Home Selling Tip #183 - Clutter Kills Home Value!
Here's another edition of our Featured Blog of Home Selling Tips. Today's tip #183, is all about the one thing every home seller has control over: Clutter and mess and cleanliness!
What's the best thing I can do to increase the sales price of my home?
Clean, clean and clean more! This seems like a simple enough answer, but the weight and importance of the message shouldn't be lost. Cleaning and tiding up your home, inside AND out, could have a difference of sales price by 5 to 10%, and that's a conservative to average estimate! Here's a quick story:
I had a listing appointment with a young couple to sell their single family home. They absolutely had to sell right away, and had to milk every dollar they could from the sale because they were relocating and needed the money for the relocation. This young couple had young, messy children and you could tell just by walking into the home. The home needed some repairs they couldn't afford, but the main issue was the clutter and mess throughout the house and on the property.
I gave them my best advice for value, but they needed $20,000 more. They asked what they could do to sell the home for more and possibly the extra 20 grand. I was brutally honest with them. We went from corner to corner, room to room and mess to mess and detailed everything. Basically, they needed to get rid of a lot of stuff, then deep clean the house, floors and carpets, and trash all the clutter on the exterior of the property.
They did all of this. Was the home perfect afterward? No, of course not. Again, it needed some repairs they didn't have the money to do. But just by cleaning and getting the home to look the best it could in its present condition, they sold the home for 8% more, and got their extra $20,000 they desperately needed!
Buyers Like Shiny
Have you ever heard that rats like shiny things and sometimes steal and hide small shiny objects in their nests? It's true! I would never compare home-buyers to rats, but humans buying anything have the same type of psychology- BUYERS LIKE SHINY!
Clutter Kills Equity - Clutter Kills Home Value!
This is true with anything, no matter the product or how new or old it is. Old cars that are cleaned and polished up sell for more. Diamonds that are cut and polished sell for more. A human that goes through a make-over attracts more attention "Yeah Baby!" as Austin Powers would say!
A house is no different. No matter how old it is or what repairs it needs! So shine that house up! Get rid of the clutter. Mop the floors, clean the counter-tops. Put everything that is out away! Shampoo the carpets. Mow the lawn. Trim the trees. Get rid of the stack of old tires in the backyard!
Buyers Have a Hard Time Seeing Past Clutter & Dirt
Be brutal about getting rid of everything and cleaning everything. Yes, EVERYTHING. Have I mentioned cleaning up the place yet? DON'T LOSE THE MESSAGE JUST BECAUSE I'VE SAID IT OVER AND OVER.
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Garrigus Real Estate Group
HomeSmart Professionals
(888) 9-List-It
(888) 954-7848
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