Mark Wozniak: A really important factor in getting your home sold is the condition that your home is in because frankly a lot of buyers want to see homes that are in great condition. They look good. They feel comfortable in them, feels like it is ready to move in and to that degree there is a lot of things that you should be thinking about when preparing your home for sale. And really this is a nice cooperative area where the homeowner and the Realtor® can work together getting that home ready for sale. Leigh Anne, what are some of the key things that the home owner can be thinking about?
Leigh Anne Monk: That’s right. There are a lot of things that the homeowners can do even as you’re thinking about getting your house on the market to get things ready. I like to call them the three D’s. Declutter, deodorize and depersonalize. When it comes to decluttering this is the perfect time to go through all those boxes of stuff and throw it away, pack it away or give it away. It’s the right time to do that, kind of streamline things, less to move later and it really frees up some space in your home to make the rooms look even larger.
The second thing we often encourage people what you can’t see in pictures can make a big impact when you walk into the home is what we call "deodorize." We all have favorite foods that we like to make from time to time. We all have pets from time to time and all those odors together don’t make a house as fresh smelling so we really encourage people to do small things like adding air fresheners things of that nature, maybe some candles here and there to help prepare their home to make it really smell fresh which is really, really important.
Mark Wozniak: And this is an area where I’ve seen people walk in the beautiful looking homes and turn around walk right back out because again it’s such a sensory experience when you’re buying a home. They walk in, they don’t like the smell, they leave and they never even look at it.
Leigh Anne Monk: And unfortunately you can't see a smell in a picture. You do go into the house expecting one thing and unfortunately being surprised by the other. The third “D” is to depersonalize the home. What we mean by that is when you’re selling your home you are now selling the house itself. You’re not selling your favorite picture of your grandkids or pet or someone else like that because quite frankly people aren’t buying your family they’re looking at the home and want to buy that. So we encourage people to remove all personal pictures including those on the refrigerator - even those great little pictures that you’re young child may have made that you are so proud of. You want to get all that cleaned off that refrigerator just to kind of clean up and make it look sharp and fresh. Because so many times you’re comparing your house to a brand new house or a house that has very little things like that and you want to make it look as clean as possible.
Mark Wozniak: Right I think everyone, of course, personalizes their home while they’re living in it. Goodness sakes! I’ve got three kids. I’ve got those pictures all over, but when it comes time to sell buyers want to see something that is a little more neutralized that they can picture themselves in.
Leigh Anne Monk: Exactly, exactly.
Mark Wozniak: So those are some great things that a homeowner can do. How are some ways that the Realtor®can assist getting that home prepared for sale?
Leigh Anne Monk: Sure. You know one thing we like to do when we go through a home is we like to make some suggestions for cosmetic repairs. There are things that we tell people to do and there are some things that we tell them not to do and that’s going to depend upon every single house. Every house is different. For example, we’ve had a house where we’ve had to tell people to paint every single room to start fresh to get some more neutral colors, but still have some color there. There may be some landscaping that needs to be done. It’s amazing how quickly a house can improve in that first all important first impression with that new bush, with that new fresh planting, some clean up of weeds, bring some fresh mulch down - things like that.
In addition, we’ve also seen people have a tremendous impact on their homes when they have done something as simple as add a new light fixture, add a new faucet to their bathroom vanity - things like that can really make a difference. So we will go through a house and advise people what to do on cosmetic basis. At the same time your agent should be able to tell you what not to do. We recently had a client that was really open to buying all new appliances. As we analyzed the market we didn’t feel it was necessary and his appliances worked just fine and they were the proper age for the type home that it was and we advised him not to do that, thereby saving him money.
Mark Wozniak: Right. There is a cost benefit trade-off and it’s really great when you can work with a professional who can advise which cost benefit trade-off for your particular home would make the most sense.
Leigh Anne Monk: Exactly. And the last thing I would suggest on the cosmetic side of the repairs is look at what is obviously broken and needs repair. If you have a light bulb out and if you have a leaky faucet - to be honest with you - you’re going to have to fix that anyway at the time of the home inspection you might as well fix it up front. It gives a better, stronger impression to your home when people walk through it and here is what I always tell buyers: "If you see a house that is kind of dirty or maybe cluttered or maybe had that leaky faucet buyers naturally think, 'What is wrong behind the scenes that I’m not seeing?'" So the more that you can do to present that good face for the world, so to speak, as the buyers come in, the better for you and your house sale.
Mark Woziaik: You bet. So aside from kind of giving that advice to the homeowners on certain changes they can make to the home, there’s another concept called staging where the agent takes a much more active role - or at least we feel that the best agents get involved and take an active role - in really setting your home up to look its very best. So what are some things involved in the staging process?
Leigh Anne Monk: Right, exactly. Staging is actually critical not just from a "it’s a nice thing to do" standpoint. We believe it’s necessary and the facts are in that staged homes actually sell for more money in a quicker amount of time when it is in conjunction with pricing of the home properly. There is no such magic wand that all new paint and all new carpet…
Mark Wozniak: It’s not a cure all…
Leigh Anne Monk: It’s not a cure all, right, but a staged home in conjunction in pricing that home properly can make a huge difference in how it looks. So what we suggest is we will go through a home. We may make some furniture arrangement suggestions. We may bring in some pictures and accessories. We do this as an added value service to our clients because we so firmly believe in the importance of staging. We have seen homes transform. we have seen some of our homes, we have gotten calls over some of our listing, Mark, if you remember, where they’ve said, "I don’t even need to see it. It looks so good in the photographs I am ready to buy it," because it looks so much better than any other home in that particular marketplace at that time.
Mark Wozniak: Right, and again depending upon the Realtor® that you work with some don’t do staging at all, some actually prefer to hire out a professional and perhaps charge you for it. And again, we feel the best incorporate it into their service offering for their clients which is what the Equity Rise team does.
So once you have your home prepared ready for sale it’s time for the Realtor® to help market your home. So in another segment we’re going to talk about ways to market your home.