After living a in single family home for over a decade, we tend to get a little lazy when it comes to home upkeep, and those annoying water drips, or slow evacuating drains are overlooked most of the time. People then panic and have a long list of “Honey Do’s” all of a sudden when it comes time to sell their house, or vacation property. The cost of repairs when items are taken care of when they need fixing is a lot less pricey than having to hire a contractor to come in at the last minute and help.

You see these before and after type of home staging shows on the Home and Garden television network where they have a group of realtors come in and inspect a property to see why it’s not selling. Many times, it is the overall decor of the home that is not appealing, but cracked floor, and counter tiles, or chipped bricks on the fireplace will be glaring warts on your home when prospective buyers are doing a formal walkthrough. The wood-trim around doors and windows may be faded or scratched up from years of pets putting their paws on them and scratching the surface. As you can see the to-do list is getting bigger than you thought it might.

The most important room in the house currently is the kitchen, followed by the bathrooms. If they are dated, and dingy then do not be surprised if shoppers do an about face, and leave before even inquiring about the asking price. It is fairly normal to spend fifteen to thirty-thousand dollars on fixing up, and properly staging a home for the most possible buyers currently. If this is not in your budget, then chances are you will have to take a large chunk of your selling price off the table.

People in general are not that creative when it comes to making a home appealing, but they know what they like when they see it. Therefore, if you have the creativity of a fence post then seek immediate professional help. Your agent can give you all the references needed to get the repairs, proper decor, and overall exterior rejuvenation done, and create a showplace that people cannot wait to buy.

If you want to kill any chance of your agent working their magic, then stick around for the open house. This is the kiss of death, as other real estate agents, and prospects will be very open about their comments concerning your home, and even if you are thick skinned it makes for awkward moments that could reduce the chances of moving the property. So take the family and make it a day at the Zoo or nearest water park while the open house is in operation.

Tags: seller tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 at 10:26 am and is filed under Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.