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Don’t be disheartened if your home has been in the market for quite a long time, at least you are not Mark Twain.
According to biographer Fred Kaplan, the book-selling author had his Hartford, Conn., home up for sale for $60,000 in 1991. The highly structured house failed to draw in any buyers despite repeated markdowns, not until two year later when the price was trimmed down to $25,000.
Twain estimated that he’d spent approximately $100,000 on that home. Clearly, what was once called home has turned into a painful burden for Twain.
Twain said to a letter to his friend who was helping him sell the place that, "I would rather go to hell than own it 50 days longer."
If you don’t want to suffer the same pain as Twain did, be smart to work up front to ensure that your house will sell quickly.
10 tips from the a Granada Hills Realtor:
1. Do your “honey do” list. Let’s be honest. Almost all homeowners have some minor repairs that needs to be done but just couldn’t do it for some other reasons. Am I right? Now is the time to do those little fixes. Little stuffs like oil squeaks or cracks in the wall is a “No No” for buyers.
The cost: This could be as little as a few bucks if you are the one doing the work. If you are hiring someone it could cost you a couple of hundreds.
2. Get inspected. According to Tom Kelly, a real estate columnist, doing an professional inspection right before the sale can help you in two ways. First is that, it will identify potential problems that could ruin a potential sale. This will allow you to make the necessary repairs or improvements just before the sale. If the inspection found no major problems, it can publicize this to you buyers.
By showing the inspection reports to your prospected buyers during the open house, this will show them that you have nothing to hide.
The cost: Spending $400 should cover this.
3. Take care of your clutters. According to Barb Schwarz, a real-estate broker, CEO of StagedHomes.com and pioneer of the concept of professionally preparing houses for sale, "clutter eats equity."
Rooms look smaller when there is too much stuff in it. They would also get your buyers’ attention and you clearly don’t want that. That is why a lot of professional stagers would advice to take as much as at least one-third of your things to add emphasis on your rooms and closets.
The cost: Storage fee for three months ranges from $150 to $300.
4. Depersonalize and neutralize your home. Remove personal things, they are not essential during the open house.
What you want your buyer’s to think is for them be able to picture-out themselves living in the house and not think about your family photos and all. Also, by neutralizing your décor like carpets and repainting the house with neutral colors, you are allowing them the option as to what they’re going to do with the house, may be repainting it with the color of their choice or something like that.
The cost: The paint cost is around $10 and up and $500 and up for a new carpet.
5. Be cleanaholic. "I mean Q-Tip clean," said Schwarz. He recommends doing a cotton swab test on your faucet and fixtures, polish off fingerprints off your switch plates, cleaning windows until they're neat as a new pin and vacuuming up every last dog hair on your floor. More like the work of the CSIs. But seriously you really do have to make your house clean. "You should be able to eat off the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor," he added.
The cost: For home cleaning products $10 and so, that is if you do the cleaning yourself; $75 and up if you hire help.
6. Staging the rooms. Find each room’s focal point and highlight those points by using furniture placements. Take these few thing for example, your sofa shouldn’t block your fireplace’s view and dining room table must not share the same space with a stair climber.
Inappropriate pieces furniture should be removed, however you may be able to use them in other rooms. “A wingback chair that's crowding the family room might help create a nice reading nook in the master bedroom,” Schwarz suggested.
The cost: Zilch! Nada! That is if you are doing the staging but if you are going to hire a professional stager, it would cost you around $1,500 and up.
7. Tend to the floors. Just keeping them spotless is not enough especially if they are seriously ancient history. Spending a fortune just to fix this problem will bust your wallet; instead, you should look for other means to improve your home’s appearance.
Having your carpets steam-cleaned will determine whether they can be salvaged or not. If they are the latter, you can minimize the cost of replacement by doing some of the work.
And remove scatter rugs, not only are they potentially dangerous but they also add to the visual clutter.
The cost: Anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred bucks.
8. Improve your home’s curb appeal. You may not realize how many potential sales you lost just because you house does not have the appeal to attract potential buyers.
Most home buyers start their house hunting over the internet. They look at pictures of different houses that attract them the most. If your house doesn’t stand out from the rest and make them say ‘wow’, you might not get a call from them.
"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."
Trimming the hedges, cutting the grass on the lawn, or planting new flowers is not enough to draw in buyers. Hiring a professional landscape artist is great idea. He/she can manicure your lawn from the grasses to the leaves of the trees, from planting flowers to trimming bushes. Also, if there is a crack on you front walkway, now is the best time to replace them.
The cost: Landscaping would cost you around $300 to $500, and a few hundred more if you need to fix walkways or driveways.
9. Work with the right publicist. Pick an agent who can his job right. He should be knowledgeable about your neighborhood, enthusiastic about his work and your home, and someone whom other agents want to work with.
If you’re planning to sell your home yourself and keep those several thousand for yourself, be sure that you are up for the job. Marketing a home can be a hard work especially if you don’t have the connections and experience.
The cost: 3% to 6% of the sale price of your home.
10. Set your price right. Don’t be greedy by setting your asking price too high. This will drive away your buyers. At least set your price just around the real value of your home.
Buyers will compare prices of different houses, that’s a fact. If they perceive that your price is unfairly high for your house’s real value they will probably look elsewhere. Buyers often grab the opportunity to buy a house if they see that it is fairly-priced.
There are a lot of ways that you can make a quick sale. You just have to remember to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. Think like them. What would attract you the most? Is it the price or the appeal of a home? By answering and following these few simple steps, your house will be out of the market sooner than you think.
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