If you're planning on selling in the near future, do yourself a favor and watch some episodes of "Clean House", "Curb Appeal", "Flip that House" or one of my favorites "Designed to Sell". These shows are inspirational and will give you some great ideas of things to do to your house that will help you sell it faster and get more money for it. Of course it will take you longer than the 30 minutes they show on TV to do these projects, but if you are even a little handy, you can tackle many projects. Painting is very easy. But don't paint your entire house white! Look at the color pallets that designers are using in these homes. You won't see white walls, but rich colors. Buyers are also watching these shows and the trends definately include color. You can still do a "beige" but go to the home center and look at the color swatches and the booklets there for "trend colors" and choose a current, darker, bolder "beige" shade, some white for the baseboards and any other moulding and give your rooms some personality. Ralph Lauren has some great shades and some really cool paint textures like the suede and some paints that give you walls an almost rocky look. If you look around and you still have pink walls - go out and get yourself some paint and rollers and give your house an update. Also flooring. You can advertise a "flooring/carpet credit", but I guarantee you will get more money and a quicker sale if you get it put in before listing. Buyers coming through nowadays have so many homes to look at, they don't want to do a thing or use their imaginations to see how a house could look unless the price is really low. You can get carpet or flooring on payment plans too - you'll see 12 months without interest in a lot of places - get the flooring put in, list your house and pay off the bill when it sells. Even if you just do paint and flooring, you'll get a quicker sale and a lot more money in your pocket - that is one of the best investments you can make when getting your house ready to sell. And make sure to get as much stuff out of your house as possible before selling and "stage it". Don't empty the entire house though. Empty homes take twice as long to sell as houses that have furniture in them. If you are moving into a new house and then selling the old one, leave behind a dining table set (or buy an inexpensive one and dress it up with dishes and placemats), a couple pieces of furniture in the living room, etc. This way it gives perspective buyers a feel for where furniture can go in a room and they can see where they would put their own. Otherwise they don't have a baseline for figuring out the size of the room or seeing that the great room can be a combination living room/dining room.
Looking forward to a great spring market.....
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