Now what?

Ok, the decision has been made to sell your house, and you call a Realtor ( hopefully me!) to get it on the market. You’ve been told what the list price and the possible sale price will be, the marketing pitch and the average days on the market to sell…now what?

Well, the savvy seller gets the house looking great to attract the buyers. Since our market is still leaning to the buyers side of things, one must try to find an advantage over other homes for sale.

Here’s a few tips on how to gain that advantage:

1. Get rid of the wierdness! Do you have your clown collection on full display? This might be a good time to pack them up for the move! Take down your boudoir pics! Trust me, I’ve seen them. I shouldn’t. De-personalising your space puts the focus on your home, not your pictures or stuff.
2. Get rid of the clutter. If your rooms are packed to the ceiling with stuff, buyers can’t see the size of the rooms and can’t envision their belongings in this space. You don’t want them to be overwhelmed with your ability to collect stuff. A garage sale is great way to make the clutter go away. Have you not used that thing in the last year or two? Maybe it’s time to find someone else who will. Is it more of a memory than a useable item? Take a picture of it! The memory still lives on, and the thing moves on! Have your friends over for a “you touched it” party. If they touch the item…it’s theirs to take home. If you still have a lot of stuff you need to get rid of, consider renting a dumpster from sites like https://grissmandumpsters.com/how-a-dumpster-can-help-me-in-a-move/.
3. Clean the house! You don’t want a buyer to have a reason to say EWWWWWW!
4. Fix the small things. Buyers will find any excuse to discount your selling price. For them, the cost of a burned out light bulb gets inflated to $1000, and then deducted from the price. A broken switch plate cover must lead to replacing all of them at $350, which is crazy since you can buy a 10 pack for less than $2.00. Before you know it, they have reduced your price by $15,000. Let’s not give them that excuse. Take a look around your home and do an inventory of the little fix its.  To ensure your property stands out and maintains its value, consider enhancing its exterior with seamless gutter solutions from One Way Exteriors, find out more about this seamless gutter company here. Also, bring a friend over to help with a fresh set of eyes. Have them play the role of the buyer. What do they see?
5. Take pictures of your rooms and see what the internet buyer is going to see. Well over 90% of home buyers will have viewed your home online before they ever call for an appointment. How does it look? Do you need to change it up? It’s amazing what the camera sees that our eyes do not.
6. Have decoy accessories in your house just for showing. Things like brand new toothbrushes in a nice clean holder on the bathroom vanity. A clean comforter and a blanket like those on In2Green, that you can throw on the bed in a hurry when the Realtor calls for an appointment. When the showing is over, put these items back into hiding until the next time.

What happens if the house isn’t ready?

Recently, on a Realtor tour, we viewed a townhouse that had just been listed. As we entered the home, we were greeted by a very unimpressed looking family, the heavy smell of fish, and rooms packed to the rafters with clutter. As a professional, I am supposed to be able to see past the surface condition to the bones and the value of the home. Instead, I have no idea how many bedrooms there were, the condition of the home or the price. I could not get beyond how badly the showing went and couldn’t get out fast enough.
If the seller doesn’t care, nobody else will either.
If you’d like to know more, give me a call!

Let’s sell that house!