Does your home have a façade only a homeowner could love? Selling a home can be an emotional experience, and people can lack objectivity when it comes to their own abode. Presenting a home in its best light is always important, but it’s imperative in our current competitive real estate market.
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Below are 7 tips to ‘setting the stage’ and making your home more appealing to buyers:
1. Thoroughly clean from top to bottom, especially kitchens and baths.
A dirty house an immediate buyer turn-off. The two most important areas are the kitchen and the bathrooms. If you have not deep cleaned all counter and tile surfaces to a spotless condition, you stand the chance of having the buyers walk right back out the door.
2. De-clutter the entire house.
Clutter makes it extremely hard for the buyers to visualize moving into your home. The disorganization affects the buyer’s ability to focus on your home and they will most likely overlook your key selling features. In addition, clutter has the affect of making your home appear smaller than it is as the “open” feeling is gone.
3. Remove the personal memorabilia.
People are generally curious and when you want them to notice the beautiful entryway they may be focused on all the family pictures on the piano or all the “stuff” stuck to the front of your refrigerator. Your objective is to change the view of your home from “lived in” to “ready to move in.”
4. Neutralize inside and out.
The best way to present a home is for the wall colors to be painted a neutral color. This goes for the outside as well – a loud or non-neutral color may just keep the buyers from even stopping to see the inside.
5. Let the sun shine in with spotless windows.
Nothing is more distracting to a buyer than to be looking at a view through a dirty window. What you don’t see is often more important that what you do see.
6. Make your pets go away.
While your pets are a loving member of your family, for the buyers their presence, food and boxes are generally a turn-off. Every trace of their presence should be removed so, once again, the buyers are not distracted from the prime objective – viewing your home in the best possible light.
7. Add curb appeal.
A healthy, neat, trimmed and well maintained yard and flower beds are the keys to getting the buyers up to the front door. A well-maintained exterior translates to a well maintained home in the mind of the buyer.
Irene Gaffigan
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/making-your-home-more-appealing-to-buyers-672313.html
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9 Responses to “Making Your Home More Appealing to Buyers”
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:28 am
What sort of things make your house more appealing to home buyers?
What sort of things make your house more appealing to home buyers? What can I do to help me sell my house. I know the market is down but what are some of the best things to do to your house right before selling to catch buyers eyes?
January 21st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Price is the key in a down market.
If your house does not look like a model home, remove all your funitures and show it as an empty house.
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January 21st, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Pack away all your clutter so the rooms look bigger and the prospective buyer can imagine it being their space. Clean it from top to bottom. Make minor repairs and light a candle or two that smells like apple pie, mulled cider or cinnamon buns.
I think it helps to have the light of day coming from the windows so remove heavy drapes. Happy selling
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January 21st, 2010 at 2:34 pm
curb appeal..take anything out of the house if you are still living in it..that makes it your house..pictures need to come down…repaint the walls..tile floor new carpet…all those things make people wanna look…dont paint wild or weird colors for you..paint for other people neutrals..creams tans…get as much stuff out of your house as you can…stage your house and have it ready to show at any moment..no dishes in the sink…no pets in the house…get some of those plug in oil things…do a few in the house same smell turn them on low..dont overpower them with a smell..febreeze is a wonderful thing..always make your bed and keep your closets and any other cabinet that go with the house spotless…we have been trying to sell our house in nc..in a market that had 2000 houses last year at this time and now has 4000 but when we looked at houses in ga…most of the above things i was doing in nc..but they turned us off a lot of houses…especially weird smells and dirty rooms…
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January 21st, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Right before selling seems like a small time frame.
People tend to like seeing space, when they enter a room imagining what they can do with it space is very important so they can actively plan what goes where. You don’t see many people buying houses when they go in the living room and bump into a table. In this regard you can try shuffling furniture aroud and try to remove pieces that isn’t necessary.
Try to air your house out a bit by opening windows. If you have ever been to someones else’s house you will almost certainly notice the odour difference when you walk in.
Try to have curtains pulled back and have as much natural light entering as possible.
Ornaments that you have should probably be packed away as you can never tell the interests of the person taking a look in your house and you don’t want them thinking a certain shelf is for certain things, you want them to think there are many possibilities.
And generally clean the place up whilst packing away away random junk you have lying around.
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January 21st, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Declutter the entire house. Stacks of papers, clothes everywhere and general mess tell buyers that there’s not enough storage space.
Have a professional service come though and clean the house before you show it. Do this every time you do an open house. It doesn’t cost much and will help keep the place looking great when buyers are coming through.
Don’t forget the curb appeal, What your house looks like from the street will be the buyer’s first impression, so make it a good one.
If you’re working in a depressed market, interview at least three realtors to see what different ideas are unique to one agent and those that are pretty much standard across the board.
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PA Realtor.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
As a real estate agent, my opinion is that you want people to see things that will make them say "yes, I like this property". Owners may have come accustomed to things like scratches on woodwork, or stains on carpets. If you already have that covered, focus on making the property more majestic for buyers. You can spend thousands on a kitchen upgrade, but a few hundred dollars, spent wisely, may get you thousands more for your home. People love flora. Plant some cedar shrubs, put a trellis in, install a stone path; make it quaint. These are relatively cheap. Bottom line; there’s nothing that you can do to change buyers minds if you have a roof that needed replacement 2 years ago, or if your basement is damp and moldy.
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January 21st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Lotta great answers here I have sold over 500 properties in the last 17 years watch 30 days of HGTV it will give you a great idea. All those mentioned here are great ideas but i like furniture in a house just not too much furniture or clutter.
Have buyers picture there stuff in your living room so get rid of most of the clutter dirtyness and extra crap like kids toys and pets and animal junk. I would say clean out basement and garage and have it empty except for one hotrod or nice looking auto. Get a storage unit for all this stuff.
The kitchen and bathroom better shine and all new paint though out house.
Now front yard landscaping issue You need curb appeal.
Got to get em in the home before you can sell it.
Pretend your home is new construction and think about staging it to bring out what ever features you have like a fireplace or bay window or wood work on floors.
dirty throw rugs and nasty drapes wont help you! no funky paint colors! also modernize fixtures like lights and faucets and cabinets ect.
The fix and repairs better be done to no maintenance issues.
No leaky roofs and faucets and no cracks in foundations or drywall or floors. Maybe get home inspected before you sell to identify the problems to take care of ahead of time.
Any realtor you list with can walk you thru with a list of to do items
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17 year investor real estate gold and silver
January 21st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Bake cookies and let that smell warm thehouse right before a showing!
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