Tips For Selling Your Home For Top Dollar
When you are ready to make that transition from Boulder home buyer to seller, what should you keep in mind? Here are some of my top home selling tips to have the best possible experience. Use these suggestions to achieve your goals.
Let There Be Light!
Before any potential home buyers visit, let’s do a room by room audit of lighting. Dark homes can imply all sorts of negative (and frequently untrue) implications. For instance, buyers might think you are hiding something or that the house is dirty. Meanwhile the truth might simply be you are day sleeper and used to keeping the blinds closed. During the selling period, it’s important to present your house in the best possible light. Yeah, a little pun there.
No home selling tips list is complete without suggesting you open the blinds, replace light bulbs, possibly add lights. Whatever it takes to bring in the natural light!
There are some good tricks you can implement as well. Change out dark bedspreads for light colored duvets. Add mirrors which will reflect ambient light. CFL bulbs can be very efficient, but are so slow to light up. Consider using old school 100 watt bulbs to add some bright interior light. And, I’m a big fan of having a few lights on timers to ensure vacant houses show brightly to potential home buyers!
You Are Not selling A Foreclosure
Think about it. Foreclosure homes tend to be vacant, stripped down homes in need of work. That’s not what you are selling. We are getting your personal residence (or prized rental) on the market. So it is going to have a lot of character and charm. We need to strike a balance between personalized and neutral. One of the best home selling tips is to de-clutter your space.
What does this look like? It could be a small project like taking down some personal photographs and tucking away your wedding album. It could be a bigger project such as removing furniture to create better walking about space and give home buyers an opportunity to envision themselves living in the house. Or, if you live a little messy like I do – its boxing up collections and thoroughly cleaning the most lived in spaces in your house!
Hire A Killer Real Estate Agent
This is not shameless plug. The truth is a good Realtor is going to help you get the very best price for your home in the shortest time frame with the least amount of hassle. These are my best home selling tips from experience – because I know they work! Put my experience to work for you! My market knowledge and pricing acumen will deliver a better overall experience for you!
Picture Perfect Homes
Not every house is going to be a model home. Ha, there are some days I would not let you see my own house. Truth is – my home office is constantly in a state of near disaster. Except when I’m about to sell. Then I clean, de-clutter and deep clean prior to bringing in a professional photographer!
When it comes time to put your house up on the market, the #1 home selling tip is Take Great Photos!
Great photography has always separated faster selling homes from the rest of the crowd. In this internet age, its never been more important. Just about every home selling tips list out there lists beautiful pictures in the top 3. The vast majority of home buyers look at online pictures before viewing a house. Countless websites cater to folks who want to see pretty pictures (think Houzz and Pinterest pages). As a Boulder Realtor I also believe there is importance in the order of photographs – not too many outdoor pictures before you see the interior shots! And then focus on the spaces, not your furniture.
Staging To sell Your Home Fast
As you get ready to get the pictures consider bringing in a professional home staging service. This might be a professional advising on how to use your own furnishings to make the best first impression or it could be staging a vacant space. Not all of my home selling tips cost money. That said, staging pays for itself – especially in Buyer’s and Neutral home markets!
Recently I listed a house for sale. It was updated – new kitchen, fresh paint, updated bathrooms. You know, the kind of house everyone wants. But it was vacant. Then I brought in a professional staging service. The home transformed overnight and we quickly got a great offer that closed 30 days late!
Let It Be Known To All The Real Estate Agents Near Me
That the house is for sale! You, your Realtor, the family dog, everyone needs to help get the word out! One of the best home selling tips I know is “Spread the word.” This could be in conversations with the neighbors. A yard sign goes a long ways. In this age of Facebook and social media, a fun online campaign can work wonders. For a recent listing, I filmed a video where I stepped out of a shower – fully dressed mind you! – while talking about the house. That video got a LOT of views. LOL.
Whatever your thing, speak up about your house being for sale. As a listing agent, I’ve tried a number of ideas, including:
- Fax Alerts and blast eCards to fellow Realtors
- Flyer boxes with the details for consumers to take
- Social media campaigns especially on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
- Email messages to friends and neighbors
- Just listed postcards to the neighbors.
Don’t be shy. Now is the time to let everyone know your house is for sale! Best Realtor suggestion: also tell your neighbors. They will keep an eye out for folks, let you know if someone left the lights on and generally feel better knowing why cars are driving by at all hours to check out your house!
What About Hosting Open Houses Bob?
An open house can be a good idea as part of the business plan for getting your house sold. But it isn’t necessarily in my top list of home selling tips for success. And I’ll tell you why. Houses only sell directly from an open house about two percent of the time. There are a ton of more productive activities that will bring in a better return. Of course, open houses are a great way for Realtors to meet new potential buyers. And I’ve found that oftentimes a real home buyer will first view with their agent and then come back to the open house for a second looksie.
But, I don’t think this is a must do business practice to get top dollar on the sale of your home. Kyle Hiscock blogs even more on the subject of open houses!
Last Thoughts and Home Selling Tips
Keep your home comfortable. Maybe you are not a big A/C person in the summertime. But home shoppers generally appreciated comfortably cool spaces to get out the summer heat. And alternatively, warm abodes to escape the winter chill. Consider removing a favorite piece of furniture or two to open up your house and create better flow. I’ve personally done this on the last two home sales, moving about a third of my belongings into storage to really de clutter and change the interior space.
Open the blinds when leaving for a showing and consider leaving all the lights on for busy showing days – especially when you first hit the market. And don’t forget to take your pets with you. Your python might own the joint when you are home, but a giant snake is going to freak people out — and so will a tiny little dog with a big bark or a territorial cat known to slash at strangers! Keeping a pet limited to one room or the garage is a good compromise.
And last but not least, remember kitchens are big draw these days. So for showings have yours clean and tidy. you can always hide everything in the dishwasher on a moment’s notice!