Hints for Selling House

[lazarru]

After looking at a number of factors including the fact that we can sell our existing house, take the profit from it and pay off all of our debt including our new car and still have about plenty of money for a downpayment on a new house in an area that would be closer to work and in better school district we've decided it's time to sell.

So looking for any hints on selling, what's the best time of year to list, anything to look out for.

Also the big thing is any inexpensive ideas that would have a good return on the selling. We've got a number of rooms that we'll go ahead and paint, but beyound that not sure if there's other easy things that would have a good payout. We know we have a few problems, carpet in one room has a bunch of stains, floor in kitchen isn't in great shape, but I can't see replacing either of them and getting that money back.

Thanks

 

[GillieRose]

Get rid of most of your family pictures. Clean off counters to make it look like your kitchen counter has more space. There is a carpet cleaner and bed, bath and beyond that can get everything out of the carpet you might want to try it. Also if the house is picked up but you don't have time to do a big cleaning. I would always spray orange scented polish in the house so it smells like you just cleaned. Always open all your window dressings to let light in the house and turn all your lights on so the house seems bright and cheery.

 

[minnie1928]

1. Painted rooms or touched up rooms that looked pretty good.
2. Took down all family pictures and personal collections of stuff that wouldn't necessarily appeal to other people
3. Steam cleaned carpets
4. Cleaned out! Donate what you don't want, the more you get rid of the more space you appear to have.
5. Re-arranged furniture for looks, not necessarily functionality
6. Put away the ugly stuff...I am amazed that the house about a mile away that has been up for sale for about 2-3 months. Right beside the front door they have their big green trash can and their recycle bin. Right beside the door! It's the first and last thing someone sees when they come to the house!
7. Cleaned up the yard, put some flower pots outside or inside if it's too cold.
8. Do minor cosmetic repairs (new caulk in the bathroom, clean the grout type things)
9. Basically you want to potential buyers to see what a great house you have, NOT what would need done to it.

We did this. Put mom's house on the market on a Friday...12 showings and 2 days later we had 4 bids all above asking price. We contracted on the offer that was 10% above our asking price. And that was in January...before the "boom"!

Good luck!

 

[staci]

We just sold our house this summer and made an atrocious amount of money on it, only living there for two years. I researched this A LOT.

GET RID of clutter. Make your house look like a hotel, meaning, a few nice pictures on the wall, get rid of everything else. Put away knickknacks. Clear your kitchen counters. If you can live without it, even move the microwave off the counter if it takes up a lot of space. More than likely the potential buyer wont notice its absence, but it will make your kitchen seem larger.

If you have a lot of furniture, move it out!! There is no reason for four chairs in a living room . Organize your closets, so that it seems like there is more space in there. IT seems like work, but it helps packing go MUCH easier if it is all done. If bedrooms are small, get rid of non-essentials. For instance, we had a blanket rack and a huge cedar chest that just cluttered the room, we got them out of there.

Only have each room have ONE purpose. Having a guest room/den/playroom makes it appear that your home doesnt have enough rooms. Pick a purpose and stick with it.

Start a consignment shop pile. Get rid of EVERYTHING that you dont need. This helps with the move and with the clutter.

Clean up the front yard. Get it mowed, trim the bushes, Paint any trim if necessary. Weed eat. Put out some flowers (or pumpkins this time of year!)

If your carpet is bad, it might be in your best interest to ask a little more $ than you would have, but offer $1500 toward the replacement of carpet? Something to think about. Is it possible to strategically place area rugs over where the stains are?

Remove anything dated. Light fixtures? You can get two packs of cheap but great looking lights at walmart for about $15 for TWO. Replace the whole house for very little, and it really helps update the look.

Paint if necessary, a little time consuming, but very cheap. White is best. Paint anything that isnt a nuetral color, as a prospective buyer with three boys will probably not feel at home in a pepto bismol pink bedroom

Hope this helps you! I could come up with a lot more but this is long enough! Good luck!

