Selling your home: Where to begin?

First Impressions
Remember what first attracted you to your house when you bought it? What excited you about its most appealing features? Now that you're selling your home, you'll need to look at it as if you were buying it all over again.

A spruced up house makes a great first impression on potential buyers. An attractive property grabs their attention and makes them excited about finding a house that looks and feels well-cared for. Because buyers know they’ll encounter fewer problems if they buy it, your house becomes more appealing and stands out from the competition. So if you prepare your home correctly, you’ll save time selling it when it’s on the market.

A good first impression makes an impact on a number of levels. It’s not just the way your house looks to potential buyers, but how it feels and smells to them, how their friends and family will react, how they imagine it would be to live there.

With simple improvements throughout your house, you can grab the attention of potential buyers and help them see why YOUR house is perfect for them.

Download the full report below which includes checklists to keep you on track to get your home in tip-top shape to sell!
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Preparing Your Home For Sale
First impressions make a huge impact on buyer's decision-making process! 

Once your home goes on the market, it becomes a product. Home styling or staging simply allows you to highlight the best of your home and de-emphasize its flaws.   It's not about decorating, but actually turning your home into a model, to appeal to the broadest range of prospective buyers. The goal is to make people feel like they could live there, and the best way to do this is to "neutralize" the surroundings.

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Try out these helpful styling tips taken from Setting the Stage - REALTOR® Magazine Online. They've compiled the best tips from stagers and real estate pros—things you can do for little or no expense—to put a home in prime showing shape.

  • Clear out closets and clutter—sellers can give away or pack up toys, linens, and small kitchen appliances to store offsite. Buyers are forgiving of boxes neatly tucked away in a garage or basement.
  • Focus most on the most visible areas—the foyer, kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and family room.
  • De-personalize the home by removing photos, mementos, and dated items.
  • Use plants in colorful pots or inexpensive wicker baskets to fill in empty spaces.
  • Look to home catalogs for little details on beautifying the home. For instance, group books, pictures, and objets d’art appealingly on bookcases.
  • Try angling one or two pieces of furniture slightly and move furniture 4 inches to 6 inches from the wall to create more interesting room spaces.
  • Put away large collections— porcelains, plates, and so on.
  • Remove valuables, prescription medicine, collectibles, and breakables.
  • Trim trees, prune shrubs, and make sure the lawn is mowed and watered regularly.
  • In summer, turn on the sprinklers for five minutes, 15 minutes before an open house or showing. It makes everything sparkle.
  • Don't cooking anything that leaves a distinctive odor, such as fish, garlic, or cabbage.
  • Hire a professional service to clean the home, including the carpets and the windows.
  • Set the dining room table with attractive linens, dishes, and stemware.
  • Arrange fresh or silk flowers throughout the home.
  • Light a fire in the fireplace in fall and winter.
  • A mirror in a pretty frame can make a small room feel more open.
  • Use as much natural light as possible. Add extra lamps in dark rooms or corners.
  • Make functional repairs—fix dripping faucets, sticking doors, and broken fences.
  • Bring in another pair of eyes—even if it’s not a professional stylist. The person may see problems you and have missed.

Want to Help Sell Your House?  Get Lost!
What is the best thing you can do during showings of your house?
Make yourself scarce.

Ever shopped in a store where the employees clearly work on commission and almost seem to lurk in the background, watching your every move, while you shop?

This scenario doesn't really put you in the buying mood, does it?
It can be uncomfortable exploring a home when you also feel like you’re being watched. Making buyers feel comfortable when looking for a home is absolutely essential. Buyers tend to have little interest in asking you questions about your property because the answers you provide will certainly be biased in some way. This is why you have hired a real estate agent to represent you and your home. Who better than a qualified professional to be the spokesperson for your home.

You carefully selected and hired a Realtor® to sell your house – now is the time to step back and let him or her do just that!