My New Blog

You and your spouse have decided to sell your home and are ready to make the move. Now what? Many of my clients have asked me the same question and are overwhelmed or unaware of what it takes to sell your home for TOP DOLLAR in this challenging home market. Here is a simplified list of what you should do to get your home sold. This can make the biggest difference in selling your home in the first 30 days or 4 months. The house should be ready to show from the first day on the market. You only have one time to make a great impression on every homebuyer that enters your home so don’t waste it.

EMPTY THE HOUSE – Jeff Lewis from one of my favorite shows “Flipping Out” on BRAVO suggests taking two thirds of your stuff out of the house. It does make sense to declutter your home. Remember you are selling square feet not your shot glass collection. It is time for garage sales and donations to Goodwill. Make some money and tax deductions. Take a picture of the items you donate and get a receipt for tax deduction. If you use a tax software like Quicken, the deluxe version have IT’S DEDUCTIBLE program already built in which helps you calculate the value of your donation and deduction. My wife loves how much it saves us on taxes.

Rent some storage space. For the stuff you have to keep but are crowding the house put them in storage. I like the portable storage containers. Since you are already moving why not store it until you are ready to go to the next home. Here are some links to some portable storage containers:

PODS MOBILE ATTIC UNITS

CLEAN THE HOUSE - Clean the home from top to bottom. If you don’t do it before it is on the market and leave all those dust bunnies as door stops, then it may cost you. An offer you get may include you to have the home professionally cleaned and the carpets professionally steamed cleaned. That may cost you $500 or more depending on how much cleaning needs to get done. So get some swiffer dusters, carpet stain spot removers, cleaning supplies, and rent the RUG DOCTOR from Walmart or local supermarket and SAVE some money. Homeowners with pets need to maintain those litter boxes cleaned and land mines cleaned from your yard.

FIX THE HOUSE – FIX it now or PAY later. Every time a buyer sees some damage or one more item to be added on a to do list to get the home ready to be moved in, they take off money from your list price. A $10 fix for you could be a $100 taken off your list price. Patch up holes, touch up paint, repaint some walls, replace rotten wood, repair and stain the deck, power wash the home, etc. These are some of fixes to work on.

When I am getting a home ready for the market, I walk with the clients through out the home and make staging suggestions. Every home is different with their strengths and weaknesses. As an experienced listing agent, I want you to sell your home for TOP DOLLAR so I hope these suggestions will help you get your sales price and to your next home.