Selling Your Home To Do List

As a seller, what can you do to make your home stand out from the competition?  While some of these hints seem like common sense, they certainly can help you differentiate your home from the rest.

1)      Cleaning and De-Cluttering – As much as you love your family pictures and personalized decor, buyers don’t want to see your family, favorite sports team or even your religious preference displayed throughout your home.  They want to see a blank (or at least a neutral) canvas which they can make their own.  When prospective buyers enter your home, they are already trying to envision what they will do with a certain space.  If clutter or décor has overtaken your home, buyers will focus on that as opposed to the potential that a space may have.  By cleaning, “de-personalizing” and decluttering your home, you immediately allow the buyers to focus on what they want: to picture it as their next (or first) home.  Heck you are going to end up packing the clutter and decorations anyway, why not get a head start on it!

2)      Price it Right – It’s easy to focus on what you paid for your home and more importantly, what you will need to net from the sale to get into your next home.  However, it’s more realistic to focus on what actually determines a home’s value: age, square footage, number of beds/baths, amenities, appraised value, location and what comparable homes have recently sold for in your area.  This is where enlisting (pun intended) the services of an experience realtor or broker can pay dividends for you.  Most buyers have unlimited information at their fingertips, so why not arm yourself with a competent professional to assist you as a seller.  By listing the home properly to start, it will sell quicker.

3)      Avoid Surprises - Whether it’s a repair or maintenance that you have neglected to do over the years or something that may affect title to the property, you want to address them head on before listing the property for sale.  When it comes to repair or maintenance, the smallest issue left unattended may lead a prospective buyer to wonder: what else has the seller neglected to do to the home? Unaddressed issues can lead to complications, delay or cancellation of an agreement to sell altogether.  And for those sales that are lucky enough to stay track these last minutes fixes generally end up costing the seller more to remedy at the 11^th hour than if it had been addressed prior to advertising it for sale.  Another great reason not only to engage a realtor or broker but also listen to their advice!

4)      Generate More Attention Right Away – In today’s day in age, information is important but quick access to information is the real key.  That’s why it is estimated that eighty percent (80%) of potential buyers will view your home within the first month to six weeks of it being listed. So you certainly don’t want to miss the opportunity to lure a buyer just because they came the only two days after it was listed.  Even more telling than the 80% percent figure is that it will take at least three months to replace the initial sample of buyers with an equal amount of newly interested buyers.  I’ve never heard anyone say that they want to wait at least three months to sell their home.   So how can you generate more interest immediately, consult with your broker or realtor about the prospect of adding incentives such as assisting with the buyer’s closing costs or including some unique personal property (i.e., a pool table, hot tub, or riding lawnmower to name a few.

For more information, please visit my website (www.daviaulaw.com), e-mail me (nick@daviaulaw.com), or call my office (508-797-3010).