When you sell your home, the process can be especially trying, especially if the home isn’t selling. Selling a home involves a top-notch presentation, which is one of the key factors that can determine how well the home will show to a potential buyer and if it will impress them enough to make an offer.  Although this may sound a bit snooty, a stellar presentation is a way of life in the world of real estate. Buyers in today’s market look online first and the way your home is pictured could determine if it will even be shown the FIRST time.

If the property you are selling comes with a garage, you’ll need to go through your garage before you sell your home and rid it of the junk no longer needed. Chances are that you store things in your garage,
which can easily pile up over time before you realize it. If your garage is in a less than presentable condition, you’ll obviously want to clean it out. Buyers look for homes that are well kept and if there is a garage full of un-needed things and oil on the floor it will not look like you are or have been taking care of the property.

Most homes have something truly wonderful about them that encompasses that particular homes selling quality and helps your home stand out from the rest. You should always do your best to highlight the best features of the home, instead of just hoping that the buyer will see them without help. The ideal way to bring out the best features of a home is to use the proper lighting and showcase the area of interest.
If your home is clean, use the lighting to bring out the best features of the home, and ensure that they stand out to a buyer and a buyer’s agent.

When a potential buyer first pulls up to your home; the first thing he will see is your lawn and the exterior paint. If your lawn is trimmed and well taken care of, and the home has a nice paint job, they will get a good impression right off the bat. If your lawn is a wreck or the paint is peeling from the front of your house, they may stress this to their agent and just immediately pull away. To give the best impression to the buyer, you should put some thought into how things look. You can always plant flowers around the walkway and throughout the yard, which will look great to a potential buyer and always make sure your home is not in immediate need of anything majorly noticeable. Again, a buyer wants to see a well-maintained house!

Also, try to make sure that the entrance into your home is inviting. The front door should be in great shape, as well as the entry area into the home being free of debris, bugs, and shoes. You can add some plants, a welcome mat and wreath to ensure that your buyer gets a good first impression. When the buyer walks through the entryway into your home, you should make sure that the view he or she has at that time is the very best it can be. If there is a beautiful view behind the curtain, make SURE it is OPEN! Your greatest accomplishment when showing your home is the WOW factor to help the buyers remember YOUR home instead of another they saw before or after.  This is so important.

Always know that it may take some time to sell your home. These days, homes can sit on the market for months at a time before they actually sell, even if they are shown often. If you are having trouble selling
your home, you can always reduce the price or simply go back to the basics of the items discussed in this article. Eventually, your home will sell but the single most important issue is generally price. If the price is right….you will get offers.  If it is too high, it scares buyers away. Selling can be quick if the property is in a Seller’s market but usually it takes a while to get a good offer.  Be patient and keep it clean!

Make Repairs That Matter

When a home is being prepared for the market, only some of the repairs a seller will make have an effect on the price of the home.  By saying this I mean that some repairs pay for themselves and some just cost money that cannot be recovered.

As an experienced Real Estate agent knows, some low ticket items can make a home appear to be well kept and cared for, compared to a home that appears dirty and ‘let go’.

A recent transaction that the buyers learned first hand of this was a long closing in Florida.  The buyers inspected the home and everything came back fairly perfectly on the inspection.  Once closing took place and they were ready to move in they noticed that the sellers were actually VERY dirty.

When It Makes the Difference

Once the buyers saw all of the deep down dirt that the sellers left behind, they felt compelled to not only rip out the carpets but paint the entire home.  If only the sellers would have cleaned the place up professionally, they would likely not have done all of this work and felt like the place was filthy.

A paint job can also be a tremendous help to any home.  After a few years paint just looks dull.  Even a once over with the same color can add new life to a room.  All of this just makes the seller look like they are immaculate cleaners.

I will conclude with this article by saying it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to make a home look it’s best for the market.  A seller just needs someone who is experienced to help them along with the fixes that sell.

We all have ideas of what those can be but making a list of items which can be completed inexpensively is the key to getting them completed!

 

Social Media Can be a Great Tool to Get Views on Your Properties

Bringing new listings in front of the eyes of many is sometimes a tedious job.  There are so many media platforms now it is hard to tell which ones are worth the time and effort to use and which ones are just a place where your link runs dry.  Then once  a profile is created and a link is built to your website or whatever you are promoting by joining maybe it will never even get indexed.

A good way to get Google or other search engines to notice articles is to add a photo.  Photos can describe or showcase something inside of the ad that sometimes words just cannot encompass.  Plus, a picture adds flair to any story because lets face it, everyone relates to the ideas a photograph holds.

For example when there is writing about waterfront home and the author mentions boat parking, he or she may say that the boat can be a yacht or 45 feet long.  The reader relates much better to a photo like this one.

 

Now, doesn’t that make more sense to use a descriptive piece like this to add clarity to what is being discussed?

Another really great thing with writing is when words can be turned into keyword links.  A writer can provide a word like Kotton Grammer Map location.  Then link a map or article with the map to the words.  Search engines will see the words and follow the links.  Pretty nifty, right?

That can wrap up this session on SEO practices for today.  Stay tuned for more information on some really fun things to try soon.  Also, watch a great SEO property video from Youtube.

 

 

Getting Your Home Sold Quickly

If you are selling your home and all of the upgrades you planned to do are ready and you have spoken to a professional real estate agent about area comps you may be ready to list. Homes can be difficult to price properly if you don’t have access to a local MLS system to provide you with the recently sold homes, pending sales and listed homes that are similar to yours. This is especially true with Florida Real Estate and a few other states that have really popular large cities.

When you are taking into consideration some of the factors in home comparisons only a licensed agent or possibly an appraiser who is familiar with your neighborhood can give you quality information that can be trusted.  Things such as square footage, bedrooms, baths, age of certain aspects of the home and items like a pool or being waterfront can greatly impact the value of your home when you put it next to a neighboring home for sale.

Some agents will tell you they can get a substantial amount more for your home and this is why it is important to interview a few agents to really get the proper price point for your home.  Never disclose what one agent told you until you have a price from the next.  It is a good way for an agent to secure your listing while their true intention is to get price reduction after price reduction until they are really where the original agents were the entire time.

Hopefully this article has been helpful to shed some light on why a good real estate agent is important to getting your home sold quickly.  If it is priced right the first time around it will sell faster and save you the added expense of carrying it any longer than necessary.

Cheers until next time!

If you plan to sell your home I highly recommend that you consider what work needs to be completed before you can actually put it on the market.  Today, you do have both buyers who don’t mind doing the work because they are ‘handy’ and also those who want to come into a perfectly remodeled home that they can just bring a toothbrush.

If a buyer is to do a ton of work to a home or condo they typically want to pick the property up at a steal of a price.  You can imagine if they are considering remodeling and the time they will have to be out of the home to get it done that just adds expense to the project.  In most cases, especially in a modern market if a seller wants to get top dollar for their home they have to follow a few important steps.

The first to me would be that the home will have had to be well kept throughout the life of the ownership.  Once everything gets outdated and things slip from there we get into the total fixer upper and those can cost a pretty penny.  One consideration is to potentially rent a property that isn’t in pristine condition to try to recover some of the cost to fix it up after the fact.  If you can afford to carry the home you live in and the one you purchase, I have seen this scenario work for multiple situations.

Breaking down what we just discussed, if you are a seller who wants to get the highest dollar for your home then make sure that a buyer will be able to quickly get into the property and not have to fix any major issues or remodel any outdated items.  If that does not describe your piece of paradise then you should not ask tip top money to sell it.