as your home hits the market, it’s go time! All of the marketing that we have been preparing to promote your home will be published and posted. We’ll publish a blog post, upload a video to Youtube, send out our email marketing, create and post Instagram Reels, post photos on Facebook, and much more. Basically, we do whatever it takes to make buyers fall head over heels for your home.

A little secret that we don’t talk about much is the fact that we are also marketing your home to other real estate brokers—not just buyers! Many of these brokers have buyers, and they’ll bring their buyers to tour your home. And clearly – we get results!

Does Our System Work?

Team Diva sold the following homes in the Fall of 2022 in a market most in the industry would consider rough:

18709 58th Ave NE, Kenmore – Sold for $1,300,000 in cash.
8007 NE 169th St, Kenmore – Sold for $799,000 in the midst of the most dramatic interest rate hikes.
755 Hayes St, Seattle – Sold for $1,650,000 in a market where only 1 in 8 luxury townhomes were selling.
832 29th Ave S Unit B, Seattle – Sold for $850,000 in a market where only 1 in 5 townhouses in the area was selling.
11535 SE 17th St, Renton – Sold for full price in two days for $350,000.
28613 SE 225th St, Maple Valley – Sold for $560,000. It took over 70 days but we got it sold!
530 4th Ave W Unit 302, Seattle – Sold for $533,000 in a market where no 1-bedroom condos were selling.

Just saying! 😉

Pro-Tip: Be sure to check out all of the marketing for your home listing and like, share, and comment. Engaging with the marketing signals algorithms to show your home to even more people!

Step 8: Evaluate Offers

Not all offers you receive are equal. For instance, Lindsy received an offer that was $30,000 below asking on her listing Maple Valley. Most listing brokers would be so excited to get an offer they would have to push their sellers to take the offer. But Lindsy knew that the sellers had just done a price drop, they could easily rent the home, and her listing was already an amazing buy for the neighborhood. So they stood their ground and eventually got a full-price offer for their listing.

Step 9: Your Home Is In Contract!

Once your home is in contract, the hard work doesn’t stop! We still have to get to closing day. This means passing the inspection and the home appraisal. And if there are any market hiccups, we need to work to keep the buyers in the contract. Luckily, we have a guide for each step of the closing process. Check out our blog “Seller Education Final Closing Process and Guide” for the details! And here is a brief outline of the steps you’ll go through before closing:

The Contractual Stage

And make sure you and the home are ready for closing!

Pro-Tip: Before you even list your home, have a plan of where you are moving to next and when. Buyers get scared quickly if they find out the sellers don’t know where they’re heading next!

Step 10: Closing Day!!!!!

Congratulations—now we get to celebrate! It’s also time to transfer important documents and keys to the buyer.

If you happen to be moving onto your next Seattle home, then you can be sure we will also be scheduling a Buyer Intake ASAP. Let’s get Phase Two of this party started!

Pro-Tip: Of course, we have a blog if you need advice about buying your next home. Check out “Moving Up How to Buy Another House While Owning a Home in Seattle”!

Thank You For Browsing Team Diva’s Definitive Guide on How to Sell a House in Seattle 2023

How do you sell a house in Seattle in 2023? Take the time to learn the nuances of selling a house in 2023. Know that it’s absolutely crucial to price your home correctly and competitively. Your home needs to be in tip-top shape, which includes fixing what’s broken and staging your home. This year can be an excellent time to sell your home, depending on your equity, your unique financial situation, and your specific goals. We recommend reaching out to a real estate agent (sooner than later!) so you can strategize and make a plan.

We asked the team what advice they are giving to their clients on how to sell a house in Seattle in 2023. And here are a few of the highlights of what they shared:

It’s absolutely crucial to price your home correctly and competitively.
Your home needs to be in excellent condition and shine both online and in person.
Go “all in” when selling your home. This means fixing what’s broken, staging, and marketing the heck out of it!

Learn More About Selling a House in Seattle in 2023

We have a ton of additional resources for home sellers. Be sure to check out the following:

Be a Smart & Savvy Home Buyer & Seller in 2023

Check out our home buyer and seller guides for 2023:

We are here to help. Our team understands that this process can take a year or two. And we are more than willing to give you a personalized plan to get the ball rolling. Feel free to contact us directly at thediva@teamedivarealestate.com or call/text 206-271-0264.