Is there a thread for people selling their house?

[Chris2597]

The cabinets have already been cleaned and polished. The cabinet pulls had this little scroll looking thing that the knob went into. I removed the scroll thing and that made the cabinets look less dated. I will look for updated knobs this weekend. the cabinets are a very dark stain. What would look best? I am going to try painting over the bathroom wallpaper. If it doesnt look good I will call for bids to have it removed, textured and painted. I might run by my friends house to see the how her painted wallpaper looks.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Dark cabinets are OK to have. I would not worry about that.
Fixing the closets and little things is best.

 

[Terry36]

We are moving to another state in January so we will be placing our home on the market soon however we are unsure of the best time to do so; should it be in October or November?

Also, what advice/recommendations would you give to ensure the house is appealing to buyers?

 

[KirstenB]

The cabinets have already been cleaned and polished. The cabinet pulls had this little scroll looking thing that the knob went into. I removed the scroll thing and that made the cabinets look less dated. I will look for updated knobs this weekend. the cabinets are a very dark stain. What would look best? I am going to try painting over the bathroom wallpaper. If it doesnt look good I will call for bids to have it removed, textured and painted. I might run by my friends house to see the how her painted wallpaper looks.

I like your idea about updating the hardware. My parents' kitchen was built in 1980, and they also had scroll hardware, maybe French Provincial looking? I bet the hardware will really help. Kitchens seem to be going back to the darker finishes, like cherry, so leave the cabinet finish alone.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We are moving to another state in January so we will be placing our home on the market however we are unsure of when, should it be in October or November?

Also, what advice/recommendations would you give to ensure the house is appealing to buyers?

Since I have done this enough with success...

Rent a storage shed and empty your house to the level of a display.
Make sure all rooms have a purpose. A bedroom should be a bedroom, a study a study, etc....
Nothing personal. Take all knick knacks, photos, etc off the wall and out the door.
Go look at some brand new homes to see the displays. Also check out your competition on realtor.com. You need to know who you are up against.

Fix anything little that is broke, chipped, minor. Minor issues detract from your house.

In fact when we are house shopping we would name the house. Ex..."Angry Johnny" (house in foreclosure, tore up by a crazy teen)
"Love Shack" (small house, needed a roof, like part of it was missing )

Bonus with moving out of state, did it twice now.... The storage shed will have you "prepacked".
That is soooo worth it. My stuff has been in storage since March.
DH rented storage where we were moving.

Everything was bare minimum, down to the kitchen. So of course buyers could see the amount of space the house has, not lack of.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Wanted to add we are signing papers today for the model home. We came up to a fair price. More than we want to pay, but with interest rates going up we have to go for it.

I am glad it is finally over. Get me out of this apartment.

 

[Terry36]

Since I have done this enough with success...

Rent a storage shed and empty your house to the level of a display.
Make sure all rooms have a purpose. A bedroom should be a bedroom, a study a study, etc....
Nothing personal. Take all knick knacks, photos, etc off the wall and out the door.
Go look at some brand new homes to see the displays. Also check out your competition on realtor.com. You need to know who you are up against.

Fix anything little that is broke, chipped, minor. Minor issues detract from your house.

In fact when we are house shopping we would name the house. Ex..."Angry Johnny" (house in foreclosure, tore up by a crazy teen)
"Love Shack" (small house, needed a roof, like part of it was missing )

Bonus with moving out of state, did it twice now.... The storage shed will have you "prepacked".
That is soooo worth it. My stuff has been in storage since March.
DH rented storage where we were moving.

Everything was bare minimum, down to the kitchen. So of course buyers could see the amount of space the house has, not lack of.

Thank you!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Thank you!

Go to realtor.com first thing. The reason being you will see home staged and not staged in the pics.

One thing I want to add is that the cheap throw rugs, like runners, bathroom, kitchen mats, etc....DO NOT show well in your photos.
Take those up before your realtor take the pics. It does make a difference in the appearance of your house.

 

[klmall]

Wanted to add we are signing papers today for the model home. We came up to a fair price. More than we want to pay, but with interest rates going up we have to go for it.

I am glad it is finally over. Get me out of this apartment.

Congratulations! Big step but so worth it and the price will seem more than reasonable when you look back in a couple years!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Congratulations! Big step but so worth it and the price will seem more than reasonable when you look back in a couple years!

Thanks....this is the longest "move" ever. 2 apartments and 4 weeks of "homelessness".

Of course it will be 4-6 weeks before we can move in. But as I sit here, dogs barking at the mowers driving me up a wall....I cannot wait.

 

[luvflorida]

We are moving to another state in January so we will be placing our home on the market soon however we are unsure of the best time to do so; should it be in October or November?

Also, what advice/recommendations would you give to ensure the house is appealing to buyers?

