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Getting ready to sell your home can be one of the most stressful areas of the real estate experience, but it does not have to be. Keeping in mind some key advice will help you get your house looking top shape from the inside and out. Throughout the process, the best way to go through your to-do list is to accept the fact that you can only do one thing at a time. With this perspective, all of the pieces will fall into just the right places.
Getting your house decluttered will help you clear your own mind and get you ready for the prospective buyers to start coming. The best way to get organized is to try to see your house through new eyes. When you pretend like you are the one who is considering buying your home, you can better see the areas which need improvement. Take a clipboard and pen with you as you survey from the outside to the inside. Write down everything which disturbs your eye for even a moment. Chances are that if you notice something that does not look right, your potential buyers will, too. You will probably want to share this list with your real estate agent and go through this process more than once, so you don’t miss anything.
Now that you have an idea of what needs to be improved, cleaned or changed, you can start knocking them off the list one by one. Get the outside, “curb appeal,” taken care of first. This will help your house attract attention right away even if the signs haven’t gone up yet. Seeing your house looking its best on the outside will also give you the courage to tackle the inside.
Each room should contain as little clutter as possible. Get a bunch of clear plastic bins and start filling them up with all of those extra knick-knacks. Remember that buyers want to picture their belongings in your house. If your stuff is in the way, then they can’t form a mental picture as easily. To properly declutter, you have to start detaching yourself from your home. Make the rooms look as large as possible by removing extra furniture, books, objects and wall hangings. Set aside some time to repaint colorful rooms a soothing beige, cream or linen. This will make the rooms look even bigger and give the buyers more breathing room.
Any decorative object which you leave in a room should be used as a tool to attract the buyer to a special feature. Place an interesting candle holder in the fire place, or a few small plants on the mantle. Draw the eyes to windows with lamps and neat end tables.
Despite all your efforts, be mentally and emotionally prepared to hear your agent tell you that you still need major improvements if you want to get the price you had in mind. Consider it a good thing that the professional agent you hired is being completely honest with you. You want to have a real estate agent who knows what and when things need to be done. Talk to anyone you can about the good agents they have had in the past. Get a feel for the agent’s strengths by asking them as many questions as you can before committing to a contract. If you have trouble getting a hold of them right from the beginning, then that is your first sign that they may not have the time or capacity to give you the proper amount of attention.
Your agent should thoroughly discuss the marketing plan for selling your home. Deciding on the price will be one of the most important aspects of this plan. Depending on your home and the time of year, there will be several approaches to combining the need to sell with the need to get the right price. For example, if you live in a desirable neighborhood, you may be able to go a little higher than you thought, but may not want to if there are many nearby homes for sale at the same time. Trust that your agent will inevitably come up with the right strategy, but be outspoken about your opinion. Although you aren’t the professional, it’s always possible that you will have an angle that your agent didn’t consider.
When you are going through the real estate process, there will always be plenty of people with tips, ideas and advice. All the input can occasionally do more harm than good, so take everything in as much stride as you can. Just make sure that your agent keeps you in the loop through the whole process and make your home as appealing as much as possible. With a clean house and a clear strategy, you should be able to sell your home much more quickly and easily than you thought.
Bill Manassero is the founder/top dog at “The Old Dawg’s REI Network,” a blog, newsletter, and podcast for seniors and retirees, that teaches the art of real estate investing. His personal real estate investing goal, which will be chronicled at olddawgsreinetwork.com, is to own/control 1,000 units/doors in the next 6 years. Prior to that, Bill and his family lived in Haiti for 11 years as missionaries serving orphaned, abandoned and at-risk children.
