Making Buyers Fall In Love With Your Home

In addition to being a REALTOR®, I too am a home buyer/owner. Personally I have owned eight homes over the course of my lifetime, not as a speculator but as the provider for my family. These various homes were purchased as the result of either changing family needs or changes in my employment status where I was transferred to a different location including a move to Collingwood, Chicago and others. Every time I bought a home, I knew instinctively when I walked through the door, this is, or could be the "one!" If you are thinking of selling your home you need to know what it takes for a potential Buyer to fall in love with your house.

The Ottawa Citizen newspaper recently publish a very good article titled: "Advice from a REALTOR - Helping buyers to fall in love with your home." Even in this robust market with an absence of houses listed for sale, your property needs to put it's best foot forward in terms of making a favourable impression on buyers. Much of what is contained in this article is pretty simple stuff but far too often it is overlooked by both Sellers as well as the listing REALTOR®.

Not every property needs to be staged and frankly I find that staged homes often look exactly like what one definition of staged said, "contrived for a desired impression" which is exactly how model homes look with fake food and all. Rather, your home needs to convey a look whereby the Buyer(s) could imagine living there.

Often overlooked when getting your home ready for the market are just some basic cleaning and housekeeping tasks. I have been in countless homes where the carpets were dirty, the kitchen counter(s) were cluttered and the same with bathrooms all of which are easy fixes. What about your kids rooms? Does your teenage son or daughter have posters plastered all over their walls some of which might be offensive to some Buyers? Then there is the issue of the beer bottle or ball cap collection. My advice? You are moving, start packing that stuff away now!

When preparing to sell you home, both you and the listing REALTOR® need to take a very objective look at the property. Is there anything evident that would turn off potential Buyers? Too often I find that my REALTOR® peers are reluctant to say anything to their Seller clients about getting rid of things around their home (inside or out) that may turn off a potential purchaser. This also applies to areas of the property that needs cleaning or other or attention. If the owners truly want to sell and for the best price, having an honest and frank conversation about what needs to be done to prepare their home to sell is not offensive, it's doing them a favour.

Not sure what to do to prepare you home for sale? Read my "10 Things to do before you list your home for sale." or Contact Me and I would happy to visit your home and provide you a a no obligation assessment of what should be done to get it sold and for the highest price.