Do You Really Want To Sell Your House?
By Shiela Heg, Broker, ABR, GRI, CRS, AHSS,
In today’s market, in order to sell your house, you need to be just a little bit more than every one else:
1. You need to more aggressively priced
2. You need to more flexible with your timing needed to show your home. Buyers have so many homes to choose from, if you are not ready to show when they are ready to go…they just go to the next house and make their choice from the many they can see
3. You need to be morewilling to listen to your professional Realtor. Remember you are paying them to give you good advice – take it.
4. Your house needs to be more appealing than all the rest. This does not mean you have to completely remodel – just de-clutter, clean, detail, repair, & stage
NEVER SOLD A HOUSE BEFORE?
Don’t worry, even if this is the first time you have ever sold a house, you probably have some experience you didn’t realize. Have you ever sold a car? What did you do first? Detail it! Right? You cleaned it inside and out, even wiped down the door jams and got all the crud out of the little crevices. Cleaned the windows, vacuumed. You probably made that car look better than it ever did while you were driving it for the past 5 years, right? Well then, you have the basics for what you need to do to your house now.
Clutter, Clutter, Clutter…..
Time to De-clutter. Don’t get me wrong, not all clutter is junk, clutter could be very precious possessions. When you are trying to sell your house remember your possessions are private property and should be treated as such. Let’s start out with the most important private property – personal photos.
Personal photos need to be removed for some very important reasons:
- Buyers are looking for a home for THEIR FAMILY. We need to not have them see your family.
- Personal photos are distracting. They take away from the viewing of the house. You don’t want them focusing on your cute children instead of the beautiful crown molding you installed.
- Hopefully it will never come to this, but there are too many stories about weirdo’s looking for children to abduct either for their pleasure or to sell overseas in the black market. Pack those pictures away NOW.
Collectables:
1. Precious moments, Hummels, Crystal collections, Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, the list could go on and on. These items have nothing to do with the day to day function of your house. Reasons they should be packed away:
a) They could get bumped and broken.
b) They could “disappear”.
c) They are also as distracting as personal photos
2. Guns: Must be out of sight and locked up.
3. Medicines: Do not store in Medicine cabinet. It’s sad to say that there are drug seekers that go through houses for sale for the sole purpose of finding drugs or things they can sell for drugs. Be creative in finding a safe hiding place. Remember, a Realtor would not think it unusual for someone to look in your bathroom cabinets, or kitchen cabinets, however, your personal dresser is off limits.
4. Small appliances: Are you really using that bread maker everyday? How about that coffee grinder? There is a “Rule of 3” in staging. No more than 3 items on your kitchen counters, fireplace mantel, or credenza’s etc.
5. Children’s toys: now is a good time to go through them and sort out which toys they have outgrown. (more on sorting to come)
6. Pets: “out of sight out of mind” is the best way to handle the pet issue. A few reasons you need to remove your pets for showings:
a. Not everyone is a pet lover, many people are afraid.
b. Your pet may be very gentle and friendly when you are at home, but when a stranger is entering your home, they may feel it is their job to protect it. I have seen very calm animals (even cats) be very aggressive when their owner was not at home.
c. Some people have allergies. Now, it could be the allergies come from just the sight of the animal, or smell, but why risk the loss of a good buyer. I recently showed a buyer 6 homes in the $350k-$400K price range. They were particularly fond of one home that appeared to be vacant although very nicely staged. We decided to take a second look before writing an offer on this house. I called the listing office and was told that the owner was in town for the weekend and staying at the house, but he would leave for the showing. When we arrived, we discovered a bowl of cat food on the kitchen counter, and the litter box set up in the family room. The buyer immediately turned around, walked out and said NO WAY. They bought another house. I’m sure that seller regretted bringing his cat home with him.
d. Of course your insurance agent will tell you that there are more liability issues when you have pets in the house during a showing.
That brings to mind another very important consideration SMELL. How does your house smell? When we live in a home for a long time, we get used to its familiar smells. You might want to ask a really good friend (one that will tell you the truth) to give you her/his opinion. Even people with pets get used to their own pet’s odor, but are offended when they walk into someone else’s home and pet odors emanate.
What really smells: Most “pet odor” complaints have been found to be the Pet Food. All pet foods smell. Again, “out of sight, out of mind” rule. Take the dog/cat’s dishes out when you leave with your pet. You don’t want buyer’s to be focused on “what kind of animal has been running around on these carpets”. Also, make sure any pet food stored in the pantry is in an air-tight container.
Other odors to watch out for are strong cooking odors, especially when you are trying out those wonderful ethnic dishes with strong smells of garlic, curry, brown rice, cumin, coriander, onions, mushrooms, fish, or scented oils.
DO NOT OVER USE AIR FRESHENERS OR POTPOURIE!
Too much perfumed air is just as bad as the odor you are trying to cover up. Your house should smell clean and fresh. That comes from actually being cleaned and have the windows opened up whenever possible for freshening.
Getting back to de-cluttering…
I have found a good technique for de-cluttering is the 3 bin method. Take 3 large storage bins or laundry baskets, label them: LOVE-IT, TRASH-IT, GIVE-IT. Now start one room at a time and take everything down and place it in the right bin. (This will help for the cleaning and repairing stage) If you love it, but don’t need it right now or for the next 3 months, PACK IT. Of course anything that you find that is broke or unusable goes in the TRASH-IT bin to be sent to the land fill. Now’s the time to be a giver. If there is something you’ve been meaning to give to one of your loved ones, you don’t have to wait until you are gone. Treasure the joy on their face when you give it away. Of course there are many charitable organizations that would love to have your donations.
I am including three 8 ½ x 11 signs for your convenience. (Also, I procrastinated cleaning out my home office for almost a month because I didn’t have time to make up the signs on my computer – You now have no excuse.)
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