Nashville on the Move - Getting Your House ready to sell


	HANDLING PRE-SALE PREPARATION A magical metamorphosis occurs the moment you decide to sell your property. The “home” you love so dearly turns into a “house”. This shift in vocabulary is part of letting go, i.e., the emotional detachment process all sellers experience sooner or later. Home is where your heart is. Houses , on the other hand, are commodities sold on the open market. You're getting ready to sell a house. Most people don't really see their houses after they have lived there for a while. They don't notice the effects of gradual physical deterioration and junk accumulation. Little stuff to them. Not so little stuff to a buyer! If you make the right improvements when preparing your house to sell, you increase the odds of selling it quickly for top dollar. If, conversely, you do nothing or if you make the wrong changes to your property, you waste time and money, prolong the selling process, and probably reduce the ultimate sales price. CREATING CURB APPEAL Most buyers make snap judgments about your house. Their first impression, good or bad, is usually lasting. Buyers generally decide if they want to see the inside within 20 seconds of viewing the external attractiveness (curb appeal) of your property. No matter how magnificent your house is on the inside, many buyers will drive by without even stopping if the curb appeal doesn't say “I'm loved, I'm cared for.” EXTERIORS ATTRACT, BUT INTERIORS SELL Curb appeal draws buyers into your house. But appealing, well cared for interiors make the sale. You don't usually have to spend thousands of dollars on your house prior to putting up the For Sale sign. On the contrary, little things you do generally give the biggest increase in value. Concentrate on the three C's - clean it up, clear the clutter, and make cosmetic improvements. Clean, scrub and polish. Your stove, oven, refrigerator, microwave oven, and other appliances must be spotlessly clean inside and out. Scour walls, floors, bathtubs, showers, and sinks until they sparkle. Buyers will notice strong smells as soon as they walk through your front door , so eliminate smoke, mildew and pet odors. Cleaning drapes and carpets helps get rid of odors. Dehumidifiers help musty basements. If you're a smoker, clean all ashtrays daily and smoke outdoors during the marketing period whenever possible. Use air fresheners or citrus-scented potpourri to keep your house odor free. Whether you do the work or hire someone, make sure that your house is spotless and odorless. CLEAR OUT THE CLUTTER Clutter can reduce your house's value. Clear away kitchen counters and keep dirty dishes out of the sink. Eliminating clutter and excess furniture make rooms appear larger. Recycle those stacks of old magazines and newspapers you've been saving for no good reason. Dump all that junk you've accumulated over the years in your attic and basement. Closet space sells houses... Get rid of all those clothes you don't wear any more. Clean those closets out, organize them. Make them look large and roomy! Do the same with built-in drawers. Like it or not, serious buyers will inspect your closets and built-in drawers. If you can't bear to part with things, consider packing them away and putting them in storage. Another bonus: You'll be ready to move on short notice, if necessary. Remember, you're going to have to pack it up at some point, it might as well be NOW! MAKE COSMETIC IMPROVEMENTS Painting isn't expensive if you do it yourself, but be careful when selecting colors. Avoid bold colors with strong visual impact. Stick to conventional soft whites and other neutral colors that won't clash with most prospective buyers' tastes. If your finished basement, like most others, is dark and gloomy, paint the walls and ceiling a light color. Pay attention to everything anywhere in your house that could cause the buyer to “reduce your price”. Find it and repair it before you put it on the market. Look for any hairline cracks over doors or windows and nail pops in sheet rock. Locate any ceiling stains and the source of the leak. Check for windows with cracked panes or that don't open and shut properly. Watch for doors that stick, don't close or slide properly. Observe bathrooms for signs of mildew, rust stains in sinks and toilets, missing tiles or grout, inadequate caulking around tubs. Check for drippy faucets, slow draining sinks and tubs, broken mirrors. Check all kitchen appliances that remain with property. Remember . Buyers consider any of the above problems a sign of poor maintenance. More often than not they are correct. Their solution----either don't buy or reduce the price by thousands! STAGING Staging a house goes way beyond your efforts to make it look neat, clean and well cared for. Just as stagehands set the stage for Broadway productions, you can stage your house to create a production designed to wow prospective purchasers. If you've ever visited a new home development and walked through the builder's model home, you know exactly what staging is. Builders have visual coordinators who do extremely elaborate staging jobs: placing furniture, choosing soothing colors for carpets and drapes, hanging artwork on walls, having a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, putting flower arrangements in the living room, and leaving an open book on a table by the bed in the master bedroom. Staging the property this way helps prospective buyers visualize themselves living in the home. It finishes the process you started with the three Cs... ( clean it up, clear the clutter , and make cosmetic improvements ).