Personally, I'd put the house on the market as soon as possible. We put our house on the market May 1st, hoping for a summer/late summer sale. It's still on the market. We started at $449,000, then after a few months, dropped the price to $424,000. The house is in perfect condition and priced right for the area, actually a bit below. We've had no offers.

Our contract with the real estate agency ends in October. We've decided that if nothing happens between now and then, we're going to take the house out of the hands of that particular agency and try to sell it through one of the You Sell places. Since there will be no commission to be paid, we'll drop the price of the house another ten thousand.

Winter in Maine is a tough time to sell a house, so we're not very optimistic. If it's STILL for sale by next spring, we'll probably put it back into the hands of another agency.

As far as preparing the house, we've shown it with our stuff in it (minus the clutter) and with bare minimum in it. Nothing has worked so far!

 

[luvflorida]

Wanted to add we are signing papers today for the model home. We came up to a fair price. More than we want to pay, but with interest rates going up we have to go for it.

I am glad it is finally over. Get me out of this apartment.

Yay!!! A success story!!! Congrats!!! I'm sure you can't wait to move into your new home!

 

[klmall]

The cabinets have already been cleaned and polished. The cabinet pulls had this little scroll looking thing that the knob went into. I removed the scroll thing and that made the cabinets look less dated. I will look for updated knobs this weekend. the cabinets are a very dark stain. What would look best? I am going to try painting over the bathroom wallpaper. If it doesnt look good I will call for bids to have it removed, textured and painted. I might run by my friends house to see the how her painted wallpaper looks.

Well we went through 18 months of house sale prep. We have literally fixed up everything in this house but the windows before putting the house on the market in May. And currently we are lucky in that I am home (but job hunting) and we don't have anyone under 22 around to drop toys (at least little toys!!!.)

We were not big on staging but our realtor provides a free consultation so we took advantage. Wow! She was great! Here's some things we learned about showing your house (off the top of my head.....):

1) Hide your kitchen trash can if possible (inside cabinet etc.)
2) Show your floors.
3) Use rugs to bring furniture together (sitting areas etc.) but don't overdo it.
4) If you have mirrors in a room see what they reflect; a view outside is great; a brick wall isn't so great!
5) 1 or 2 appliances on a counter are best. Store the rest in a box you can get to.
6) If you need to store potholders and have no room, try hooks inside cabinet doors.
7) Pack 2/3 of your pots, pans, serving dishes, extra glasses etc. Shelves need to look spacious. You won't miss the items and the packing will be started.
8) One of the cheapest updates is kitchen and dinette lighting. $100 worth of a hanging light and bulbs from Home Depot etc. will go a long way!
9) Put each adult's daily grooming gear (razor, lotions etc.) in a stand-up coil net cloth bag (from Bed, Bath & Beyond) which can be stored underneath the sink for showings and used on the sink top each morning. The washcloth can lay across the top for drying if you have proper air in your cabinet.
10) If you buy fancy cloth bathroom trash cans that you don't want ruined by family members (Don't ask - They matched difficult color situations!!) place a plastic trash can in the linen closet for all trash upstairs!
11) If you haven't subscribed to the duplicate cleaning supplies in every bathroom idea before; DO IT NOW! And ditto for regular cleaning supplies for each floor.
12) Laundry can go into the car with you during a showing or if small amount, into the washer for storage. We have been known to store it in the trunk of the car left behind!
13) Paint the inside of the garage if you have one. It's one of the areas forgotten when the rest of the house is fixed up!
14) Hall closet on main floor should have only a few coats and a few extra hangers.
15) Master bedroom closet - Store only current season's clothes unless it is huge!!! There should be some empty shelves and space.


Safety/Security
16) Lock up or hide prescriptions. We do leave our daily meds doled out in those little plastic weekly containers but everything else, especially my migraine meds are hidden elsewhere in the house.
17) Lock up or hide jewelry, cameras of value.
18) Same for important papers.
19) Laptop computers - Often we take these with us when we know there is a showing but if we are all out of the house we case them and put them out of sight.

Good luck! We could have sold by now if we would lower our price by $50,000 or more but that would mean losing our lot in PA. Guess we ride it out!

 

[Chris2597]

We were planning on doing a bunch of the little things this weekend but now we have Ike headed are way. We are suppose to get 60-80 miles an hour winds. I sure hope we skirt and damage. I dont need extras to fix.

One of my friends has been trying to sell her house since last March with no luck. Her house has been totally redone and was priced right but nothing was happening. They took it off the market last week and put a For Sale By Owner sign up, put the house on Craigslist and Owners.com. Her Dh stated in the Owners.com listing that he would work with a Realtor if they brought a buyer to the house...Low and behold 2 days later they got a call from a Realtor, he brought a couple for a tour, they loved the house, are pre-qualified and went to the bank today to secure a loan. Her dh told the Realtor that they would pay him 3%. She said that these people had been looking in the area for weeks....Her question is ....why didnt the buyers realtor see it on the MLS and show it while it was listed.

