Getting Your Home Ready To Be Put On Sale
You are determined that you are not going to give your hard earned cash to a real estate broker or listings agent – you are going for the do it yourself approach and have already bought yourself a for sale by owner board. Stop! Don’t go any further until you have had the place valued and until it is ready to go on the market. You may love your home, love the pictures and things around you. You might not bother about the cat hairs on the carpet, or the doggy smell in the hallway but a buyer will. You may love that seventies green bathroom suite but many buyers prefer plain white. You need to become your own house doctor before you can have a hope of selling.
Start by going outside and standing opposite your house and really look at it. Is the gutter dripping, does the gate squeak and is the paint peeling in places? What about the yard, is it full of kids’ toys or worse still doggy parcels? None of this will attract a buyer. Clean it up, put away the toys and get the guttering fixed. While you are at it you should oil the gate and touch up the paintwork around the windows and the door. Get some big pots and plant them up with bright plants and put those near the front stoop. If you have grass in the front then make sure it is cut and tidy. Make sure all the windows are clean and the drapes look neat.
We get so used to living in a house that we don’t consider the clutter most of the time. That is not to say that you live like a slob, it’s just that we tend to keep things around us, pictures, ornaments and books, things we like but not things that a buyer wants to see. Clear out the clutter. Go through the house room by room throwing out anything that you won’t use again. Then go through again and box up most of the stuff that is adorning the shelves and surfaces. Put them in storage or in the hands of a kindly friend until the house is sold. Buyers want to come into your house and imagine their own possessions set out, they are not interested in yours.
Tidy up the soft furnishings, get some neutral covered throws for sofas that are worn and tired looking and pick out the color of the drapes in your cushions. Do the best you can with every room and make sure everything is as clean as you can make it.
About an hour before your first prospective buyer walks through the door get the place aired. Put some fresh flowers in the entrance hall and put some coffee on in the kitchen. Make sure any pets and pet bowls are out of sight while the viewing takes place. Do these things and you should be successful in your for sale by owner house sale.
I’m Alan Cramer, if you want to fire your real estate agent and sell your home yourself putting more money in YOUR pocket please check out my website at http://www.fsbomarketing.com to learn how.
Tags: checklist, fsbo, getting ready, precautions, selling, tips
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am under
