Home Selling Advice

How to Prepare for a Home Inspection

Almost all buyers today make their purchase offer contingent on a satisfactory home inspection. Having the inspection completed by a professional is recommended by most REALTORS® as a way to lessen the chances of unpleasant, budget-breaking surprises for the home buyer.

As the seller, what should you expect from the home inspection, and how can you prepare your home ahead of time to get the best result? In general, it's best to thoroughly review the major systems in your home: heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical, roofing, siding, and external water penetration.

Home Sellers: How To Prepare For The First Meeting With Your Agent

To equip your agent with everything they need to effectively market and sell your home, you should be prepared to provide them with as much information as possible up front. Anything you can do to make your agent's job easier is going to benefit you during the process of selling. 

So what should you get in order for your first meeting with your real estate agent?

1. Get a general idea of what you home may be worth by looking at recent comparable sales in your neighborhood/area as well as current listed properties that are most like yours. Sometimes market conditions will be in your favor, and sometimes you may be disappointed. But, regardless of the market, doing a little research on your own will help you and your agent create a realistic plan for selling your home. See how a professional real estate agent prices your property.

Need To Get Your Home Ready To Sell? Pressed For Time? Do These 4 Things

There is a a lot of advice on the internet about  how to get your home ready to sell.  It's all good advice . . even complete home staging is a good idea, but some people just don't have the time or the money to do the things they would like to do to make their home show at its best. 

If you're one of those people who is seriously time or money challenged, then here are a few things you should be able to accomplish that will have the most impact on getting your home sold in the least amount of time for the most money.

1. Go through every room with some boxes, and pack away anything that you won't need again until you are in your new home.  This includes personal items, family photos, knick-knacks, clothes and shoes that you won't need until next season.  Pack away anything that would be considered 'clutter'. Think empty . . . the emptier your closets the better.  'Less is more' applies to every room, every shelf, every piece of furniture, every countertop, and every closet in your home.

Staging Your Home: The Psychology of Color

Potential buyers' memories and emotions about your house are affected, in part, by the colors of your walls, floors and furnishings.  Color plays a big role in our emotions. Some colors make us feel happy or relaxed, and some colors may make us feel nervous or anxious.  

If you're getting your home ready to sell, choose the colors you paint your rooms wisely.

Here is some helpful advice on how colors affect people and how you can use this knowledge to help get your home sold.

Time Challenged? 4 Must-Dos to Prepare Your Home to Sell

There is a lot of good advice on the internet on how to get your home ready to sell, and it's all good.  But taking all the advice can be very time consuming and can put a pretty good dent in your pocketbook.  We've found that many of our clients just don't have the time and/or the money to do all the things they would like to do to make their house the best it can be.

If you're one of those people who is seriously time-challenged, then here are four things you can accomplish that will have a major impact on getting your home sold in the least amount of time for the most money.

1.  Go through every room with some boxes, and pack away anything that you won't need again until you are in your new home.  This includes personal items, family photos, knick-knacks, clothes and shoes that you won't need until next season . . . anything that would be considered 'clutter'.  Think empty . . . the emptier your closets the better.  'Less is more' applies to every room and every closet in your home. 

Getting Ready to Sell Your Home? Do This First

Do this one important thing that will help you create your pre-marketing checklist . . . put yourself in a buyer's shoes and walk through/evaluate every area of your home, inside and out.

Make a list of items that need to be repaired or replaced, and items that will make your home more appealing.

For example, start in the entryway and make a list:

  • How is the front door?  Could it use a coat of paint?  Does the doorbell work?  Does the lock work, and do you have keys?  
  • How about the flooring?  Does it need repaired, or can you apply a product to restore the finish?
  • Look at the walls and trim.  Do they need a good cleaning, or should you repaint.  Any dings in the walls, doors or trim belong on the MUST list.  
  • Cleaning out the front entry closet is also a MUST.  Store away all out-of-season items, and donate all of those old coats you haven't worn for a couple of years.