As your front yard or back yard blossoms into full glory, be sure to take some pictures and then – this is key – remember where you put them.

You never know when you’re going to put your house on the market. You might end up with a job transfer in the middle of an August drought when the yard is brown and ugly or January when there is a pile of snow.

Anyway, the point is, if you have those pictures of your yard and house at their best, it can go a long way towards overcoming a drab reality.  And it might mean more money in your pocket at settlement time.

If you’re really stuck for taking pictures (okay, if you're in my area), send me an email. I’d be happy to come take a few photos and then either email them to you or give them to you on a CD. Big plus – digital photos don’t take up shelf space!

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

It is so seldom that we have any problems at all. This list isn’t to scare you or make you believe that selling your house is a dangerous thing. It’s just an unfortunate fact in this day and age that you can’t be as trusting as you might want to be. It always pays, even when your house is on the market, to put safety first. And please remember, your agent may give you different advice. This is just the advice I give my clients:

1. Ask your agent to install an electronic lockbox. Even if you’re usually home when showings occur, ask the buyer’s agent to use the lockbox anyway. This way your agent will have a record of the showing agent’s name, company, company phone number, and date and time of entry. And you have the comfort of knowing that the person showing your home meets the criteria for having one of the electronic keys.  Many agents like to use combination lockboxes, which are mechanical. They say it’s because they have control over who they give the combination to. However, once they’ve given out the combination, you have no idea who else it might be given to and how many times it is used to gain entry to the property.
   
   
2. Buyers, seeing the For Sale sign, may knock on your door and ask if they can see the inside. They may even tell you that they only have a small window of time to look at properties just to make you feel that you might lose a sale if you don’t let them in. DON’T LET THEM IN! You’d never let a total stranger wander through your house at any other time, so why start now? You have no idea who these people are and you shouldn’t compromise your safety just because you’re selling your house. I recommend to my clients that they give the buyer my card and tell him to make arrangements through me. This way, I can find out more information and make sure that they are bonafide buyers before scheduling an appointment to show them the house.
   
   
3. If an agent shows up at the door, asking if he can show the house, and you decide to let them in, ask them to use the electronic lockbox. If he doesn’t have a key, then tell him to call your agent and make other arrangements. A business card is very easy to make – don’t rely on one as proof that the person at your door is really a licensed real estate agent.
   
   
4. Secure your valuables before the house goes on the market. You’re moving anyway, so pack your valuable collections ahead of time. Remove temptation. Sometimes buyers have small children with them and may not notice when inquisitive fingers pick up and handle your belongings. Packing these items early has two benefits – no one can break or steal what isn’t there and your house shows better when it is de-cluttered and de-personalized.
   
   
5. Don’t leave loose change and jewelry out in the open. Self-explanatory, but you’d be surprised how often it gets overlooked.
   
   
6. Tuck prescriptions drugs into a dresser drawer rather than leaving them in the bathroom cabinet. Again, it’s self-explanatory but can easily be forgotten.

Don’t be afraid to listen to your instincts. And don’t sacrifice your safety for the sake of selling your home. It just isn’t worth it.

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

Some years ago, in a very slow market, I got a call from a woman who said she and her husband had to sell their home and would I please come over to talk to them about it. They were very close to falling behind in their mortgage payments. They were separating, the bills were piling up and they felt trapped by their very high mortgage payments.

They called a number of real estate agents, including the agent who had sold them the home just a couple of years before. When they told him how much they owed on the mortgage, he told them he couldn’t help them and wished them luck. He told them they owed more than they could sell it for (which was true). I was really appalled at their interest rate – it was a good 4% above the current rates. This is one of those instances where both the real estate agent and the lender really took advantage of naïve buyers.

When I went over to their house for the listing appointment, I could see the strain on their faces. It was obvious that they felt their lives were just out of control. They told me that they they loved the house, they loved having a yard for their kids, but that their marriage was dissolving and they felt  their only option was to move on.  After listening to them for a while, I asked them if they would prefer to stay in the house if they could find a way.  Apparently no one else had asked them this question. They said yes, they wanted to stay but didn’t see how. 

I was able to arrange a new mortgage for them, with MUCH lower payments, and they were able to keep their family home. Best yet, they called me a couple of months later and said that they had patched up their marriage because the financial stress had been lifted.

Some things are better than a paycheck and some days I really love my job.

One of the terms of the contract that sellers have a lot of trouble with involves leaving the property “free of trash and debris”.

The problem seems to lie in defining the words “trash and debris”.

I mean, that stinky old couch on the back porch isn’t really trash, is it? It looks perfectly okay – the dog liked sleeping on it for the past ten years. We left it out on the porch because it got left out in the humidity for so long, so we’d never move it indoors. (Frankly, I wouldn’t even want to sit on it!) But it’s okay for a porch couch. Right? I mean, we don’t want it anymore, but the buyer might, right?

Wrong. If the buyer wanted it, he’d have asked for it.

The point of this story is – don’t leave stuff YOU wouldn’t keep for the buyers to get rid of.  If it’s something you think the buyers might want – ASK! They’ll either say yes or no, but don’t make it their responsibility to get rid of your trash.

On the other hand, if the house was painted recently, it’s perfectly acceptable to leave the leftover paint – IN GOOD CONDITION – in the house for the buyer to do touch-ups. Especially if you label the cans so that the buyer knows which paint was used where.

You can leave a few left-over cleaning supplies, but not if they have only one good spray left in the container. A mostly full bottle of glass cleaner that you just don’t want to move would probably be welcome, but not all your dirty sponges and old rags.

You get the picture. I mean, let’s admit it. When you’re moving into a new house, you bring enough trash of your own, without having to deal with the previous owner’s trash.

Right?

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.