Faster, More Money: Selling Your House During a Divorce

Getting divorced and need to sell the house you own together? Rushing it onto the market isn't actually the fastest path to being done with it.

Hi, I'm Tanja Odzak, Realtor with eXp Realty, a certified real estate divorce specialist, helping people sell and buy homes right here in the East Bay for the last 10 years.

Selling faster and for more money puts both of you in a better position with less stress, and that almost always requires a bit of freshening up first. Not a major remodel, just enough to present the home in its best light. A house that skips this step can end up reading as the bargain in its price range, or worse, signal to buyers that something's going on with the sellers. Depending on how hard the house has been lived in, that might mean interior paint and a deep clean, refinished hardwood floors, fresh exterior paint, tidied landscaping, or a repaired door.

Once it's on the market, you're in competition with every comparable home nearby, and the better the presentation, the faster buyers respond and the sooner you're in contract. A well-presented home can also draw more than one offer, which is exactly what allows for real negotiation on price, terms, and choosing a buyer who can actually close.

I'm Tanja Odzak, and I've sold over $100 million worth of homes with a decade of experience in the East Bay. The goal isn't a perfect house, it's a correctly presented one, that's what gets you to a faster, higher close.