Pinnacle

20 tips on how to sell your home faster

SET THE STAGE FOR A SUCCESSFUL SALE

Selling your home is just like selling anything else. You need to highlight its strengths. Focus on its features. Bring out its best. Here’s a list of places to start.

Make a lasting first impression
The front door should be clean and presentable. If the doorbell is not working repair it.

20 tips on how to sell your home faster
Faded walls and worn woodwork won’t sell your home. A small investment in paint or wallpaper will.

Let the sun shine in
Open the drapes and curtains. Clean the window and panes. Turn on the lights. House buyers are drawn to bright, cheerful interior.

Call the plumber and the electrician
Dripping water taps suggest worn out plumbing or careless maintenance. Clean those rust stained sinks. And make sure the drains are running free and clear. Loose electrical wires, broken sockets and fused out bulbs, flickering tube-lights are a no-no.

The devil’s in the details
Loose door knobs and handles. Creaky doors. Door latches not closing smoothly. Sticking drawers. Wobbly hinges. Jammed windows. They can all cost you a potential customer. Fix the defects and they make a sale.

Safety sells
Keep staircases and corridors clean and free of clutter. Cluttered areas are not only unattractive; they are dangerous as well.

Sell the whole home
Let prospects see the big picture. Make sure your attic is presentable, your garage is neat and your basement is organized. Give storeroom space a clean coat of paint.

Buyers love big closets and wall cupboards
And they look even bigger when they are clean, neat and well organized. Get rid of piles of clothes, old cartons and other clutter.

Bathrooms are big sellers.
Make bathrooms sparkle. Clean sinks and bowls. Recaulk where needed. Make sure towels and bathroom mats are freshly washed.

Wake up your bedrooms
Remove excess furniture. Use attractive and colourful bed linens and spreads. Open the drapes and curtains and let the light in. Remember, this is where your buyers spend one third of their lives.

SHOW AND SELL
It is now showtime! Here are ten suggestions to help you make the most of it.

Lighten up
Home buyers love the light. By day, let the sun shine in. By night, turn on all your lights, inside and outside. Don’t forget the accent and picture lights.

Avoid crowds
House hunters hate crowds. When your brokers shows your home, send the children away to the neighbours and take a long walk.

Silence is golden
When your home is being shown, turn off the radio, television, stereo or any other noise-producing source. It will make your agent’s job easier.

Keep pets out of sight
Make your pets disappear when your house is being shown. Your prospect may have different tastes in animal than you.

Stay in the background
Do not try to engage your prospects in conversation. Let your broker do his or her job and let your buyers inspect without interruption.

Be prepared
You never know when your consultant (agent) may need to show your home on a moment’s notice. So, make your beds and tidy up each morning, just in case.

No apologies necessary
Nobody’s perfect. There’s no need to apologies for the appearance of your house. Let your agent field any negative comment.

Sell the home period
Don’t try to sell your prospect your old furniture, appliances, lamps or anything besides your house. Save it for after the sale.

Leave it to professionals
Let your broker discuss selling price, terms, possession dates or other such details. They have been carefully trained and will negotiate on your behalf.

Show by appointment only
Your agents can schedule all showings including those from other real estate offices. All you need to do is to make sure your home is ready to show.

Smantha Sen

Hi pinnacle
nice tips for home sellers. Will you please continue with these tips as "Tips for buyers" or "Tips for tenants".


thanks

Pinnacle

Hi Smantha
Nice to know that you and fellow members find the tips useful
Will surely post more tips here
Ram
Pinnacle Realty

Jack

Wat Abt all this Dealing without a Real Estate Agent ?
Got Bowled out !

Hai Mr Ram,

Your post regarding the 20 selling tips is really interesting. But I am imagining whether there is a way to sell a house without taking anyone's help. That is if I dont want to take any Realtor's help and want to sell the house myself ?
Any suggestions?

RahulSingh

Do we really need to use a Real Estate Agent? It is the first question that every seller or buyer should ask themselves before calling the service of a Real Estate Agent. In fact there is no law anywhere in the world which stops an individual from buying or selling a house without the help of a real estate agents.

