May. 26, 2007 - Prepare Your House to SELL!
Because I rarely agree with other real estate professionals, I thought I'd put some links to what other "tips" are available out there in Cyberspace, regarding Getting Your Home Ready For Market. Then I will provide Ardell's Advices On Getting Your House Ready For Market, which are bound to be quite different from the generic advices available on the Internet.
Let's take that book up there as an example. I didn't even open the cover yet, and I already disagree with the author.
Read the yellow print. Is your goal to make "the inside of your house A SELLER"S DREAM"? Of course not. It is your goal to make the inside of your house A BUYER'S DREAM!" and there is, in fact, quite a huge difference between the two.
Here are some links to various tips available on the Internet. Many I disagree with, like getting a home inspection done before you put your home on the market. But I want to give you as much information as possible in this one post. So just click on the links in this paragraph, and you will find everything I DON'T want to tell you, and then some. There's even a how to video in there, but since I agree with none of them in total, here's my advice:
ARDELL'S ADVICES ON HOW TO GET YOUR HOME READY FOR MARKET.
Priority 1 - Set your budget
I have used the same number for 17 years, and it never fails me. The Seller sometimes fails me by not listening :). but not the number itself. It's simple. No one should ever spend LESS than 1/2 of 1% of the sale price to get their home ready for market or MORE than 1% of the sale price. So if your sale price (not asking price) is expected to be $500,000, then you spend $2,500 to $5,000. If your expected sale price is $190,000, then you spend between $800 and $1,900. The lower the number you have to work with, the more you may have to do the work yourself. Don't blow your whole budget on one item. It will be a waste of money.
Priority 2 - Make a list of things you SHOULD do
No one is EVER going to do everything they SHOULD do, so it is very important to make this a COMPLETE list, knowing you will not do all of them. Don't make a list of what you WANT to do...that come's later. This first list is everything...absolutely everything. I don't care if it is 45 pages long at the end...we want to see everything first.
DON'T MAKE THIS LIST!!! THE SELLER CANNOT BE THE ONE WHO MAKES THIS LIST, unless he is the one with the pencil and someone else is telling the seller what to write on the paper. Forget those advices in the links that tell you to look at your house differently. Listen to me on this one. You CAN'T EVER look at your house like a buyer will. How do I know this? Try seventeen years in the field. NO ONE CAN! NO ONE! If you live near me, then call me. I will do this with you even if you are going to sell For Sale By Owner. The best person to do this is an agent, but not just any agent. It must be someone who isn't afraid of hurting your feelings. Many agents are too afraid of hurting your feelings, and you must be present during this process. They are afraid "they won't get the business" if they hurt your feelings. So hire somone who is a straight shooter and will tell you the truth. Not many are.
Many agents want to tell you the truth AFTER you sign the contract to hire them, as they are afraid to tell you the truth before then. Some NEVER want to tell you the truth, they want "the market" do to that, so they don't EVER have to. I say that for reasons of transparency, and not to badmouth other agents. You MUST know this enough to recognize it when it happens. So if that is the case, and you can feel it, trust your instincts and hire them now with instructions to NOT let anyone see the house and NOT to put a sign up until the house is ready, IF that's what you have to do to get some honest advice.
Don't want to call an agent? Then pay three strangers to walk through your house slowly and say anything that comes to mind. You will be amazed at what they DON'T see (that you were going to spend money on), and what they DO see (that you didn't want to deal with). Even I often do this after I think the property is ready for market. When I've done everything, I get someone to come through and point out anything they see that is negative. Often it costs nothing or almost nothing to fix those things quickly. It's an excellent last step that I'm throwing in here at Step 2.
P.S. Don't have MORE THAN ONE agent come at this stage. You don't want more than one agent seeing your home at its worst. Try to make it the one you will "likely" hire, if and when you decide to hire one at all.
Priority 3 - Do EVERYTHING that costs nothing and is easy to do first.
All too often people go to the most expensive things first. It's a waste of time and money to go that route. Often after you do everything that costs nothing and is easy to do first, You find that you are done. SURPRISE! Even I'm surprised, when we do all the things that cost nothing first and say, WOW, this place looks good enough to sell and putting money into it isn't worth the return. That almost never happens before you do the cheap stuff first, because no matter how hard you try, you can't visualise what the place will look like with these things taken care of.
A) Call an agent who has staging credentials to help you with this list of DO FIRST stuff. My credential for this is called an ASP meaning an "Accredited Staging Professional", there are others, I expect. This way you don't have to spend extra money on this initial round of improvements. In fact it's free, but you shouldn't "use" someone by intending to hire Agent A, but using Agent B for this step. It's just not nice. If the Agent you know you are going to hire can't do this, then pay the $500 or so for a staging consult by a Staging Company.
B) DON"T do ANY of it before the agent or stager comes. DO NOT "de clutter" or put things away or into storage before the agent or stager comes. Often what you have "out" will go into storage and some thing over here will end up over there and something in the garage or closet will end up as "staging". I usually tag these items and say "I need this, I need this" Often the owners are surprised with what I want and what I don't want. So don't assume you can do this on your own. We want to see it ALL, and then you will know what to pack and store.
C) At this point you will have taken that first EVERYTHING list and turned it into TWO LISTS. One that costs nothing and one that costs money. The items on each list will be prioritized in order of importance. Sometimes a "cost item" will be being done, while the "free list" is being done, if that cost item is an absolute necessity. Often the cost item is outside and the free item is inside, so both can be done simultaneously.
I think I've already given you a good start, and disagreed with enough people in the links to get you going in the right direction. Often, very often in fact, when you are finished the above you are done. If you did the "must do" cost stuff and all of the free stuff, sometimes you are just done. You are too tired to move and you are out of money, and sometimes when you get there...it's "good enough to go".
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