Selling your home is easier than you think but there are a few ground rules that you need to follow about selling your home.
While setting the right price is important to attract buyers, prospects also need to be suitably impressed about your home to want to buy it– so make it look attractive and modern enough to suit the current styles. Make sure your home smells clean and fresh—vacuum the place thoroughly, keep the kitchen and bathrooms sparkling clean, for those rooms always attract a lot of attention. De-clutter the other rooms—the more you remove, the larger the rooms will look.
Ensure that shelves and counter tops are not overflowing with things. Put away everything in its proper place, remove extra furniture and any showy pieces that might make the landscape look less appealing. Don’t forget to remove those pictures and posters that seem to be all over the place—prospects should be able to picture the house with their belongings in it. Only then can they get an idea of how their things will fit in their new home– the thumb rule is the barer the better.
Update your landscaping too- install new fixtures in the place of broken ones, get those window boxes looking more colorful, cover the house with a nice coat of paint—in short give the house a nice new makeover so that anyone looking at it will fall in love with it. Landscapes should have curb appeal, for the minute prospects walk into the driveway, their expectations soar, and nothing should deflate that. If you think that you’ve done everything you can and the place does look a little sloppy still, just go in for deep cleaning. There’s nothing like a clean house to attract a buyer.
When the buyer walks in through the front door, just open the curtains, let the light through just to show them how much of ventilation and natural light really enters the house. Turn on the lights too to show them that the fixtures are working and help them get an idea as to how the room looks with the lights on.
Most importantly, do ensure that family and pets don’t get under their feet. Nothing can be as irritating as to have their attention taken away by noisy kids or barking dogs. They want to remain focused and concentrate on getting the actual picture.
Show the prospective buyers around the house, then leave them so that they can talk about what’s right and what’s wrong among themselves. Be flexible when it comes to visiting times and if they want to visit at short notice be ready for them. That way more people will be willing to visit your house increasing the chance of selling it many fold.
As house owners, we don’t generally have the selling skills that an agent does. Agents have enough experience and know what buyers look for in a house and they may offer suggestions that could enhance the chances of selling it. So do take the pointers that they offer seriously, you will certainly be better off for it.
Bottom Line
The cleaner, de-cluttered and in good repair your home is, will help to sell to a potential buyer quicker. If you are one of the many homeowners who is looking to sell your starter or trade up home and move up to a luxury home, now is the time!
Have questions about real estate you want answered? Even if you aren’t planning to buy or sell for years, I hope you’ll feel comfortable calling me to talk about your unique real estate situation. I’d love the opportunity to become your agent long before you actually need one. ~ Lynda Van Wie (www.vanwierealestategroup.com)