After the first question, if the person decides to go himself then this is the right place. There are some tips which can be handy during the sale or purchase of the house by yourself. Following are the tips for someone who will prefer to go himself rather than taking the help of Real Estate Agent to sell his house:

1) Prepare The House:
Before doing anything, make sure that the house is in good shape to show. That means making sure it is clean, de-cluttered, odor-free, brightly lit and freshly painted. Curb appeal is also important. Show the house in full light(day light) as generally people like bright houses.

2. Price it correctly
Second and the most important step is pricing your house correctly as If you price it high then also you wont get any buyer and if you price it less then everything will go in vain. The biggest mistake for sale by owners make is pricing their home too high.

Use listing Web sites to get a starting idea of what a house is worth. A look at a listings site, will reveal what sellers are asking for in the neighborhood. Free comparative market analysis before setting an asking price through 2 or 3 real estate agents will give you a rough estimate.

Go to neighborhood open houses to see what other homes are selling for. If the home is unique and difficult to compare to others, consider having it appraised. Up-to-date information on what is happening in the marketplace and the price, financing, terms and condition of competing properties.

3. Market it Correctly
The Internet can be a big help in marketing a property. Listing sites will allow a seller to post a listing to gain Internet exposure.

Other online options include community marketplaces such as portals like Yahoo. When placing a newspaper ad, also make sure to ask if it will be posted online for free.

But don't underestimate the power of a sign. Directional signs can call attention to a home from nearby roadways, and signs in front of the home should have an information tube or box filled with informational flyers. Just make sure you're clear on area sign laws.

And consider listing on the Multiple Listing Service as well.

4. Get the papers Ready before selling

Decide early on whose services to use for the paperwork. That means either finding a title company or a real estate attorney to assist in completing the sale. Your backend should be up to date with all the paperwork.

So hope that you people will find all this tips handy during the transaction.

Pinnacle

Dear Rahul,
Your cut paste advice is more relevant to the realty markets abroad.
MLS (Multiple Listing Services) and Open Houses are not yet operational concepts in India.

People can surely do buying & selling without a realtor, but the money spend on the realtors fees gives you much more value than you spend. There are no laws anywhere in the world which stops you from using the services of a professional neither are there laws which force you to go to professionals. But as in our everyday life, we use the services of professionals. We do not want to be pennywise and pound foolish. Would anyone think of doing a self diagnosis of his ailment and buy OTC medicines from a drugstore and try to save a doctor's fees. I dont think so.

Research in the indian realty market has shown that typically a indian consumer buys two homes in his lifetime. So there is no harm is people using a professional realtors service to transact the biggest purchase of his life.

Just a timely and legally sounded advice from your CA can save you thousands of rupees in taxes, so can your realtor give you more value than what you pay him for his fees.

A realtor is a specialist who deals in buying n sellling every day of his life and is more grounded to the harsh n ugly side of realty dealings. A simple advice of avoiding black listed builders can mean a life time saving measure for someone who would have bought property in a dud project.

For a buyer, it can simply be as simple as avoiding pitfalls and loose his hard earn money to real estate sharks or sometimes get deals that are not listed with real estate portals and are exclusively with local Realtors. How many first time buyers are aware of the meaning and terms like IOD, CC, OC, FAR & Conveyance. How many buyers who buy flats directly from builders have asked the inspection of title documents, the 7/12 extracts, property card, encumbrance certificate and other such jargonic sounding documents ? Your realtor certainly can guide you here.

For a seller, it can mean getting the right market value at the earliest with proper guidance in legal wrangles, capital gains n the right reinvestment oppurtunities.

FSBO's are very common in markets abroad.
But invariably most of these homes are listed with Realtors after 3 - 9 months of being in the market, unsold.

If everyone of us look at our job profile, there are possibilities of you being redundant and people doing your task directly. But the million dollar question is Are they able to replicate your core skill set and get the desired results that you are able to achieve on a every day basis.

This post is not to justify the end use of a Realtor, but to empahsise that using a professional in buying or selling helps you in more ways than one.

But its upto you to choose the right Realtor.

Jack, a single suggestion from a realtor to spruce up the property and make value addition, can fetch upto 2 -5% more than the asking price. Just as a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) can make selling a breeze for some dud properties too.

Ram
Pinnacle Realty