 

[crisrn2003]

When we sold our house, here's a few things the sales agent advised us of and stuff we were told about later on:
--ask just slightly less than you might want i.e. if you want $130,000 then ask $129,900. When people are doing an online search and entering in feasible prices for them, $130,000 might knock your house out of the running.
--warm the oven, then place a small dish of vanilla in the oven and turn it off. The warm fragrance gives it a homey feel.
--fresh flowers of a wide variety if possible. When we sold our house, the woman said she knew it was supposed to be her house because there were calla lilies outside (which she'd had in her wedding).
--a steam cleaning service can go a long way to making your carpets look better and if a stain can be easily hidden by furniture, then do it!
--make sure all the small stuff works such as light fixtures, door knobs, locks, etc. If someone sees one or two things broken, that will really stick with them.
--Keep your yard very neat--kids toys put away, yard mowed and weed eaten, garbage cans out of sight. And remember, ANY one can drive by and look at your house even when they aren't coming inside so the outside can make a big impression.
--We had a bid on our house 26 hours after being on the market, and the closing 14 days later. Having a place to go in a hurry may also help IF its possible for you to do that.
Best of luck to you and do your research. You'll be amazed with all the helpful info you can find.

 

[DisneyMomOK]

Hardware (knobs and pulls) in the kitchen and bathroom are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to update your kitchen and bath (if needed).

 

[barkley]

call a realtor and ask them to come over. most are very well versed at "staging" a home and will tell you exactly what to clear out, clean up or invest in. they are also great at telling you what DOES NOT need to be done (mom in law was convinced that she needed to repaint, update...realtor told her to hire a power wash company instead of painting, and told her to update nothing cuz the buying market in her neighborhood is for "fixer-uppers", yeah-i can't see paying $530k for a fixer upper but thats the trend in napa ).

tune into sell this house or buy this house (a&e and home/garden network) for good ideas (curb appeal on home/garden for exterior suggestions).

(i may get flamed for this ) but...if you are considering not using a realtor-RECONSIDER (no, i'm not a realtor) but there has been a trend in california to sell privatly (or use these "help u sell" companies that charge a few thousand to get you on the mls, print flyers, make a sign) and alot of sellers are now being sued because they did'nt follow disclosure laws, get the contracts done right, get the right inspections done...i know, using a realtor eats a big chunk of the profits but a buyer being able to back out after closing or hitting you with tens of thousands in repairs can run so much more.

happy home selling-we hope to do the same in the spring.

 

[HeatherFeather]

Yay...my first post. Hopefully I can help you out a little too. We sold our house this spring. We had an interior decorator come for one hour and help us move things around and "stage" (as stated by a previous poster) our home. She told us what to box up and put in storage as well as how to give it a little more curb appeal. It may cost a few dollars but it is SO worth it.

The first couple who saw our home made an offer the next day and this was by no means a hot market. Good luck to you!

 

[Jsme]

When we sold our first house our realtor told us what to do and we had an offer in less than 24 hours!!!

We touched up the paint
Clean carpets
Our yard already looked good, flowers and everything,otherwise we would have had to do this. One of the first impressions of a house is the yard.
The next is the door in which they will enter. Paint or freshen up the door and what is around it...flowers
As others said get rid of clutter. To make closets look larger clean them out.
If you have or can get a copy of a years worth of your power bill have that available, not neccessaryly out but available.
I have seen a special photo album before at open houses of pictures of the house in all four seasons.

 

[imsayin]

what's the best time of year to list,

I believe it is Spring. I know the worst time to sell is between Thanksgiving & Superbowl Sunday.

 

[Earstou]

Be sure to wash all your windows and the glass on your light fixtures. This can really brighten up your house.
Bake some chocolate chip cookies right before you show the house (makes it seem inviting and smells yummy). You can use the store bought ones you just pop into the oven.
Add some sort of curb appeal if you don't already have it.
I do agree with the others about clutter, clean out, give away, store some where else.
We did replace the carpet in our livingroom because it made the first impression. Of course, we also increased the asking price due to that.
We sold our house the day it went on the market!

 

[beattyfamily]

All great advice so far!!

Watch "Sell my House" on A&E and also "Designed to Sell" on HGTV to get a GREAT lesson on staging and fixing dated and broken things...how investing $500 - $2000 in updating or fixing things in your home can bring you so so much in return.

You really must fix the carpet and kitchen floor. People WILL notice. A kitchen can certainly break a sale.

Get rid of all clutter and personal items. Make the house look bigger by getting rid of extra stuff and furniture. Light candle or bake cookies. Update anything that is dated and old.

