How Do I Make My Home Salable?

Let?s get right down to business buyers would rather have a new home than your home. There is something very special about being the first and only owner of a house and if you are living in yours, you already have one strike against you. The best way to make a "gently pre-owned" home sell for top dollar is to make it as much like the new home competition as possible.

Pick up a few home decorating magazines and tour the models in your area. Try to get a handle on the latest trends. It is the finishing touches that really sell homes in today's market. Here is a checklist of the top ten things I have found help a home sell faster today.

1. Clean. Clean. Clean. Nobody cooks fish or potty trains a two year old in a model home?if you want to sell yours for the same money, you have to make it look and smell like nobody lives there. This is one of those times when you should have professional help. Interview cleaning companies, have a complete deep cleaning done and schedule touch ups every two weeks during the listing period. Bake cookies? No way! You can get the same scent and effect by putting a couple of drops of vanilla extract in the oven on 100 degrees much lower in calories too.

2. A strong welcome. Park across the street from your home (the buyer probably will) and slowly walk to the front door with a tablet of paper. Is your landscaping clean and pretty? Is your front porch and front door clean and freshly painted? Does the key turn easily in the lock and is the door handle as nice as the rest of your home? This is your first and last impression?is it the right one?

3. Enter at your own risk. When you walk in the front door, keep your tablet handy and make a list? DON'T STOP TO WORK. Write, just write everything that looks too personal, worn, dirty, dingy or dusty. Write about spots in the carpet and cobwebs in the light fixtures. Write about fingerprinted light switch plates and grimy baseboards. Is the air intake clean? People equate careful maintenance on the little things to careful maintenance in the entire home. Sweat the small stuff.

4. Storage storage everywhere. Are you moving because you have outgrown your home? We can tell. If you are having a hard time finding a place for all of your belongings in your home, buyers will worry where they will find a home for theirs. Get a storage unit. Clean out and organize every closet in the house even that big nasty one where you used to park your car. Space sells. Space sells. Space sells. (Top secret super closet hint? Buy a shopping cart full of cheap plain black or white hangers from a discount store. You will be shocked how much larger your closet looks when all the hangers match.)

5. Kitchen. If you have money to spend getting your home ready to sell, this is where you should put it. NOTHING on the counters except a well chosen accessory (bowl of fruit or a nice arrangement). Clean as a whistle and try removing any brass and replacing with stainless, nickel or bronze (the "it" metals in today's market). A snazzy new sink faucet is almost always worth the time and trouble.

6. Heavy metals. Door knobs, hinges and light fixtures are the "everyday invisible" items in our homes. If it is in the budget, changing them to the modern metals mentioned above is a strong investment a palatable one too because it can be done room by room over time.

7. Can you see the forest through the screens? The exterior of your home is as important as the interior. Sometimes the ability to join the two together tastefully is a feature that could set you apart from the pack. Tasteful stylish window coverings and clean windows and screens are a must for a "just sold" home.

8. Temperature control. Is the temperature in your home comfortable? Buyers will most likely come to see your home when you are not around. When you are listing your home for sale it is not the time to save on your power bills. Leave the air conditioning on in the summer and the heat on in the winter. Often, buyers don't remember features or colors as much as they remember how a home "felt" to them.

9. Let's get personal. You might giggle at this section, but if one of the following applies, you will be glad that you read it. A. Buyers don't think that your kids or grandkids are cute. The pictures just remind them that it is your home and makes it difficult to picture it as theirs. B. Some people hate dogs or cats or birds, lizards, gerbils, snakes, mother in laws, and fish tanks. Really. Your pets are personal to you. If at all possible, remove all evidence of dander, bird flu, cat litter etc. from your home. Also, your cat rubbing on the legs of an allergic qualified buyer is a sure way to miss out on a contract. C. You owe how much to Capitol One? I am often surprised how many people will take down all of the pictures of their children and leave the power bill, phone bill, credit card offers and family calendar on display for the world to read do you want buyers to notice your stove or your divorce attorney appointment? D. Do you have hemeroids? Use snore strips? Athlete's foot? Is it that time of the month? EEEEEEEW. Put your medications and personal maintenance products away. Do you really think someone wants to use your shower if there is wart remover and athlete's foot spray on the counter next to it?

10. Bedroom eyes. This part is actually fun. Your bedrooms should look like oases and whatever fixing up you do in these rooms usually moves with you to your next home. Bedding should be crisp and clean. There should be no jewelry or personal items around. No doilies and no dirty laundry. Toys and books should be organized and inconspicuous. There should be no unframed art or tattered posters the rule for homes that are on the market is no push pins or tape on the walls. That should clear it up if teens are unclear. Teenage boys are a special problem. Their laundry needs to be in a sealed container with an air freshener in it. Another air freshener should be in the closet. Also, this is a bedroom, not a family room. If the t.v. is visible, it might have to go.