The Top 8 Do’s and Don’ts When Selling Your NJ Home

 The Top 8 Do’s and Don’ts When Selling Your NJ Home

As a Morris County, NJ Home Stager there are universal do’s and don’ts when it comes to selling your home.    Let’s get right to it!

Selling Don’ts:

1. Play Realtor and insist you know what your home is worth. Hire a professional Realtor and let them do their job!  They are the experts and know the market.  This is the most important “don’t” when selling your home, bar none!  

2. Neglect curb appeal – it’s buyer’s first impression of your home on MLS (where 90% of buyer’s start their home search) and in person. Hire a landscaper or do it yourself. Don’t forget to trim hedges, add fresh mulch and blow debris clear from walkways, porch and driveway.  

3. Clean your home by stuffing your junk into every available storage space. Once your home is on the market, it’s a given that buyers will look in your cabinets, pantry and open closet doors to determine storage space. If your storage areas are crammed with “stuff”, you’re giving the impression that their things won’t fit either.

4. Fill your home with Glad Plugins and similar products. It’s the same as spraying perfume in lieu of a shower - it doesn’t work and buyers suspect you’re covering up unpleasant odors. Clean is the only smell buyers love!  

5. Wait until the week of open house to discard or store unnecessary furniture, personal collections and family photos. This is when you call on family or friends to store things you don’t absolutely need. If that’s not an option you can call PODS – the newest, fastest growing self-storage units. This serves two purposes: you’ll have far less to do once you sell and showcase the room’s square footage.

6. Assume buyers are going to take on your deferred maintenance like, leaky faucets, broken doorbells, chipped molding, running toilets and/or torn screens.  Buyers want turnkey homes. Moreover, you don’t want give buyer’s the impression your home isn’t well maintained.    

7. Assume buyers are pet lovers – many aren’t or are allergic to cats and dogs.  During showings and open houses, temporarily take pets and all trances of them out of the home. Yes, this is a hassle, but it’s temporary and your goal is to sell quickly.

8. Make buyers guess a room’s purpose. If you’re selling your home as a 4 bedroom, return an office, playroom or a gym back to a bedroom.   

Selling Do’s

1.Find a reputable Realtor and let them price your home based on their market knowledge, research and comparable homes in your area.  Statistically 90% of people think their home is worth more than it is?!  Defer to your Realtor and trust they understand the market and are experts at pricing homes!

2. Shampoo your rugs (area and wall to wall) so they are clean and order free. You can hire a local carpet cleaning company or rent one from your local grocery store.

3. Paint the interior of your home in neutral colors. Nothing cleans, deodorizes and brightens up a home more effectively than a fresh coat of paint. Moreover, it yields the highest return on investment at 150%.  Consult a Morris County NJ Home Stager for tried and true neutral wall colors that have mass appeal.

4. Your master bedroom should be non-gender specific. Invest in neutral bedding and add some decorative pillows. Look to high-end hotels, designed to appeal to the masses.  Grandma’s homemade quilt won’t help sell your home!    

5. Take down heavy, dated window treatments. Buyers love natural light and it’s better to have no window treatments than dated curtains that block the light. While you’re at it remove all dusty floral arrangements that went out with the eighties. Just trust me on this one!

6. Open all your windows and air out your home even if it’s cold out. Turn down your heat for a half hour and use fans for a cross breeze or wait for a windy day. 20 minutes is all it takes rid your home of musty, stagnate air and replace it with fresh, clean air!

7. Take out the guess work for buyers and give every room a purpose.  If you’re selling your home as a 4 bedroom, but have been using one for an office, playroom or home gym, return it to a bedroom.  

8. Invest in a NJ home staging consultation. Home stagers are experts on preparing your home for the market. They understand and can implement all the necessary changes that will yield the biggest bang for your buck, while giving your home the necessary competitive edge it needs in today’s market.