Kathy's Selling Guide

• First Impressions

A buyer arrives at your home and gets an immediate impression - lets make sure its a good impression! Now is the time to trim hedges and bushes, cut the grass, tidy the flowerbeds and put some colorful plants in tubs. Sweep the drive and remove cobwebs and dust from around the front door and porch. A fresh coat of paint on the front door is a good idea. If you usually have three or more cars parked in your driveway or yard, park them somewhere else when a buyer has an appointment to view. This will give a better impression of space.

• Remove Clutter

The importance of removing clutter cannot be emphasized too much. On new developments interior designers use their skills to enhance a house, but keep clutter to a minimum to make the house appear more spacious. The closets in a new house will be empty. Removing clutter enables the buyer to imagine their possessions in the home instead of yours. You are planning to move so why not box up all the unnecessary items now and store them out of sight in the attic, ready for when you move. Be ruthless, box up all the clothes you have not worn for over a year, all the books you have read, all the ornaments and photos that have sentimental value but do not enhance the home. The fewer items in the house the better the prospective buyer can imagine how their furniture would look in the house.

• Clean and Tidy

After removing all the unnecessary clutter give the house a spring-clean. Buyers in the kitchen will open pantry doors, open cupboards to see how much space there is, open the oven door - maybe even the fridge. Some sellers always keep their home immaculate and will not find the need to keep every part of it sparkling every day a burden. However many others have a home that is comfortable and "lived in" and will need to raise the standard. This is particularly difficult when you have children and an active lifestyle. Give the windows a thorough clean, inside and out, as this will give a good impression. The kitchen and bathrooms should be particularly clean. Buyers wont be put off by a messy garage as much as a messy kitchen.

• Repairs

When we have lived in a house for a number of years the house develops little idiosyncrasies which we tolerate, the back door sticks, the gutter has a piece missing that lets rain drip on the path, the bathroom tiles need re-grouting etc. These small repairs that are needed do not trouble us, but an accumulation of these items gives a buyer a neglected appearance. The buyer may wonder what else has not been maintained. Before you put the house on the market make a list of all these small repairs and put them right. Quite possibly the buyer will have a Home Inspection report and you will be required to rectify the items, so why not do it ahead of time and get that sale.

• Kitchen and Bathroom

It is not advisable to make expensive improvements to your home such as a new bathroom when you are intending to sell it. The color and design that you choose may not be to the taste of the buyer. However, the kitchen and bathroom are rooms that can sell a house or prevent a sale. If you are going to spend money in your home and know that at some time in the next few years you are going to sell it then good quality improvements to the kitchen and bathroom, such as corian or granite counters, wooden cabinets, tile floor throughout or spa bath, will increase your sale price thereby recovering much of the cost. Many wives spend a lot of time in the kitchen and the utility and appearance of this room are important to them.

• Color Schemes

In Florida many homes have all the walls painted white. In a warm climate this color scheme is ideal, it makes the home seem cool, it is easy to touch up with paint, and it is a neutral background to the furnishings. Remember that it is unlikely that a buyer will like your choice of wall paper. Similarly, you may like a bold color scheme which matches your furniture but buyers will generally prefer neutral cream/beige type colors that will not conflict with their colored settee etc. Give each room an examination to see whether paint needs touching up. Baseboards often become scuffed and repainting the base boards can give the whole room a more cared-for appearance. Areas such as the hallway are more trafficked and therefore more likely to require attention.

• Atmosphere

Your home will appear more attractive if a pleasant atmosphere can be created. Leave all doors to rooms open to give a feeling of space and accessibility and put lights and lamps on throughout the house to make it seem a warm atmosphere. In cold climates it is good to have a blazing fire adding to the warm homely feeling. Silk or dried flower arrangements can become dusty and can almost have a negative effect, but fresh flowers can enhance atmosphere. Some people go to the extreme lengths before a viewing by making fresh coffee or bread for the aroma. I think a fresh clean smell throughout the home is important and suggest that the home is sprayed with Febreze or similar. This is particularly important if you have pets. You love your dog, but buyers will find a faint doggy smell in your home unpleasant. Not everyone loves animals and some people are intimidated by dogs. It is wise to close your dog in one room or put him in a cage while viewing is taking place. Sometimes I have showed property where the homeowner has left music playing, usually soft easy-listening type music. This did not work well. When you are considering making a large purchase you want to be able to talk to your partner and realtor without distractions. If music helped sell houses they would play it in Model homes on new construction, but they don't. They may not like your taste in music, and it is best to leave it switched off.

• Stay Away

When a realtor makes an appointment to show a buyer around your home, be wise and stay away and let the realtor do their job. I have shown houses where the owner was present and could not resist asking the buyer questions and pointing out aspects of the home which were not of particular interest to the buyer. Buyers like to take their time and go back into a room and look again and not feel they are inconveniencing the owner. This is probably the largest purchase in their lifetime to date and they want to look around the house very carefully. If the owner is not there they can psychologically take emotional possession of the home. Realtors know that in many cases we do not sell homes, people buy a house. They walk into a house that the Realtor may not even consider desirable and they fall in love with it. The realtor is there to answer questions about square footage, local schools, and property taxes or give information, but we do not try to persuade the buyer to buy a house. Nobody buys a house they don't like just because a realtor talked them into it.

• Easy to Show

When a buyer wants to look at houses they tell their realtor what price range they are looking for and what type of property and location - on a golf course, on the water, near the shops, in a school catchment area etc. The realtor then scans the Multiple Listing System for property that matches those criteria. Often there are quite a few that might be of interest. Usually only about six will be selected for showing on one day, as many buyers become tired and unless they take notes cannot distinguish one property they have seen from another after seeing several. They will then continue on the next or another day until they find something suitable. Sometimes buyers want to look at property at very short notice and there is not a lot of time to make appointments for viewing. The realtor will be particularly attracted to those properties where the Multiple Listing System shows that they are easy to show, such as vacant with key in lock box. If your property is easy to show then it will make the cut. Properties on lock box mean that the buyers' realtor can phone the listing agent and with permission can let themselves into the property using their individual key box which will be recorded in the lock box, so that there is a record of each realtor who has entered the property. It is tiring to have to keep your house in a neat and tidy condition ready to be viewed while you are at work every day. But if the buyer's agent can get access with minimal fuss it will enhance your chances of selling the house quickly. Some owners do not like the appearance of a lock box on the front door, and I can understand this. The best arrangement is to have a hidden lockbox with the location revealed to buyers agents when they phone to make an appointment to view.

• Conclusion

You want to sell your home for the maximum price you can received and in the shortest time, so that you can purchase another home and fulfil your plans. Doing all the tasks recommended in this leaflet will make your home stand out from some of the competition and get you an early sale. Lets get the largest amount for your home that we can!