Getting top dollar for your house begins with understanding how to see your house through the eyes of a buyer. To be a successful seller you must have your house looking its best!
ACCEPTING A NEW MINDSET.
A magical metamorphosis occurs the moment you decide to sell your property. The “home” you love so dearly turns into a “house”. This shift in vocabulary is part of letting go, i.e., the emotional detachment process that every seller must experience sooner or later. Home is where you heart is. A House, on the other hand, is just a commodity that must compete in the open market.
You are getting ready to sell a house!
Most people don’t really see their houses after they have lived there for a while. They don’t notice the effects of gradual wear and tear and junk accumulation. Little stuff to the seller. Not so little stuff to a potential buyer!
If you make the right improvements when preparing your house to sell, you increase the odds of selling it quickly for top dollar. If, conversely, you do nothing at all, or if you make the wrong changes to your house, you waste the time and money you spent, prolong the sale, and risk the probability of a much lower sales price.
CREATING CURB APPEAL
Most buyers make snap judgments about your house. And their first impression, good or bad, is usually lasting. Buyers generally decide if they want to go inside within 20 seconds of viewing the external attractiveness (curb appeal) of your house. No matter how magnificent the inside of your house appeared in the photos, many buyers will drive by without even stopping (or tell their agent they don’t want to go inside) if the curb appeal doesn’t say,” I’m loved, I’m cared for.”
EXTERIORS ATTRACT, BUT INTERIORS SELL
Curb appeal draws buyers into your house. But appealing well cared for interiors make the sale.
You don’t usually have to spend thousands of dollars on your house prior to putting up the For Sale
sign. On the contrary, little things you do generally give the biggest increase in value. Concentrate on the three C’s-- Clean it up, clear the clutter, and make cosmetic improvements.
Clean, scrub and polish. Your range top, oven, refrigerator, microwave and other appliances
must be spotlessly clean inside and out. Scour walls, floors, bathtubs, showers and sinks and mirrors until they sparkle.
Buyers will notice strong smells as soon as they walk through the door, and they will waste no time walking right back out. Eliminate any smoke, pet and mildew odors. Cleaning drapes, and carpet helps get rid of odors. Whether you do the work yourself or must hire someone, make sure you house is spotless and odorless.
Clear out the clutter. Clutter can reduce your house’s value. Clear away kitchen counters and
keep dirty dishes out of the sink. Eliminating clutter and excess furniture makes rooms appear
larger. Recycle those stacks of old magazines and newspapers you have been saving for no good
reason. Dump all that junk you’ve accumulated over the years in your attic and basement.
Closet space sells houses! Get rid of all those clothes you don’t wear any more. Clean those closets
out. Organize them. Make them look large and roomy. Do the same with built-in drawers. Like it or
not, serious buyers will inspect your closets and drawers.
Make cosmetic improvements. Painting isn’t expensive if you do it yourself, but be careful
that the job isn’t poorly done, and be careful when selecting colors. Avoid bold colors with strong visual impact. Stick to soft whites and other neutral colors that won’t clash with most prospective buyer’s taste. If your finished basement is dark and gloomy, paint the walls and ceiling a light color.
Pay attention to everything anywhere in your house that could cause a buyer to “reduce your price”. Find them and repair them before you put it on the market. Look for any hairline cracks over doors or windows and nail pops in sheet rock. Locate any ceiling stains and repair the source of the leak. Check for windows with cracked panes or that do not open and shut properly. Watch for doors that stick, don’t close or slide properly. Observe bathrooms for signs of mildew, rust stains in sinks and toilets, missing tiles or grout, inadequate caulking around tubs. Check for drippy faucets, slow draining sinks and tubs, broken mirrors. Make certain that all appliances that remain with the house are in proper working order.
Remember. Buyers consider any of the above problems a sign of poor maintenance. More often than not they are correct. Their solutions---either don’t buy or reduce the price by thousands.
STAGING
Staging a house goes way beyond your efforts to make it look neat, clean, and well cared for. Just as stagehands set the stage for Broadway productions, you can stage your house to create a production designed to WOW prospective buyers and set your house apart from the competition.
If you have ever visited a new home development and walked through the builder’s model home, you know exactly what staging is. Builders have visual coordinators who do elaborate staging jobs:
placing furniture, using neutral colors for carpets, drapes, hanging artwork on walls, setting a beautiful table, placing a bowl of fruit on kitchen counter, having beautiful flower arrangement in the living area, and maybe an open book laying on a table beside the bed in the master bedroom. Staging a property helps prospective buyers visualize living there. It finishes the process you started with the three C’s—clean it up, clear the clutter, and make cosmetic improvements.
