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Tips & Advice

Top 10 Things To Do To Get Your Home To Sell

Top 10 Things To Get Your Home Ready To Sell

By Steve Nicholas, SystemToSell

 

1. Fix all the little things.

Buyers can “feel” when a home hasn’t been well maintained. Most buyers don’t have a realistic idea of the costs of home repairs and improvements so they naturally inflate how much money they will have to spend when they notice things wrong with your house. So be proactive. Remember how important it is to make all the necessary repairs before you put your house on the market.

2. Get a pre-sale home inspection.

A pre-sale home inspection can help in two ways. First, by identifying and addressing problems that could thwart a potential buyer from buying your home. Second, a clean inspection report will build the buyer’s confidence that they are buying a home that has been well maintained and ready to give those years of worry-free living.

SystemToSell Tip: Put the inspection report right on the counter next to copies of your utility bills and listing information. It will send a clear message that you are taking the sale of your home very seriously.

3. Pack up the clutter.

Too much stuff makes rooms appear smaller and focuses the buyers’ attention on your possessions rather than the home you’re trying to sell. That’s why many professional stagers recommend removing as much as a third of your things to better show off rooms and closets. The buyer can’t imagine themselves living there if they can’t see the space. Think of moving out the extra furniture as getting a head start on the moving process.

SystemToSell Tip: Rent a storage space to temporarily put all your extra stuff until the house sells.

4. Depersonalize and neutralize.

The first items that should go in those packing boxes: family photos, collections and just about anything else that says “you.” Streamline your artwork and consider toning down bold decorating statements. That means neutral shades if you need to repaint walls or replace carpets. Buyers have a hard enough time envisioning how their stuff will look on your walls. By neutralizing your decor, you can help give them the blank canvas they need to imagine your house as theirs.

5. Deep clean every room.

Clean everything from toilets to closets, garages to attics, shine windows until they’re spotless and vacuum up every last crumb from under your stove. You’ll need to banish suspect smells as well; you don’t want your house to become known in real-estate circles as “the cat pee house.” If your pets have had one too many accidents, you may need to replace the affected carpet and padding and have the underlying floor sealed. If you’re not sure how your place smells, get your least tactful friend to take a few whiffs and tell you the honest truth.

 

 

6. Stage your home.

Stand in the doorway to find each room’s focal point, and use furniture placement to highlight that. The back of your sofa shouldn’t block the view of the fireplace and the dining room table shouldn’t be sharing space with a stair climber. You should remove any piece of furniture that detracts from the rooms’ purpose.

7. Create great curb appeal.

Most people today start their home search on the Internet and if the photos online don’t  ‘wow’ them; they might not even call for a showing. If your home is on the list to be shown, you may not realize how many sales you’re losing before potential buyers even get to the front door. During the 30 seconds it takes your seller’s agent to unlock the lockbox, your seller is looking around at the condition of the front porch, door hardware, paint, landscaping, and flowers. You only have one chance to give a great first impression.

8. Pick the right agent.

Choosing the right agent means different things to different people. Experience, personality, knowledge of the industry and your neighborhood- these all influence which agent you select to represent you in the selling of your home.  In today’s tough housing market, selecting the right real estate professional is more important than ever so interview as many agents as necessary to find the one most qualified to sell your home.

9. Make the necessary improvements.

If your home isn’t in great selling condition or your kitchen looks like it’s from one of the reruns of the Brady Bunch, then you need to make the improvements necessary to get you home ready to sell. The right combination of improvements will not only make the property show much better, but will yield you more at closing. The art is which improvements to make and which ones to save for the next owner.

10. Price it right.

Determining the asking price of your home is both an art and a science. Price your home correctly and it will sell. The price should reflect its age, condition, neighborhood, style, and overall marketability. If a house needs a lot of work and shows poorly- a buyer will expect a huge discount off of market price to handle the cost of the necessary repairs and improvements. Likewise, a home in great selling condition will sell quickly and near asking price in almost any economic market.

Steve Nicholas is president and founder of SystemToSell- a Cleveland, Ohio based company that works exclusively for Realtors and their buyers and sellers helping them maximize the value of their property before and after the sale.

Tips & Advice

Home Staging- It Really Sells Homes

One of the best ways to help sell a home is Home Staging. Home staging is the way you present your home when you are ready to sell. The goal of staging is to make a home appeal to the highest number of potential buyers resulting in a property selling quicker and for more money. Staging techniques focus on improving a property’s appeal by transforming it into a welcoming, attractive product that anyone might want. It’s getting more and more popular as the housing market cools and sellers compete for a limited number of buyers.

“The way you live in your home and the way you market a house are two different things,” says Barb Schwarz, the CEO and founder of StagedHomes.com, who has personally staged more than 5,000 homes over the past 33 years. “You have to think of your home as a product.” Staged homes also sell faster, according to Schwarz, an average of seven days compared to 45 days for unstaged home. Here are Barb Schwarz’s top ways to help improve your home staging.

Get on your hands and knees.

OK, so cleaning sounds like a given, but this goes way beyond a vacuum cleaner and a dust rag. To get your home in shape for sale, you need to scrub around the faucets and the light switches. Banish the dustballs hanging around the baseboards and the cobwebs in the skylights. Powerwash the house and the driveway and keep the sidewalk swept clean.”You would detail your car if you were going to sell it,” says Schwarz. “You should detail your house too.”

Follow the basketball rule.

It’s no secret that America is a nation of consumers. And all of that stuff we buy is strewn about our homes. Here’s a rule of thumb: Remove all items that are smaller than the size of a basketball. Pack up at least half of your books. And stash the photographs of you and the kids on your Hawaiian vacation. You want the buyer to be able to envision himself in your home — not you.

Cast a cold eye.

Stand at the doorway of each room and take in the impression it gives. Are there too many accessories on the wall? Too many area rugs? Do the plants look overgrown? Is the furniture clustered on one side of the room? “Most master bedrooms have too much,” says Schwarz. “They tend to look like furniture stores.”In the dining room, remove extra leaves and chairs. In other rooms, take at least half of everything out and see how it looks. Then reintroduce items into the room sparingly. Be sure to visit your garage, basement, and attic for inspiration.

Set the scene.

If you’re expecting an agent to stop by with a potential buyer, there are several last-minute touches you need to do before leaving the house. Empty the wastebaskets, put the toilet lids down, hide your laundry and grooming items, and place baskets of new, color coordinated hand towels in the bathroom. Always leave some lights on. And have soft jazz or easy listening music playing. It will put people in a buying mood.

 

Call in the pros.

If staging your home is too big a project to pull off by yourself, you can contact the professionals at SystemToSell. We have assembled a platte of colors, fabrics, and furniture that we know sells homes. We have a growing inventory of furniture, art, and accessories. You can use one of our interior designers or we can work with yours.

We are a single source for all your design and construction needs.

Steve Nicholas is president and founder of SystemToSell- a Cleveland, Ohio based company that works exclusively for Realtors and their buyers and sellers helping them maximize the value of their property before and after the sale.