You’ve heard the saying that after awhile a dog and its owner start to look the same. And obviously after awhile your home starts to take on your traits as well.
I personally distaste cleaning. Well guess what? My home has a tendency to be on the messy side. Eventually the dishes get done; it just might take an extra day. Okay, it takes more than an extra day…or two.
Maybe you have a penchant for the color purple. Or you’re into collecting things. For my parents it’s auctions.
All of those things are important to you. But now that your home is for sale, the question you have to ask is how important are they to a potential buyer?
Following are 8 inexpensive ways you can help your home look more less you, and more like the person who’ll call your home ‘home.’
1) Clean it. Everything. From floors to walls to the woodwork. Make sure all floors are impeccable. Carpet, tile, grout etc. Check all caulk, especially in the bathroom. Or for less than $100 you can have a professional cleaning service come in and do the dirty work for you. Let them do the heavy lifting and all you have left is a little maintenance while your home is on the market.
2) Let there be light. Dark rooms or shadows cast doubts in a buyers mind. Consider adding lamps and dimmers to existing lights allowing you to set moods for specific rooms.
3) Swap it out. Think about updating cabinet handles, switch plates and any other small pieces of hardware that were more popular in days of yore than today. Your kitchen cabinets can go from typical oak cabinets to a ‘Wow’ kitchen by simply adding more modern style pulls. Do your faucets have more gold than they know what to do with? Head to a local kitchen and bath department and find something in a ‘brushed’ color. For me, it’s brushed nickel.
4) Hide it. That dent in the wall from when a lamp fell over. Or where Billy’s toy car crashed through the drywall after being launched from a matchbox car ramp. Smooth out the wall and then do #6.
5) Organize. I’m the king of clutter. I’ve got more stuff than I know what to do with. The problem is it tells prospective buyers that my home is too small for their stuff. So I’d need to remove a bunch, possibly add a shelf or to. Maybe some hooks in the garage where I can hang things that would normally take up a bunch of floor space. If a few hooks and a shelf won’t help your situation, consider a storage unit for a few months.
6) Paint it. Paint is one of the easiest and cost effective ways to really change the way your home ‘feels.’ Neutral colors are your best bet. Have you heard that grey is the new brown? Welcome to Paint 2.0… (Have you heard of Real Estate 2.0 or Internet 2.0?) They’ll make each room feel larger. You know how you feel when you wear a brand new outfit. Buyers will also feel the same way about your home when they walk through.
7) Add some green. Bring nature into your home with some potted plants and fresh flowers. Having fresh flowers also adds to the ‘feeling’ that buyers get about your home. And in the end it’s the buyers emotions that are going to compel them write an offer.
8 ) Move it. Take a look at each room. What if you removed a piece of furniture or two? Would the room feel larger? What if you moved a piece from one side of the room to the other? Would the room flow better? What if you took a piece from the living room and moved it into a bedroom? Mirrors also help rooms feel larger…
There you have it, eight low cost, easy to implement ideas that will go a long way to creating an exciting first impression for any potential buyer. You’re trying to up the ‘Wow’ factor. Average is not what you should be shooting for in today’s real estate world. And these tips will help make your home memorable and ultimately help sell your home for more money.
Picture credit
Less than 75 days left… Then poof they’re gone.
Just realized that the tax credits are ending only a wee-little bit after taxes are due… Yikes. Hopefully taking advantage of the tax credits can put a smile on your face after the tax-man taketh away.
Corollary–we’ve already received our tax refunds AND they’re also already gone.
Poof, just like the tax credits.
What’s stopping you from getting me on the horn about a question or two? Even easier you could send me an email. Look up and to the left a little bit…
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Stay classy Wisconsin Rapids!
This is the best advice I’ve heard in awhile:
“Update your home every 5 years.”
I hear ya’–
“It’s expensive.”But if your refrigerator is 15 years old, now might be a good time. Or in my case, a hot water heater that rusted out while we were at my in-laws Labor Day weekend… Thank god for insurance, but we still had the deductible to worry about.
“It’s annoying.” Yes, moving furniture, toys, lamps and clothes out of a bedroom is a process I’ll never look forward to either. We’ve redone all 3 bedrooms in my home the past 1+ years. But it’s now over.
“It’s time consuming.” If installing laminate floors only took as long as a 30 minute television show on HGTV… I have to thank my parents for their help the 2 different times I’ve done it… But they were all-day projects, and the first was an entire weekend.
But here’s the good thing: Everything we’ve done would have needed to be done when we sell our home in the next 2 years. Purple paint. Stained off-white carpet. A green refrigerator. None of it could have stayed. Or, shouldn’t have stayed.
