There is a good article in MSN Money on ways to make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Click here to read the article.
Here are some topics they discussed with our take on them:
Finish the "honey do" list. Just about every homeowner has a
string of little repairs that never quite get done. Now's the time. Fix the
screens, oil that squeak, patch the cracks, paint the trim. Stuff that you've
long since stopped noticing could be shouting "Deferred maintenance!" to every
potential buyer.
Our thoughts: First impressions are extremely important in any market. Most home sellers are competing against bank owned homes. Often these homes are in rough shape and the price is reflective of such. If your home is priced higher than the REO competition, you will need to show why and a lack of deferred maintenance is important.
Get inspected. A pre-sale inspection can help in two ways,
says real-estate columnist Tom Kelly. Professional inspections can identify
problems that could thwart a sale in time to fix them. And if there are no major
problems, he said, an inspection can publicize that fact to skittish buyers.
A
pre-inspection can be valuable. A great inspection report can be a fine
marketing tool. One thing to remember is anything that is uncovered
will need to be disclosed. Once you become aware of a problem, repaired
or not, you have an obligation to disclose. this is not true in all
States but is so in Arizona.
Pack up the clutter. "Clutter eats equity," said real-estate
broker Barb Schwarz, CEO of StagedHomes.com and a pioneer of the concept of
professionally preparing houses for sale.
Too much stuff makes rooms look smaller and focuses buyers' attention on your
possessions rather than the home you're trying to sell. That's why many
professional stagers recommend removing as much as a third of your things to
better show off rooms and closets.
"Since you're going to have to pack it up anyway, do it now," advised
Schwarz, who said she has staged more than 5,000 homes. Buyers "can't imagine
themselves living there if they can't see the space."
We couldn't agree more with these comments. We've seen buyers walk out
of potentially good homes because there was too much stuff for them to
actually see the home. In addition, we advise that you remove religious
items, hunting trophy animals, weapons and other personal items that
may be popular to some and potentially offensive to others.
Clean like a fiend. "I mean Q-Tip clean," said Schwarz, who
recommends taking a cotton swab to faucets and fixtures, scouring fingerprints
from all the switch plates, shining windows until they're spotless and vacuuming
up every last dog hair from the baseboards. "You should be able to eat off the
kitchen floor, the bathroom floor."
You'll need to banish suspect smells as well; you don't want your house to
become known in real-estate circles as "the cat pee place." If your pets have
had one too many accidents, you may need to replace the affected carpet and
padding and have the underlying floor sealed. If you're not sure how your place
smells, get your least tactful friend to take a few whiffs and tell you the
honest truth.
This goes along with item #1. Make a great first impression. You may want to put up some air fresheners, not too bold though, just to make the home smell fresh and pleasant. If you smoke in your home, stop doing so for 2-3 months before you put the home on the market and work hard to clean out the residual smells. Ask a friend to come over and see if they can still smell the smoke... this is a biggie for many buyers. We have a carpet guy who can treat your carpets with an enzyme that does a heck of a job on smells.
Kick up the curb appeal. By now, you probably
realize the garden gnomes are a no-no. But you may not realize how many
sales you're losing before potential buyers even get to the front door.
"Most
people will start their search for a home on the Internet. If your
house's Internet photo doesn't 'wow!' them, they might never call for a
showing," Glink said. "That's why your front landscaping needs to be in
perfect condition."
Given the pressure to make a good first impression, you'll need to do more than trim back the hedges and plant a few pansies.
"Hire
a professional landscaper to clean up the leaves, plant some fall
flowers, trim the bushes and trees, and really manicure your lawn,"
Glink suggested. "If your front walkway is cracked, now might be the
time to replace it."
We've already talked about first impressions twice so we don't need to belabor that point. We've found a good clean up and weed removal is pretty essential. A number of landscape companies can put down pre-emergence on your property that will prevent most of the weeds from coming up. I love this stuff. Some flowers can make a big difference as well but you'll need to tend to them.
Set the right price. In frenzied markets, sellers
who put outrageous price tags on their homes sometimes are rewarded. As
markets cool, however, a too-high asking price can lead to a home being
shunned by agents and buyers. A seller may think she's just testing the
market, assuming buyers will at least make an offer, but buyers may
assume she's unreasonable and move on.
Your goal should be a fair price -- something that's reasonable given the price of other homes in your area.
This is the hundred pound gorilla in the Phoenix market. Many banks have gotten darn agressive with their pricing and a lot of these homes are in pretty good shape. The REO homes are really setting the price barrier. Personally, we preview every bank owned comparible home near a home we are being asked to market/sell. Buyers are focusing on the great deals banks are offering... to be cometitive you may have to do the same.
This is a pretty long post so we'll stop here. The bottom line is to make your home as appealing as possible on as many fronts as possible. The current market is a bit like a holding a beauty pageant in a price war zone.
Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777
