Lists to Keep When Selling Your Home

Preparing your home to sell is no easy task, and prospective buyers often have many questions when viewing a home. One of your first tasks is to find a Realtor. Contact me if you are interested in buying or selling a home in Central Ohio! After you've secured a Realtor, help keep track of important information by using the following lists:

Basic information. This list should include facts such as square footage, year built, number of bedrooms & bathrooms, property taxes and school district. Most of this information will accompany your online listing; however, it's good to keep this information on hand. 

Best features. One good way to develop this list is to name what you will miss most about your old home and neighborhood, such as the nearby walking and bike paths, sun room, private backyard or eat-in kitchen. Best features go beyond basic information and really "sell" your home.

Updates and improvements. Not only are updates and improvements important to buyers, but also they affect your home's appraisal value. Make sure to keep track of home improvements and replacements, including when they occurred and how much they cost, for at least the previous three years. If you haven't made upgrades for a little while, considering revamping your kitchen and/or bathrooms. Other projects with a high ROI include replacing your front door and garage doors to enhance curb appeal and adding a back deck.

Things to do before you sell. This list is more for you than for prospective buyers. Have you been meaning to repaint a wall? Call a cleaning or landscape service? Research moving companies and change your address? Perhaps your biggest task will be de-cluttering and depersonalizing your home--both of which make your home more attractive to buyers. Whatever it is, right it down here before you forget! For a more comprehensive checklist to prepare your home to sell, see the image below:

What to Keep: Tips on Sorting Your Belongings

Cleaning out your home is a big job, and it's often tedious, time-consuming work. Below are some tips that will help you decide what you should keep and what should be put out by the curb.

First, go through your closets and other storage spaces in your home and throw out things that you have no desire to keep--things that are broken, have been replaced, or cannot be repurposed. This is called decluttering. Oprah's organizing guru, Peter Walsh, shares a few insightful tips on how to declutter your home and decide what to keep:

On kitchen drawers: Empty the contents of kitchen drawer(s) into a bin placed on your countertop. Over the next month, place what you use back in the drawer. By the end of the month, toss what's left in the bin--you don't need it if you don't use it.

On things you have many of: Apply the ratio rule. For every three or four books you keep, throw one out, until your items fit into the space where they belong. This tactic works well for magazines, DVDs, CDs, and books.

On clothes: Arrange your closet so that all hangers are facing the same direction. When you wear something, change the direction of the hanger when you hang it back up. After a month or so, donate the clothes that you have not worn (those with the hangers still facing the origional direction). Like the kitchen drawer method, this is designed to help you identify what you use and what you can do without. Click here for the full news clip on Peter Walsh. 

Second, keep in mind that your storage needs, along with the sentimental value of your belongings, change over time. If your kids are full grown, you can most likely throw out their summer camp arts-and-crafts projects. Or, you could tell your children you are cleaning out the house, and ask that they assume responsibly for their childhood mementos. If you struggle with giving away years of a child's art or schoolwork, keep a few of the most memorable items. You could also take picture of items that you need to throw away. That way, you have the memories and the space! Regardless, invovling family members in the process is a good idea. Children could go with you to donate their unused toys, which will help them part with their belongings. Another incentive for younger family members to get rid of some of their things is to hold a garage sale in which each family member gets to keep the money from the sale of his/her objects. If you are cleaning out the home alone, and wonder if one member of your family wants to keep something--ask. Many personal items are irreplaceable.

After your initial cleaning, and keeping in mind the criteria above, go through closets once more to determine what should be thrown out, repurposed, kept, and donated. Tackle one closet at a time, so as not to be overwhelmed. Once done, every item should have earned its place in your home. In other words, storage areas should not be places you carelessly place junk you've accumulated and will soon forget about. Items you are keeping should be neatly organized or proudly displayed.

It's a good idea to clean out your home regularly (think "spring cleaning"). If you have lived in a home for many years and are planning on selling, it's best to start cleaning way before you list your home. If your home sells quickly, or you find the perfect new home soon into your search, you want to be ready to go. It's amazing how much stuff can accumulate in a home over time!

Life After Listing

Curious about what happens once you list your home for sale? It's always best to be prepared. Below please find some quick facts about the process that comes between listing your home and selling it.

After you list your home, your Realtor with enter it into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which feeds to hundreds of websites such as Realtor.com. You can expect to see a "for sale" sign in your yard and a lockbox on your door, which grants Realtors access to your home when showing it to potential buyers.

During open houses and scheduled showings, its best to be out of the house. This way, the people looking at it can better picture it as their own. Also, it allows them to make open comments about the home. Your agent may hold an open house for Realtors right away, followed by one for the public on the weekend. Thus, it's important that your house is show-ready when you list. This means clean, uncluttered, depersonalized, and photogenic. For ideas on how to stage your home, read my previous blog post, here.

Most people who view your home will do so in the first two weeks. Still, in a normal market, you can expect a home to sit on the market for 60-90 days. In today's housing market, this number is lower. Ideally, you should see interest in the first six weeks. If not, work with your Realtor to discuss strategy, pricing, and home improvements that will help market your home. If a buyer requests to see your home multiple times, that's a great sign!

Ready to list? Contact me. ... and congratulations!

Make Your Move Stress-Free

Packing and moving can be a huge ordeal. But with proper organization and a few key tips, you'll see that it doesn't actually have to be a long, overwhelming process.

Do as much as you can before moving day. Donate anything you don't want, and dump trash regularly. Ensure that movers can easily navigate your home by removing obstacles such as rugs, low hanging items, and anything surrounding the front door.

Organize. Mark all items you don't want loaded, and separate them from those that you do.  Make sure paperwork is not packed. Also mark special or fragile items, and point these out to movers. It's a good idea to have a few boxes containing items you'll need right away (perhaps kitchen and bathroom things)--instruct movers to unpack these items first, and mark the boxes accordingly. If you have kids, consider letting them pack a box of their favorite things, and ask that it be unpacked early on. Color code boxes by using a different color of masking tape for each room.

Ask questions.  Make sure that you understand all paperwork. If not, ask for clarification.  Give the driver your new address and contact information. Ask the mover:

• For his/her cell phone number
• For tracking information
• Whether your shipment is the last to be loaded (this will help you determine when the driver leaves for your new home)
• Whether your shipment is first to be unloaded
• For an estimated delivery date and time 

Take care of your movers. Movers often work long, tiring days. It's a nice gesture to pick up something for them to eat (pizza, anyone?) and to keep water and soda available. Show them where drinks are kept and which bathroom to use, so they don't have to worry about asking. It's your decision whether you want to tip the driver. Many people do, and the driver can then distribute some of the tip to his/her crew.

When sellers list their homes with me, I provide them with a number of resources, including a moving checklist and instructions on helping children cope with your move. Contact me if you're interested in selling your home--I can help! To learn a packing plan in only two minutes, watch the video below: