Home Selling Tip: Southwest Minneapolis & Edina Minnesota

How to Sell a Home in SW Minneapolis & Edina Minnesota

Home Selling Tip: List ALL Improvements

Getting the Most for Your Home

I spend most of my time in selling real estate in Southwest Minneapolis and Edina Minnesota.  Homes around here are typically older homes (1900-1950 in Southwest Minneapolis and 1930-1970 in Edina).  Most have also been remodeled and improved upon over the years.  In the competitive market of 2012 home sellers need to do more than just post a sign in the front yard and list their home in the MLS.  You can impress homebuyers and help your home rise above the fray by creating a detailed, comprehensive and honest document of your homes physical history over the years.  I like to call it your Home Story.

A good Home Story is not a simple “Features List” it is a narrative history of the physical property to the best of your information.  Buyers love information and details, and the internet provides most of it.  Sites like Zillow.com & Trullia.com provide a ton of statistical analysis and property information.  Our local REALTOR association (Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS) also publishes some of the industry’s best market analysis tools, as well as individual home sales history.  Buyers love this info, but when they get to your home they want the information they cannot find on line.  And no one can provide it unless you do.

Homebuyers in Edina and Southwest Minneapolis want to know what was done to the home, who did it, when it was done, why, and what it cost.  You need to tell your home’s story to tell buyers about everything your home has to offer.  Most buyers, and shamefully most REALTORS, don’t know much about the physical make up of a home.  What’s worse, homebuyers typically spend just 15 minutes in a home.  No one could see everything in that short amount of time.  That is why you give them your Home Story, so they can take it with them.

Key Features of Your Home Story:

Be detailed: Include the cost (or estimated cost) of the improvement.  Say when it was done (approximate if you don’t know)

Be comprehensive:  List everything!  Include improvements that were there when you purchased the home.  Use you best guess to date and estimate the cost of these items.  Have your friends come visit to help.  It’s kind of like proof reading, they see your home with “fresh” eyes.  If you don’t know much about homes hire an inspector to help you ($300-400 tops) have an inspection done and you’ll basically have all the information you need.  But be sure to tell the inspector, you want to know all the good things about your home and most importantly, you want to know why these are good things.

Be honest:  Don’t fluff up or over sell things, homebuyers will sense a sales pitch a mile away.  Especially when you’re guessing or estimating about things you have to admit that.  Being honest will go along way to developing trust with the homebuyer.  That may come in handy in the negotiations.

MOST IMPORTANTLY do not expect your realtor to do this.  Most are not home experts; they know how to transact a sale and how to relate to people (hopefully).  The best also know a lot about homes.  Besides this is defiantly not something we get trained to do.  Realtors do typically make lists of improvements and home features etc. that can be helpful when creating your Home Story.  But if ask your realtor to write the your Home Story your get a simple “Home Improvements List”

Your Home Story will help your home stand out and rise above the competition.  Remember this is not a basic bullet point list of “Key Features” or a “List of Improvements”.  It is a narrative history.  I have even employed the help of a copy editor in the past to help me make the story come alive.  Some Home Stories are longer some shorter, you can use photos and lists and other elements of style to help it come together.  You want it to look and feel like a good history text would.  Interesting, engaging and informative, avoid sounding like a sales pitch.

There are no silver bullets, but good marketing materials will help.  Do yourself a huge favor; invest the time and energy into creating a great Home Story.  You’ll save yourself a ton of trouble by providing answers to most of the questions buyers will ask, you will sell your home faster and probably even get a little more money for doing so.

Good Luck!