Best Place Real Estate

In his book, Duct Tape Marketing(Chapter 1, page 10), John Jantsch writes “A tough thing for some small business owners to swallow is that it doesn’t really matter what you like or dislike, what matters is what your target market likes or dislikes”.

When I read this, the first thing I thought was that this also applies to real estate. I thought to myself “A tough thing for many sellers to swallow is that it doesn’t really matter what they like or dislike about their house; it matters what their target buyers like or dislike”. It is especially hard when you are selling your primary residence. This house has been your home, your personal place for as long as you have lived there. It is hard to imagine it as anything but your home.

However, when you list your home for sale, you have to think of your “target” buyers. Those would be the buyers who are looking in the price range of your house. You have to stop thinking about what you like in your home and more about what your buyers like and what will attract buyers to your house.

And, this is where staging comes in. Staging is marketing your house. Staging is bringing attention to those feature that buyers in this price range like. There are a lot of misconceptions about staging. Some people think it is cleaning the house and making minor repairs. While it is absolutely necessary to have the house really clean and make needed repairs, that is not staging. Some people confuse decorating with staging. Decorating is personalizing a home. Staging is “depersonalizing” a house.

When you are trying to sell your house, it is best to think of it more as product or business than as a home. Think of the pool of buyers looking in your price range. What appeals to those buyers? What are buyers in that price range typically looking for? How can we make our house appeal to the greatest number of buyers in that pool? What can we do to our house to make it really stand out over and above the other homes currently on the market? Think marketing, think staging.

It may not sound like a big deal, but putting a little green in most rooms can make a house look more inviting to buyers.That is green as in greenery. A potted plant here and a vase of flowers there adds a certain ambiance to a home.

One of the reasons to stage a home is to depersonalize it so that it is easier for buyers to imagine themselves living there. Plants and flowers are neutral. It’s kind of a psychological thing. Plants bring in a little of the outdoors and even if they are artificial they remind us of nature. They sort of set the mood by giving a room a more relaxed and happy feeling. Try taking the car and fashion magazines off the coffee table and placing a potted plant there instead. Replace the family photo on the corner of the desk with some greenery. Doing this will depersonalize and neutralize the room and make it more inviting to a potential buyer.

It doesn’t matter if the plants are real or artificial. In fact, when you are selling your house, artificial might be a better way to go. While your house is on the market, you basically need to keep it “open house perfect” all the time. Caring for real plants during this time will just add to your daily “to do” list. And a wilted straggly plant on the coffee table is just not the look you are going for!

The greenery is not meant to stand out, but just be part of the room. If done properly, many buyers won’t even notice them. And that’s a good thing. You want potential buyers looking at your house, not at your belongings. Think of a window display at the mall. A clothing store advertising sun-dresses and swim wear may have a couple of surf boards and fake palm trees included in the display to give you the “summer feeling”. However, chances are that when you walk by, the only thing you notice is the clothing, but your subconscious mind is thinking summer fun.

Another advantage to using greenery is that it often helps you “declutter” the home. Removing clutter is the one of the best things, if not the best thing, you can do to prepare your home for sale. Again, remove all the magazines from a table and replace with one plant. Take everything off the bathroom counter except maybe a soap dispenser and add a little vase of flowers. Same with the kitchen. Clear the counters and then add a little greenery to break it up. After all, counter space sells and you want to show it off.

Often it is the little things that make a big difference. So go for the green with greenery.

Many people have a collection of some sort. I have a blue bottle collection. Why, I don’t know. I think I had something that came in anice looking blue bottle, so I kept the bottle. I now have about 5 or 6 blue bottles of different shapes and sizes. I keep them in a cabinet in the kitchen and I rarely pull them out.

Some collections are just a few items, like my blue bottles. Others can be quite extensive and often people display them throughout their home. Collections can be a lot of fun and very interesting, something to share with family and friends when they visit. However, when you have your house for sale, it is usually best to put the collection away and out of sight.

For one, they can be a distraction. When prospective buyers are viewing your home, you really want them looking at your house, not at your collection. You want them to remember your house as the one with the nice kitchen or big backyard, not the one with the model airplane collection or all the plates displayed everywhere.

