The first step in a successful sale is always preparing a home for the market…and it may well be the most work required in the entire process!

One thing I can guarantee…time spent in careful preparations will pay you back in a smooth sale for the highest price possible…I like happy sellers…and nothing makes you happier than knowing you received the best price!

Here are a five things every seller needs to know during the preparation phase:

• Clean, Clean, Clean!…There is nothing that increases value like clean…and it’s the least expensive thing you can do to increase value.  I’ve walked through hundreds of homes with buyers…I do this almost every day…I see what they notice…and clean is the first thing they see.  Buyers stay much longer in a clean home than in a dirty home…and as a seller you need to look in all the places you have learned to ignore…baseboards…every corner of a bathroom or kitchen…small cobwebs on a ceiling…no detail is too small for buyers to notice!
• Catch up on deferred maintenance…that leaking hose bib or the scratches the dog left on the garage door may not seem important to you…but to a buyer they indicate that other things may need more attention…and it causes them to look even harder to find other defects.  Most buyers start out with a critical eye to condition…and that will last about five minutes…if you make it past that first five minutes without problems most folks just give up and then start enjoying the home…which is the point where the home starts selling itself!
• Make it Vacant…easy to show is the key word here!  Most folks have to live in the home until they sell…that is understandable…try setting daily showing hours that require no notice…10am until 5pm…and some times in the middle of the day on weekends…Realtors will show easy to show homes about ten times faster than homes that require appointments…don’t miss a single buyer!
• Dress for Success…the small amount you spend for a professionally staged home will repay the investment two or three fold.  The results can be startling!  Owners tell me they wish they had hired the stagers when they moved in…the changes made the home seem so much more liveable!…and staging makes a home more inviting to buyers…it helps them see themselves in a home…and that is your goal!
• De-clutter and Depersonalize…Believe it or not this home was listed for sale:

It’s hard to believe that anyone could walk around inside this place…much less think that someone would want to buy it!  There isn’t one horizontal surface that isn’t covered with junk!  Most places aren’t this bad…but any amount of clutter costs you money

Five simple tips that can save you thousands…and get you the best quality buyers!

Now that you’re ready to sell let’s talk about Marketing Your Home!