Everything that buyers in today’s market are not interested in.
By slowly, meticulously updating my home I’m saving myself from having to make NUMEROUS EXPENSIVE repairs in the near future.
Plus, by making these upgrades I’m also increasing my home’s value at the same time. And because they’ve been done early, I get to reap the benefits of adding a patio door and deck off my dining room when I’m grilling (OK, when my wife is grilling) in the summer.
And hopefully eliminating some stress when it comes time for the for sale sign to go in the ground too.
In the end by being proactive while I’m living here it will make it easier when the pull of a new home becomes too much.
A couple weeks ago I presented to you the absorption rates for homes listed in Wisconsin Rapids. I’d like to go one step further and discuss with you the number of homes that sold during each month in 2009.
The following chart includes all single-family homes and condos sold in the tri-city area.
Realtors talk about the ‘buying season’ and the ’slow season’ in pretty much the same way you’d use ‘dry season’ and ‘wet season’ if you were talking about the African plains.
Each bringing their own set of problems and solutions. Summer *can* be the better time for sellers. More buyers means more opportunities to sell. Of course it also means more competition… Accurate pricing, a well-written listing description, and high-quality photographs generally do an excellent job tipping the scales in your favor though.
Winter means fewer buyers. And more time between meaningful showings and offers. But buyers that are out there are definitely serious. We’re now finishing the ’slow season’ and heading quickly to the ‘buying season.’ Note: the average home that sells is on the market for 200+ days. That puts the average home that goes on the market today getting a sold sign in August, right in the middle of the ‘buying season.’
At least that’s what the chart and data are telling us.
As you can see January and February were the 2 slowest months. Which is expected. But we’re off to the races once the calendar gets flipped to March. Remember a home that sells in June received it’s accepted offer in May.
Yes October had the most sales, but what it’s really saying is that September had the most accepted offers.
Now the tax credits are quickly coming to an end. You have less than 3 months to get your home ready for sale, on the market, advertised, shown, receive an offer, negotiate and finally accept the offer. That’s a lot that has to happen. I’ve had numerous sellers contact me in the past month, 3 new listings plus one more in a couple weeks. There’s still time, but now is the time to be proactive.
…or how long it will take to sell all the homes currently for sale in Wisconsin Rapids…
I don’t like to make predictions. At some point in every listing presentation, usually after we start to discuss a listing price, a home owner will ask how long it will take to sell their home. And that’s an answer I really don’t have.
I could guess. But I always feel conflicted because in the end, the buyer will control how long the home is for sale.
I know what you’re thinking… I bet it’s something along the line of: Really?!?! The buyer has the last say in how long a home is for sale… I know, I know.
How about if I take out ‘buyer’ and insert ‘market’:
The market controls how long a home is for sale.
Does that make more sense?
But if I had to give you one piece of data to help answer your “how long” question, it would be the Absorption Rate. Remember, data never lies…
What exactly is the Absorption Rate?
The absorption rate is the calculation of how long it will take for all homes on the market in Wisconsin Rapids to be sold, or absorbed, at the current rate of sales.
Below you will find the activity for Wisconsin Rapids during the past 9 quarters:
As you can see the number of homes sold in the second half of 2009 was considerably higher than 2008.
You can guess why, right? (Hint: it was some type of tax credit)
And remember, the First-Time Home Buyer Credit has been extended AND they’ve also added a new tax credit for home owners who’ve lived in their home for at least 5 years. So if I had to predict (ignore, for a second, that I said I dislike predictions 
) I’d bet money that more homes will be sold during the first quarter of 2010 compared to 2009 as well.
Months of Inventory
Realtors generally agree that 6 months of inventory is the magic number. Below 6 months of inventory you have a sellers market. Anything above you have a buyers market. As you can see its been a buyers market for awhile.
But, as more and more buyers hit the market, the the number has been pushing itself back towards the magical 6 months of inventory. And when the number is close to six everyone wins. Why? Because a seller knows they should be able to sell in a reasonable amount of time and a buyer knows they still have choices and time to find the right home.
Personally, I know the market is active. In the past month I’ll have added 3 new listings. In the past two days I’ve fielded calls from three different prospective buyers.
And I know I can tell them all that it’s a good time to be buying or selling a Wisconsin Rapids home…
PHONE: (715) 572-8372
My name is Adam Holberg and I’m a Realtor with First Weber of Wisconsin Rapids. This website is designed to inform and help bring conversation to a topic I love, real estate.