Also, collections often have a tendency to make the house look cluttered. Clutter is probably the worst thing to have in a house for sale. Likewise, removing clutter is the least expensive and best thing you can do to prepare your home for sale.

When preparing your home for sale, the goal is to make the home appeal to the biggest pool of buyers as possible.  Buyers need to be able to picture themselves living in a home. Sometimes sellers make this very hard for buyers to do. For instance, I recently showed a home where the seller had a doll collection. There were dolls displayed everywhere, on shelves, on chairs, and on all the beds.  These were probably antique and very expensive dolls. However, my buyer was a young bachelor and it made it really hard for him to imagine his belongings in among this menagerie of dolls.  If all the dolls had been removed, it would have been easier for him visualize himself living there.  Remember, it is best to depersonalize your home so it appeals to all types of buyers.

By packing up your collection before you list your home for sale, you make your house more marketable and you have one less thing to do when it is time to move.

The Internet has made curb appeal even more important than in the past. Today when you list your home, literally the whole world can see the front of your house.

Curb appeal has always been important. If buyers drive by and don’t like the front of the house, it is unlikely that they will want to see the interior. A messy front yard is a good indication of what the rest of the house is like. You know what they say, “first impressions are lasting impressions” and “you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression”.

The Internet has added a new dimension to this because now most buyer’s “first impression” comes from an online listing of the house. Today buyers do a lot of homework online before they actually go out to look at homes. And when they are ready to go out looking, they often ask their agent to show them homes they have found on their Internet search.

When searching online, buyers particularly look at the photos of the listings. It’s “a  picutre is worth a 1000 words” type thing. But consider this. The first photo of each listing is usually of the front exterior of the house. There are often several more photos of the interior and backyard, but if the front is not appealing, a buyer may not click to view the rest of the pictures.

If you are preparing your home for sale, seriously study the front of your home and determine what needs to be done to improve its curb appeal. When you are ready to put it on the market, ask your agent to take several photos of the front and together pick the one that is the most appealing and likely to encourage a potential buyer to click for more. Make sure you have curb appeal and Internet appeal!

Please note: If the Internet listing of your home does not have photos you may as well not have your house on the market because buyers usually just skip over those listings!!!

The condition of your windows is really important because they affect both the interior and exterior appearance of your home.  So definitely put them on your “To Do List” when you are preparing your home for sale.

Preparing your windows is usually very inexpensive:

• Wash all your windows inside and out and make sure they open and close properly.
• Also wash all the screens and check to be sure the screens are in good repair.
• Window coverings and blinds should be clean and in good condition.  If you decide to change any window treatments, think light weight and neutral.
• If shrubs and bushes have grown very tall in front of a window, consider trimming the bush so it looks well manicured from both the outside and the inside.
• When showing your home, it is best to have all the curtains and blinds open so your house is as light and bright as possible.

Staging tip:  Sometimes the house is so close to the property line that a room may have a window that looks out at a fence or block wall and this is often not a pretty site.  Change a negative into a positive.  Get some large outdoor pots and place them outside the window.  Buy some ornamental trees or bushes for the pots.  Or, a nice looking potted vine with a pretty trellis may do the trick.  You may need to purchase 5 gallon plants so they are big enough.  Add a cute bird-house or wind-chime.  Another idea is large bakers rack with lots of colorful potted plants.  With just a little creativity you can keep the blinds open and have a nice view too.  Just remember to water the plants!

Most buyers form an opinion of your house before they even walk through the front door.  You know the old saying about first impressions.  The front entry is a key part of that first impression.

The buyer often is standing on the front porch for several minutes while their agent is locating the lockbox, retrieving the key, and opening the front door.  Spending time fixing up the front porch is time well spent.

For a great looking porch:

• Keep the porch well swept as well as the walkway leading up to it.
• Remove dirt and cobwebs from the porch light.
• Repaint the front door if it shows wear.
• Make sure the door knob is clean and working properly.
• Put out a nice new doormat.
• Keep the porch clear of shoes, toys, and other clutter.

Staging Tip:  Adding potted plants with bright colorful flowers makes your entrance warm and inviting.  If you have a really large porch, a couple of chairs or a bistro table/chair set adds ambiance.  Just make sure the area does not look cluttered.

