Tips to help you sell your home. Post your ideas.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
When trying to sell your home and property, make it as appealing to the buyer as possible. My brother in law and his wife were trying to sell their home and couldn't. The very day, they bought colorful flowers to plant in the front yard, the house got sold!
By Terri H.
Bake cookies during a walk-through of your house....that way the smell will make the possible new buyers feel homey and warm!
Make sure your home is not cluttered and also give it a good cleaning. Open windows for a little while to give it a fresh smell, no one likes to walk into a home that smells of onions!
My parents had the same problem, their home was up for sale over a year. One morning before leaving for the day, my mom made homemade bread. The aroma was still in the home, when it was being looked at, the people who were in it, bought it.
Leave the lights on, blinds open
after washing the taps/faucets-dry them get them sparkling- even if the tub is slightly stained no one will notice because the taps make the first immpression
buy an attractive front doormat (it can be cheap - doesn't have to last)
and keep the clutter out of sight, even if it's under the bed- also consider putting some stuff into storage lots of furniture makes rooms look smaller
Painting a room can totally transform a room & add value to the home. Also, de-personalize & de-clutter. Remember, you're trying to make your house appealing to buyers because they need to be able to visualize their belongings in the house, not yours.
Selling Your Home
by Nikki Willhite
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com
Selling a home can be one of the most stressful things that we do. It doesn't help when we call in the Realtors and in addition to telling us their fees for selling our home, they tell us that in order to make our home marketable, we need to make $15,000 worth of improvements...and somehow make our neighbors fix up their properties to boost the value of our homes.
The person who sells your home wants to make the largest commission possible. Naturally they want you to improve your home. If they can sell it at a higher price, they will make a larger commission. I have nothing against Realtors. They are doing their job. Everyone has his or her own agenda. You must follow the one most advantageous to you. You do not want to spend money fixing up your home that you will not get back at the close of the deal.
Present home excluded, our past homes always seemed to end up surrounded by neglected houses and lawns used for parking cars. The Realtor who sold our last home told me us that we were to go to all my neighbors, ask them to clean up their properties, and if they didn't do it, I should! Right! (By the way, we sold that particular home in a week). Neighborhood is important, but I don't think there is much you can do about certain situations.
Concentrate on your own home, but don't waste your money on expensive upgrades or additions. In most cases you will not get your money back when you sell your home. Since many people will put their homes on the market after the holidays, here are some suggestions. These are the things you can do for the least amount of money that will make the biggest difference in the time required to sell your home as well as the price you get for it.
CURB APPEAL
First impressions are extremely important. Enhance the front of your home as your first priority. People are so busy these days. They want a home in turnkey condition. In other words, they want to move in and just start living. That is what you want to convey with the first impression of your home.
Overgrown landscaping makes any house look like it needs work. It doesn't cost anything to pull it up if you cannot prune it into an attractive shape. Be brutal. Your house is more attractive than overgrown landscaping.
Take a good look at your front door. If it doesn't look good when cleaned, paint it. If you have a screen make sure it is in good condition. If it is not, just remove it and hang a nice wreath on the door.
If you have potted plants in your yard, move them to the entry to make it more attractive. If you have concrete that has turned dark, rent or borrow a power cleaner and make it light again. Remove any grease stains from your driveway.
ONCE INSIDE YOUR HOME
First impression continue to be important. The first thing people will notice is light and smell. We become so use to the smells in our homes that we don't even notice them. Sometimes they are not appealing to other people. Clean your home thoroughly and air it out. If it still doesn't smell fresh, try a little potpourri, or keep soup simmering on the stove.
If your home is dark, lighten it up. You will probably have to paint all the walls white. If you have wallpaper, take it off before you paint. It is going to hurt, but it's not going to cost you money!
If your drapes are old and unattractive, and privacy isn't an issue, just take them down. You will have more light, and the room will look bigger.
Remove excessive accessories. Most people accumulate so many things, the only way to accomplish this is to box them up and store them in a friend or neighbor's garage or rent a storage locker. Small, stuffed closets will turn away many a buyer. Keeping your personal items to a minimum helps the new buyer visualize living in your home with their things. They are going to pay a lot of money for your home. Help them do that!
Cleaning the carpets is always worth the expense. Rent a steam cleaner or have it professionally done. Families with young children or babies know how much time their children will spend playing on the carpet. Will they want them playing on yours? This is one area where sometimes you do have to outlay some money. Many a house sits on the market for 9 months until the owner replaces the carpet. Most people just can't visualize how it will look if they do it themselves, even with a carpet allowance.
KITCHENS & BATHROOMS
Kitchen and bathrooms almost always need new caulking. Grout will need a heavy duty cleaner. The level of cleanliness in your bathroom will need to be greater than normal. You are probably going to have to clean it every day. Make it shine.
BASEMENTS
The biggest mistake people make in basements is putting up dark paneling. It just makes the room darker.
You have a few inexpensive options to make your basement look better. You can cover the walls with light colored pictures or posters. You can install better lights (preferably large fluorescent fixtures), or you can paint the paneling white. Painting is the most effective, and can look very nice. A lot of people are afraid to do it, but it has a nice cottage feel to it, and brightens up the whole room.
GARAGE
Don't store your clutter from your home in your garage. Clean, dust, sweep, and paint the cement floor if you have to. Nothing dates a home more than a cluttered, grease splattered, and water stained mess of a garage. This will probably be your biggest challenge, but don't neglect it. With most people, a few trips to the dump would probably be in order.
There are many factors that go into the sale of your home. The ones I have listed are the ones that get you the most for your money. For more ideas, visit the website at http://www.allthingsfrugal.com
©1995 Nikki Willhite - Nikki Willhite, mother of three, and an Interior Design Graduate, is the editor of The Pennypincher E- zine and Tightwad Tidbits Daily. Visit her at http://www.allthingsfrugal.com
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