 

[Terry36]

Well we went through 18 months of house sale prep. We have literally fixed up everything in this house but the windows before putting the house on the market in May. And currently we are lucky in that I am home (but job hunting) and we don't have anyone under 22 around to drop toys (at least little toys!!!.)

We were not big on staging but our realtor provides a free consultation so we took advantage. Wow! She was great! Here's some things we learned about showing your house (off the top of my head.....):

1) Hide your kitchen trash can if possible (inside cabinet etc.)
2) Show your floors.
3) Use rugs to bring furniture together (sitting areas etc.) but don't overdo it.
4) If you have mirrors in a room see what they reflect; a view outside is great; a brick wall isn't so great!
5) 1 or 2 appliances on a counter are best. Store the rest in a box you can get to.
6) If you need to store potholders and have no room, try hooks inside cabinet doors.
7) Pack 2/3 of your pots, pans, serving dishes, extra glasses etc. Shelves need to look spacious. You won't miss the items and the packing will be started.
8) One of the cheapest updates is kitchen and dinette lighting. $100 worth of a hanging light and bulbs from Home Depot etc. will go a long way!
9) Put each adult's daily grooming gear (razor, lotions etc.) in a stand-up coil net cloth bag (from Bed, Bath & Beyond) which can be stored underneath the sink for showings and used on the sink top each morning. The washcloth can lay across the top for drying if you have proper air in your cabinet.
10) If you buy fancy cloth bathroom trash cans that you don't want ruined by family members (Don't ask - They matched difficult color situations!!) place a plastic trash can in the linen closet for all trash upstairs!
11) If you haven't subscribed to the duplicate cleaning supplies in every bathroom idea before; DO IT NOW! And ditto for regular cleaning supplies for each floor.
12) Laundry can go into the car with you during a showing or if small amount, into the washer for storage. We have been known to store it in the trunk of the car left behind!
13) Paint the inside of the garage if you have one. It's one of the areas forgotten when the rest of the house is fixed up!
14) Hall closet on main floor should have only a few coats and a few extra hangers.
15) Master bedroom closet - Store only current season's clothes unless it is huge!!! There should be some empty shelves and space.


Safety/Security
16) Lock up or hide prescriptions. We do leave our daily meds doled out in those little plastic weekly containers but everything else, especially my migraine meds are hidden elsewhere in the house.
17) Lock up or hide jewelry, cameras of value.
18) Same for important papers.
19) Laptop computers - Often we take these with us when we know there is a showing but if we are all out of the house we case them and put them out of sight.

Good luck! We could have sold by now if we would lower our price by $50,000 or more but that would mean losing our lot in PA. Guess we ride it out!

Thank you for the recommendations.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Her question is ....why didnt the buyers realtor see it on the MLS and show it while it was listed.

Could be many things....For starters maybe they did see it and jumped on it because it was for sale by owner or they had narrowed their search. Your eyes start to glaze over after you look at so many houses.

Second, sometimes the listings are wrong. We have seen several listings that were listed incorrectly and the search they are using is just not picking it up.

Is your house on Craigslist? If not, list it there. We looked at a house on CL.
People do look there.

 

[connorlevismom]

Could be many things....For starters maybe they did see it and jumped on it because it was for sale by owner or they had narrowed their search. Your eyes start to glaze over after you look at so many houses.

Second, sometimes the listings are wrong. We have seen several listings that were listed incorrectly and the search they are using is just not picking it up.

Is your house on Craigslist? If not, list it there. We looked at a house on CL.
People do look there.

Can you do this without your realtor doing it for you? I want to do this but don't want to get anyone in trouble. I could ask my realtor to do it but I prefer to do it myself.

Kristine

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can you do this without your realtor doing it for you? I want to do this but don't want to get anyone in trouble. I could ask my realtor to do it but I prefer to do it myself.

Kristine

Talk to your realtor. I am not saying "for sale by owner" but when we hired our realtor they stated clearly that if we sold the house it was 'their bad'.

So it depends on your realtor's policy.

 

[Chris2597]

Our Realtor said the house is on Craigslist, but I can't find it. Listings can get buried on the list after several days. I did a search on craigslist on the address, size, bedrooms for our area and it did not show up. I emailed the realtor 2 days ago to bring more brochures for the box and havent heard a word.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Our Realtor said the house is on Craigslist, but I can't find it. Listings can get buried on the list after several days. I did a search on craigslist on the address, size, bedrooms for our area and it did not show up. I emailed the realtor 2 days ago to bring more brochures for the box and havent heard a word.

You have to relist it daily to keep it at the top.

Have you checked realtor.com? How is your listing and pic's there?