Good luck!

 

[ElizaB39]

Great tips!

We sold our house last fall, in an up up up market. I washed the outside entry area and painted the rise going into the house. I cleaned the outside light fixtures as well. I focused primarily on the entry into the house, the foyer and the dining room (first room you saw when you entered). We rented a storage unit and stored a whole bunch of stuff from our basement storage areas and etc.

We also removed the TV that was in between our kitchen and den and replaced it with a lamp, plant and small picture.

The house looked so great I didn't want to leave it!

Best of luck.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

have it clean, clean, clean! We walked out of some houses and didn't even consider them because they were dirty - like spg sauce on the stove etc. A bottle of 409 and a roll of paper towels can go a long, long way!!!!!!!!

 

[Belle1962]

How much does realtor get--6% on average? And what other costs are there to the seller? I would love to unload my house but think there's only about $20,000 in equity in it.

 

[beattyfamily]

How much does realtor get--6% on average? And what other costs are there to the seller? I would love to unload my house but think there's only about $20,000 in equity in it.

This is what my sister told me (we didn't use a realtor when we bought this house). If both the buyer and the seller have a realtor, they split the 6% in half. If there's only one realtor, then he/she gets 3%.

My sister sold without a realtor and negotiated who'd pay the buyers' realtor's fee with the buyer.

It is hard to give them that fee but I'm sure there are pros to having a realtor though...like in negotating, advertizing etc...

Other expenses could be if they find something wrong after the inspection on your house. Closing costs??

 

[barkley]

around here the standard is 6% but if you have a property that they have a buyer for some will go down to 5%. even if theres only one realtor he gets the full 6%.

def. depersonalize (esp. when it comes to, how shall i say it nicely? "unique" tastes ). one house around the block identical to ones selling in 48 hours, well priced sat on the market for months! we could'nt figure out what the deal was until we went on-line to the realty site and clicked on the photos one of the rooms was painted a bright red-orange and had a handpainted gold dragon covering an entire wall (not an attractive dragon-this was in gold and had blood dripping from the talons ). there was also the neighbor who had the "landmark purple" (you tell people i live 12 houses down from the purple house ) house which sat for months. they lowered their price and offered 3000.00 for exterior painting, but noone took them up on it (i guess the primer alone would have run more than 3000.00).

 

[Ms. Belle]

I wouldn't necessarily fix the floors. I sold my house for a huge profit and one of my floors was just sub-floor. The buyers didn't mind because they wanted to put in something they would be happy with.

I made sure all my personal photos were out of sight and decluttered every room. I had a big tag sale and make about $1500 selling junk that I hadn't used in awhile.

Also, make sure the house is sparkling clean. When I go to open houses, I'm amazed at how dirty some of the houses are and consequently, I would never buy them. I watch the A&E show "Sell this House" and I got alot of ideas on how to stage the furniture. Putting flowers on your front porch or along the walkway adds curb appeal and welcomes potential buyers into your home.

Good luck!

 

[TheRatPack]

Paint if necessary, a little time consuming, but very cheap. White is best. Paint anything that isnt a nuetral color, as a prospective buyer with three boys will probably not feel at home in a pepto bismol pink bedroom

Funny that you mention that, we're also planning to sell our house in the next few months so we're starting on things now. We're replacing the windows with new ones, updating the paint on the outside and we just finished a nice flower bed in the front yard. But the thing that killed me the most is painting over my daughters 2 shades of pink (pepto pink mind you) bedroom walls with a nice neutral khaki color Next is painting over my sons 2 shades of blue sponge bob walls.....boy I spent a lot of time painting those rooms LOL

 

[txgirl]

I haven't seen anyone mention getting an inspection before listing your house. If your house is more than 10 years old I would recommend getting an inspection up front! We should have so that we could have absorbed the cost of the repairs that were necessary. We had some problems with grading which left water pooling under the house (we had no idea) and $3,000 later we were not happy. We couldn't adjust the price at that point because the buyers knew they "had" us. Plus there are things you can repair yourself before the inspector comes in and writes you up. Once that happens the buyer can require that a "licensed contractor" do the work. If you do the repairs yourself then when the buyer orders an inspection those items will be all done!

All the other advice sounds fantastic!