Top 12 improvements to do before you sell your home.

If you are getting ready to sell your house in the current downward housing market there are some inexpensive ways to maximize your profits. Staging and de-cluttering top the list according to HomeGain.com. Here’s the list according to a survey of  Realtors nation wide by Home Sale Maximizer.

1. Clean & De-clutter  2. Home Staging  3. Lighten and Brighten  4. Landscaping  5. Repair Plumbing  6. Update Electrical  7. Replace or Shampoo Carpets  8. Paint Interior Walls  9. Repair Damaged Floors  10.  Update Kitchen  11. Paint Outside of Home  12. Update Bathroom 

This survey was nation wide, but definitely holds true for the Redding area. As an Accredited Staging Professional Realtor I am trained to help you maximize your profits when selling your home. I am available for a free staging consultation and home evaluation. Just give me a call or send an email and I will be happy to help. The  Home Sale Maximizer site has some great tips for getting the best possible price when you sell your house.

Part 2 in a series on How to sell your house in a buyers’ Market.

As we continue our discussion on getting your house sold in today’s market let’s talk about the condition of your house. If you’re like most of us you have a long list of things around the house that you want to get to when you have time. It’s called deferred maintenance. If you want to sell in this market NOW is the time to get to that list.

As we live in our homes we get used to the way things are and we don’t even notice all those little things that need fixing. But what we need to remember that when our house is for sale it becomes a product just like that car in a the used car lot. The potential buyers are going to be picking it apart and comparing to every other house that they see. They are going to choose the house with the least amount of ‘things’ on the to do list for the same reason you’ve been putting those ‘things’ off for so long—TIME.

Also a house with all the visible things in order give buyers a sense of a well maintained home. If the buyers see things that haven’t been taken care of they wonder about the things they CAN’T see. If you put yourself in the buyers shoes as you walk through your house it will help you notice all of the small as well as the big ones that need to be fixed.

Even if these fixes cost you some cash, it will be money well spent. The more items that you fix the less ammunition the buyers have to lower their original offer.

Part 1 in a series on How to sell your house in a buyers’ Market.

OK, so you want to sell your home and everything you read or hear in the media tells you it’s a buyers market. So what do you do, wait? If you wait what will happen to the price of the home you want to buy when you sell your house? This definitely isn’t the same frenzied market of a few years ago, but homes are still selling, and in increasing numbers according to the latest statistics. Which ones are selling and why? Well, their is more than one answer to that question.
Well, yes, it is a buyers market and no you aren’t going to make as much profit in 2008 as your neighbor/friend/family member made in 2005. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell your house for the current markets top dollar. There are three main factors that affect the price that you can ask for your house in any market. They are location, condition, and price.

Well, actually you can ask whatever you want for your house. In a sellers market (like 2005) you can probably ask & get an amount that will make you, if not ecstatic, then pretty darn happy. In a buyers market, such as 2008, that scenario is probably only in your dreams! Let’s face it, if the only reason you are selling or thinking of selling is to make enough profit to make you throw your hands up in the air and shout, YES! You probably shouldn’t be selling right now.

If on the other hand you are selling because you need to, for whatever reason, then what you need to know is how to capitalize on your houses assets. To do this you need to understand the three main factors that affect the sale of your house and how “Staging” can help.

The first part of this series will cover location and what you can do to help minimize the affect of a problem location. Later I will cover condition and the dreaded “P” word—pricing.

Location, location, location! We’ve all heard that before, but what can you do about it if your location leaves something to be desired? It’s not as if you can move your house further away from that busy street it’s on or move it to another neighborhood. Anyone who has lived in an area for a few years knows if their house is in a desirable area, or…not so much.

There are several things that you can do to help detract from your poor location. Let’s say you are on a busy street and your house is perfect in every other way. The first thing that I, and your prospective buyers, want to see is some separation from that busy street. Do you have landscaping that helps block the street view and noise?

If the busy street is in the back of your house then you should have trees, shrubs, fencing, etc that block the view and noise of the street. The taller and thicker the better! This works if you have an undesirable neighbor in back of you also. If you don’t have these already growing nice and thick it’s not too late to start. At least if you have new plants growing the buyers will be able to envision how they will grow to create some privacy. If you don’t plant before you list your house all the buyers will envision is all the work that they have to do if they buy your house. Not a vision that is going to make the offers come flooding in on your house.

On the other hand if your house faces a busy street it’s not so cut and dry. You never want to block the view of your house from the street completely. Buyers won’t buy what they can’t see. So it’s better to have a short fence with some low to medium high shrubs along the front of the property. (Be sure to check on your area requirements before you put in new landscaping and fencing close to a street or sidewalk.)

The other thing you need to consider when your house faces a busy street is how you get your car onto that busy street. Do you have to back out into the street? Most buyers are not going to like that idea. Can you create a turn about to back into? Can you create a circular driveway?

Most of us who have lived in our homes for any length of time have thought of possible solutions for the issues that bother us about where we live. If you can fix these issues in a cost effective manner then ‘just do it’. The more things you fix the less the buyers has to use to get you to lower your asking price.

Of course the universal ‘fix’ for a not so perfect location is the ultimate equalizer—price! But that is a topic for another day. I hope this was helpful information. Please don’t hesitate to ask me specific questions about your issues concerning your property and its marketability.

As always I’m here to help with your real estate and staging questions.