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If you want to sell your house, you need to take it seriously. What I have been telling my sellers is that you may have a smaller profit when selling your house, but will be able to buy a house for less too. Here are my top 10 hints and tips for selling your home quickly for the most money.
- Get rid of things and de-clutter. Having out fifty storage bins and pots and pans on a shelf in your china cabinet is a red flag to buyers. I like playing a game with my kids. The game is, “why are these people selling their house.” I show them bad pictures from listings on line. It’s gotten to the point that both of them laugh as soon as the photos appear. If it’s possible to tell why somebody is moving by the photographs alone, there’s a problem.
- Don’t list the price of your house too high to, “see what happens” before getting it to the right price. Ask anyone who has sold a home if they took their first offer. If the individual didn’t take their first offer, did they regret it? The most serious buyers in every price range come to view new listings right after they’re listed. I can count on both my hands, my feet, and on all the hands, feet, and paws in my house the number of times I know sellers regret turning down that initial offer.
- When I’m in a social situation and am asked what line of work I’m in, I get some interesting responses once the individual learns I’m a “stager.” If I gained a pound every time somebody told me that they knew how to stage and always bake cookies before showings at their house, I’d physically explode. Hire a professional to take care of defects and necessary repairs at your house before listing it. I apologize if you read my blogs or articles on a regular basis, but again the only way somebody knows how to stage a home is if they are a professional home stager with a portfolio.
- Buyers can’t visualize cosmetic changes to a home all the time. Don’t have the attitude that a buyer will want to change colors of rooms and put their own style into a house anyway, so why should you change anything at all in your house. WRONG. Make sure all your rooms are painted neutral. Seriously, I have had buyers walk away from a great house because their couch doesn’t match in the duck wall paper in the living room.
- If your house has been on the market since there was snow on the ground, make sure your on-line photographs are updated. Everybody is sick of seeing snow on the ground unless they see it in the photo of a potential house. Snow equals a low offer because it appears that your house has been listed for a long time.
- If your house has been on the market for a month with very few showings, it’s time for a price drop. This is assuming your agent has done a lot of advertising not limited to all social media sites and many cities around the state.
- Watch what you write on social media sites and say at your daughter’s soccer games. Obviously that you have ducks swimming in your basement isn’t smart. How about saying that gas prices are killing you and you have to get a shorter commute? The divorce is almost final? Your hours at work were cut. Your neighbors are big time partiers. Need I go on. One of my favorite quotes is, “When in doubt, close your mouth.”
- If your agent says to clean your house, clean using the same standards Martha Stewart demands of her house cleaners.
- Purple bath tubs are not pretty. Install a new tub.
- Leaving out flea powder and ant traps is not wise.
Yes, you definitely know my mood today. Seriously, don’t put your house on the market until you have made the right upgrades and changes. Your house won’t sell as fast or for the price you want if you don’t use common sense.
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