Tips to Sell Your Home

Even though it's more of a seller’s market than a buyer’s, sellers must prepare their homes before listing them in order to appeal to buyers who are value-sensitive following the recession. The best way to sell your home is to hire a professional Realtor like myself, who is an expert on the market and has experience selling homes. Contact me to hear how I help my clients successfully and quickly sell their Central Ohio homes. The below tips will also help your home sell in a timely fashion:

•  Enhance curb appeal. This can be as simple as mowing the grass, planting flowers, repainting the garage door, and removing lawn décor. Curb appeal is a potential buyer’s first impression of your home, so it is critical to maintain.

• Depersonalize. Remove pictures of you and your family, but feel free to keep neutral art on display or swap out photos with stock images. The point here is that buyers should be able to picture themselves living in your home—and starring at pictures of your children will not help them do so.

• Declutter. This goes beyond cleaning up and making the beds. Decluttering entails putting things in closets, the garage, and out-of-sight locations such as storage units. For instance, put away (or throw away) the pile of books or magazines on your coffee table. You want surfaces (and floors!) to be as clear as possible. This is especially important for smaller homes, which can benefit the most from maximizing their space. Take the kitchen, for example. Put some decorations and appliances away: buyers do not want to see your toaster, blender, George Foreman Grill, microwave, Keurig machine, and butter dish—they want to see your counter space. The same holds true with furniture. It you have any non-essential furniture pieces that do not complement the rest of the house, remove them during showings. Good examples are children’s art tables or chairs.

• Make minor upgrades. Granite kitchen countertops are increasingly common in new builds but were rare for homes built in the 1990s. Upgrading to granite countertops and stainless steel appliances will help put your home on a more level playing field with new builds. Buyers also like to see updated bathrooms. New front doors and garage doors offer some of the highest returns on investment. Check for and fix cracks in your foundation, stucco, or any other structural areas. You can likely fix them now for less money than you could when a home inspector points them out to potential buyers. Sealing cracks ahead of time can reduce the time your homes spends on the market since less work will be required during the selling process itself.

• Keep it comfortable. Don’t overheat your home or blast the AC. Be mindful that, when buyers are arriving in coats, they won’t appreciate an unusually warm house.  If you have pets, keep them in the garage or backyard—somewhere where they will not interrupt potential buyers.  

Downsizing in 5 Steps

Downsizing can be an overwhelming process, especially if you've lived in the same home for many years. Following these five steps will help minimize the hassle of downsizing.

Step 1: Assess your needs. Differentiate between what you have and what you need (those items that play an active part in your daily lifestyle). When is the last time you used your treadmill? Would a pair of running shoes be more useful and easier to store? Get rid of things you have not used, or have seldom used, in the past year. This ensures you are giving weight to things you already use---not things you might use some day in the future. If you are torn between keeping an item or giving it away, compromise: if you don't use it within the next six months, toss it. Go through your belongings in storage as well. Discard those boxes that have not been touched since being placed in storage. You can donate items to friends and family, join a free cycle group, or sell items online. The amount of things you get rid of should correspond to the amount of storage space in your new home. On that note, be sure to note storage space in your new home before you move.

Step 2: Clear shelves, cabinets, and closets. Decluttering is an important step in downsizing. One good method to see what odds and ends you actually need  is to empty a cabinet or drawer, and only put back what you use over a period of time--perhaps two-four weeks. This can be used for clothing as well. Hang all of your clothes in one direction. When you wear something, hang it up in the other direction. This will help you identify what you do and do not wear, thus making it easy to determine what to keep and what to give away.

Step 3: Measure your furniture. Will your current furniture fit in your new home? Take measurements of your current furniture, and get a floor plan (or at least room dimensions) of your new home. Consider door, closet and window placement when determining how to arrange your furniture in advance. Better Homes and Gardens's free Arange-A-Room online software can help you generate a floor plan.

Step 4: Organize. When packing, label boxes by room. If you know something will end up in storage, go ahead and pack it in a decorative storage box than can simply be moved from one storage area to the next. This will keep your home from getting too cluttered by boxes.

Step 5: Move. Move large items first. This takes the most energy, and will help you determine where smaller items go.  Unpack bathroom and kitchen items next, since these items are likely to be needed soonest. Finally, organize space while unpacking, placing each moving box in its labeled room.

Questions about downsizing? Contact me. 

Keys to a Successful Open House

One great way to attract potential buyers to your home is by hosting an open house. Your agent is responsible for hosting the event; however, there's a number of responsibilities that fall to you as the homeowner. Read these three tips below to have a more successful open house.

1) Declutter. Put away kitchen appliances that take up counter space, heaps of books on end tables, and excessive personal mementos such as pictures. This will make the space look cleaner and bigger. It will also help potential buyers picture the home as their own. Consider storing extra furniture where it can't be seen, but don't stop there. It's best if you are out of sight during the open house. This will make potential buyers feel more comfortable and more willing to ask questions and spend time in your home.

2) Spend some money. It doesn't have to be a fortune, but hiring a cleaning service, buying new towels for your kitchen and bathrooms, and making minor repairs (fix leaky facets and replace burnt out lightbulbs) will show potential buyers that your home is well maintained.

3) Set the stage. You want potential buyers to get the best impression of your home. Take a few minutes to set the table, bathe pets and shampoo carpets to neutralize odors, and mow the lawn and pull the weeds in your front yard to enhance curb appeal. Curb appeal is incredibly important, as it informs a  potential buyer's first impression.

Looking for a Realtor who is experienced with open houses and other home-selling techniques? Contact me.