Before You Prepare Your Home To Sell
Real estate is one of the industries were an image of the cart needs to come before the horse. The question that needs to be addressed first is, “where are you (the seller) going?”. If we can’t get you in the better house, neighborhood or school district for the payment you need then we need to evaluate what we can do. Will you accept a house that needs lipstick (a possible foreclosure?) to get the better neighborhood and school district? Is the compromise acceptable? About 10% of the time it isn’t. A recent example is a client who already had a good house, neighborhood and school district. BUT, right behind their current neighborhood was estate homes on acreage. This was the only neighborhood they wanted to move into. Quick math showed their payment would double. Their only option revealed a payment that was not acceptable. Their answer was to stay in their current home. This is why we evaluate where you’re going before we move forward with preparing your home to sell.
Preparing Your Home To Sell
Every seller is unique. Every home is unique. How each seller wants to prepare their home for the market is also unique. Once you combine all this uniqueness with different neighborhoods and communities you realize there is no one size fits all way to sell a home. An integrated Realtor understands that your home is special to you. An integrated Realtor will listen to your concerns. An integrated Realtor will be able to create a plan for selling your home that addresses your concerns as well as meets the market’s expectations. Experience matters.
The first step in preparing your home for the market is to understand the buyer that will buy your home. A Braun Station buyer will be different than the Wildhorse buyer even thought both neighborhoods are off Braun Rd. A Tobin Hill house is the same price point as a Scenic Oaks house but again the buyers will be worlds apart. Once you know the your targeted market we know the possible repairs, updates, enhancements, staging and marketing that will excite these buyers. Experience matters.
The second step is to understand the market conditions. Is it a good time to sell (hint: the worst time to list a home is in July, August and September). How many other homes are on the market in the area like yours? How fast are those homes moving? Understanding the market is more than just a Comparative Market Analysis for your neighborhood. Experience matters.
Most sellers want to prepare their home for the market to get top dollar. Our HGTV society means sellers are cognitive of decluttering, depersonalizing, removing excess furniture and repairs needed before they hire a Realtor. Sellers realize that they either do all this work before they list or before they move. They understand doing this work before they list helps with the move.
Clutter
Is excess accessories clutter or personality for the home? Homes that has been decluttered to the point of barrenness are cold. Cold homes do not show well online. It is time for a fresh perspective on decluttering. A home that feels homey with trendy accessories will sell faster than a home that has been stripped of all character. So what is clutter and what adds character? This especially is where experience matters. My background in visual merchandising will help you make your house feel like a model home.
Depersonalize
Again, we don’t want to depersonalize to the point of no character. We’ve heard over and over to remove the family photos. Why? A buyer can see the beds, toys and accessories in your child’s bedroom. It is easy for a buyer to guess the number of people in the house and their ages. If you have a great grouping of family photos in you entry, then leave it. The exception to this rule is groupings of family photos that are in an area that is a focal point for the photographs. Those focal points need large, bright art.
Collections do need to be packed away. A room of fifty dolls will only entice that four year old girl who doesn’t know these are valuable. Animal trophies are a collection. Please remove them from the walls. Preferably, snakes need to find a temporary home, but I did have a listing in which the seller had several snakes hidden well in one room. We managed.
Excess Furniture
We do remove excess furniture. A large bedroom can look cramped and small with too much furniture. Society teaches us that we need a bedroom set. In the master that usually means we have a king size bed with a headboard, two night stands, a chest of drawers and a large dresser. Also in the master is the extra furniture like a jewelry chest, great grandma’s hope chest at the end of the bed and a desk crammed in a corner so you can work from home. Oh, and don’t forget the treadmill that functions as a clothes hanger!
At our first meeting, I will listen to which pieces are important to your everyday living. Based on your answers we make the decision on which pieces to remove.
Excess furniture, collections and clutter can be moved to the garage. Most buyers spend about 15 seconds looking at the garage. It can hold all your excess.
Repairs
Sellers usually have a repair list started before our first appointment. It is important to let me view your home before repairs are started. There was a HGTV show called Design to Sell with designer Lisa LaPorta. The shows goal was to get a home model home ready for the market for under $2,000.00. The home had free labor and a warehouse of furniture so their cost were much lower. Their goal of listing the home for the least amount of cash out of your pocket is our goal too. As a previous property flipper, I know which repairs will give you the best benefit for you hard earned money. Experience matters.
While you are making home repairs remember the front porch, the front yard and the back yard. The front porch is often overlooked, but it a very important part of your home. The buyer spends a minute plus on the front porch as their agent is accessing the key. The buyers have the time to see the fine details. Dusty, dirty doors and trim, dirty door bells and bugs in light fixtures need to be addressed. Colorful plant(s) needs to be added. A clean, inviting warm porch sets the tone for the rest of the home. The front yard also needs to have curb appeal. Fresh mulch with colorful plants add the much needed texture for online photographs. Sidewalks and driveways need to be power washed. The grass in the back yard doesn’t have to be pristine grass. Green weeds looks just as nice in photographs as green grass. The back porch should be power washed with excess furniture, toys and empty planters removed to the garage.
If you need help finding contractors, the contractor tab has names of contractors from personal use as well as recommendations from NextDoor.
Clean!!! Clean!!! Clean!!!
I get it. You have kids, pets and a spouse. You work all day. How are you going to find time to clean? It is important. The deep cleaning is best done after you declutter and do repairs. A deep clean includes baseboards, windows and carpet. Although some Realtors want you to also clean/organize closets, the pantry and the garage, these areas are not as important in my opinion. Save yourself the time and headache.
Staging
As an added value for sellers, I stage most of my listings. This is not an extra cost. A staged home sells fasted and for more than a home that isn’t staged. Staging is a joint effort. As stated earlier, sellers will remove excess furniture. As needed, sellers will also rearrange existing furniture for the best placement. I bring in artwork, accessories, layers of pillows and throws that will visually appeal to their online audience. In a vacant house, I add art to the wall and accessories to the kitchen and bathrooms.
The type of staging I do is a process. I’m using seller’s existing furniture to create rooms that will excite your buyer. I don’t know the end result until I see your home and furniture. Dated furniture is an online turn off. As a rule of thumb, we can get away with one dated piece in the living areas. If the choices are excess dated furniture or a vacant room, the vacant room is better. Creating your staged home is an art. Experience matters.