Imagine that you are selling your home at the mall, let’s say in the “house store”.  You would do what all the other stores do.

Clothes stores have mannequins in the window featuring the latest fashions.  The mannequin is wearing the whole outfit - dress, jewelry, shoes, purse, and maybe even a hat.  The same dress on the rack may look rather plain, but in the window, with the jewelry and all, it is the start of a really outstanding outfit.  The window display gives a shopper an idea of how well the dress may fit in her wardrobe.

Now let’s go to the furniture store.  You might walk through rows of couches and tables and find nothing that jumps out at you.  But, when you see a couch and tables displayed in a room setting with lamps, candles, and potted plants, you stop and think how great that couch might look in your home.  The store might even have the same couch in two different room settings, suggesting to the shopper that the couch works well in both formal and informal decor.

So now to the “house store” where your home is listed for sale.  You want your house featured in the store window.  You want your house displayed so as to give shoppers an idea of how your home may fit into their lifestyle.  This is staging.  Staging sets your house apart from the houses on the rack or the rows of houses.

Just for clarification.  Staging is not decorating.  Staging is not preparing your home for sale by making repairs and doing inspections.  Staging is marketing your home.

We live in our homes differently than we sell them.  Most people are at least a little emotional about their homes.  But when we sell it, we need to put those emotions aside.  When we put our home on the market, we really need to appeal to the buyer’s emotions.  This is where staging comes in.

Even the most beautifully decorated and upgraded home may need to be staged.  Decorating is a personal thing.  Staging de-personalizes it.

Staging doesn’t necessarily cost a lot.  Often it is only changing or rearranging a few things in a house.  In fact, the cheapest thing that has the most impact is getting rid of clutter.  On the other hand, I feel it is well worth the money to stage a vacant home with furniture and accessories.  The staging will probably pay for itself and then some in the sales price.

Regardless of whether we are in a slow real estate market or a rapidly appreciating one, staged homes usually sell more quickly and often for more money.

Not only do buyers consider the number of bathrooms in a home, they also consider the condition of the bathrooms.  To make yours show well:

• Clean bathrooms from top to bottom.  They must be sparkling clean.
• Remove stains from sinks, tubs, and toilets.
• Polish faucets and repair any that are dripping or leaking.
• Unclog slow drains and make sure the sink pop-ups work properly.
• Repair and/or replace damaged or stained caulking.
• Remove water sports from shower doors and tub enclosures.
• All light bulbs should be the same wattage.
• Clear off the counter.  Only one or two items should be on the counter, such as a plant and nice soap dispenser.
• Hang up fresh towels.  If necessary, purchase new towels for showing the house.
• Pull back the shower curtain to expose the tub.  It makes the bathroom look bigger.
• And please, put the toilet lid down!!!

A friend recently asked me this question.  My advise was to remember the Internet.  Over 80% of buyers start their search for a home on the Internet and most will only look at the listings with photos.  You know, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

Although the teal blue carpet may look great with your decor, many people prefer a neutral color that goes with everything.  Many buyers will consider teal to be an outdated color.

When a buyer looks at photos of a home with teal carpeting, different thoughts come to mind.  For example, “If the carpeting is outdated, the whole house must be dated”.  Or, “A house with teal carpeting must have old appliances”.  Or,”This looks like a cosmetic fixer.  Maybe I can get it for a lower price”.  Many buyers do not want to be bothered with a dated home unless there is something really special about it, like an outstanding view or a cul-de-sac location.  Or, if they are interested, they want it for a really low price.

Another thing to consider is that the buyers who see it on the Internet and decide to look at it, already have an opinion of the condition of the home.  So, you may have a strike against you before they even walk in the front door.

Many times sellers will offer a carpet allowance.  You can do that, but when you put that in the listing, what you are really doing is suggesting that the house is not up to par.
My suggestion is that if you can afford to replace the carpeting, do it before you put the house on the market. Install a medium grade carpet with very neutral color.  New carpeting makes a huge difference in a home.  It will help to sell your home more quickly and probably for a better price. And the photos on the Internet will look a lot more inviting!