Preparing my (non-Villages) house for sale

[taylor111947]

I'm hoping to put my house on the market in the next week or so with the idea of being a TV resident ASAP.

I'm curious as to other people's experiences as to the amount of money they spent preparing to put their house on the market. I've done a lot of work (or to be more specific - I've had a lot of work done) that has cost me roughly 2.5% of my asking price - painting, some new carpets, some new flooring, upgrading bathrooms, ... it was a long list. Now I'm wondering if I did too much. Of course, it's too late now - the money has been spent and maybe the answer is that if it helps me sell my house sooner it was worth it, but I'd be interested in hearing from other people.

[billnterri]

We put our For Sale sign up today. Prior to listing, we downsized by getting rid of all clutter and sold several pieces of furniture on Craigslist. We also painted two bedrooms and cleaned all of our woodwork. Our first Open House is this Sunday.
We are prepared to negotiate our asking price.

[pooh]

We did some adjustments to landscaping, front and back, repainted interior rooms, removed excess furniture and cleaned the carpeting. Had a new furnace installed and air conditioning added. Hadn't had it for the 30 years we lived in the house, but had it installed to help with resale. (A window air conditioner worked well for us for years, but people prefer central air.) Keeping the house in showcase condition was the hardest part... ;)

Good luck with your sale!

[Bill-n-Brillo]

taylor - Sounds like you've done the right things. You also might consider getting some info/insight from an independent party about "staging" your home to make it as appealing as possible. Maybe your realtor can help with that as well. Price it as low as you can stand to help get more potential buyers looking - that's where we fell down when we sold our previous home in OH a couple of years ago.

Bill

[graciegirl]

taylor - Sounds like you've done the right things. You also might consider getting some info/insight from an independent party about "staging" your home to make it as appealing as possible. Maybe your realtor can help with that as well. Price it as low as you can stand to help get more potential buyers looking - that's where we fell down when we sold our previous home in OH a couple of years ago.

Bill

Bill.

One of my art teachers here in TV had her home staged and sold it right away..within two weeks.

I had been to her home before it was staged and she had some of her lovely art works on the walls and I thought it looked very nice...but she had it staged and they hung some framed prints on the walls and removed some furniture and do what they do on HGTV.

It worked.

[golfnut]

So pooh, did you sell your house?

[natickdan]

I'm hoping to put my house on the market in the next week or so with the idea of being a TV resident ASAP.

I'm curious as to other people's experiences as to the amount of money they spent preparing to put their house on the market. I've done a lot of work (or to be more specific - I've had a lot of work done) that has cost me roughly 2.5% of my asking price - painting, some new carpets, some new flooring, upgrading bathrooms, ... it was a long list. Now I'm wondering if I did too much. Of course, it's too late now - the money has been spent and maybe the answer is that if it helps me sell my house sooner it was worth it, but I'd be interested in hearing from other people.

Congrats on a huge life milestone! We will be putting our home on the market this spring and are anxious about the entire process.

I'm not going to list some of the obvious suggestions, but here are some we received from friends - a Professional Home Stager & Real Estate Agent:

Maximize Curb Appeal - We all heard it before, but it is so true

Remove clutter: You should be able to walk through any room with arms stretched and not hit anything. You want to show your home as a "home", but an organized one. I have a large dumpster in our driveway on 4/1.

Fresh interior paint - neutral colors

Fix All obvious small stuff ( leaking faucet, dirty grout, rusted mail box...you get the message)

Choose the home entrance you want buyers' to use: If your home has two or more entrances, choose the one that has the most "wow" factor.

Thorough Cleaning: Unless you can do this yourself, consider hiring a professional cleaning company to completely clean your home. Everything! We have a cleaning woman here every other week, but we want a more thorough cleaning. This may cost you a few hundred dollars, but it should be worth it.

Again, there are many others, but I wanted to contribute what we plan on doing. The best of luck and keep us posted!

[pooh]

So pooh, did you sell your house?

I did....to the first people that looked at it. We actually had three offers, but the first couple had no other house to sell before they could purchase.

[salpal]

We sold our home 3 hours after it went on the market. Our first day on the market, we held an open house. There were two others in neighborhood also for sale (comparable). I realize we were very lucky. All the tips above are excellent and I'd like to throw in my 2 cents.

Cleanliness cannot be overstated.

Attic: We completely emptied attic and swept away all cobwebs, small bits of trash, etc. Remember, people are going to look at your attic if they are serious buyers.

Basement: We removed all of our stuff from storage shelving in basement and wiped all dust from every inch. I've posted this before, but I even polished the hot water heater and heater. Lastly, we painted the cement floor so it looked extra fresh and clean.

Garage: In our garage, we cleaned and thinned out as much as possible and painted the floor.

Photos: We removed ALL of our photos artwork and placed just a few generic/boring pieces where there just had to be something on the wall.

Dining Room: removed hutch to make room appear larger and hung 3 floating shelves on wall for "art".

Kitchen: removed everything but two items on kitchen counter top. Also removed many items from pantry and "staged" it by making it look very neat. I made sure that our cabinets were attractively arranged inside, remember, people open your cabinets and drawers in your kitchen and bathrooms. They will also open your refrigerator.

Pets: Prior to open house, we removed ALL evidence of our dog and of course, took him off premises during showing. Luckily he does not shed.

Closets: We removed more than half of our clothing and arranged clothes, shoes, etc in an attractive manner. Our home was built in the 1950's and closets were not especially large during that time. To compensate, hubby built a large cedar closet in our basement.

We saw a show liked "Designed to Sell" or one of those and I remembered one of the hostesses saying that if things are very neat and clean, the buyers will believe that their home will look like this when they move their things inside, so tiny details count.

[ladydoc]

WOW--if we have to do all that we are in trouble!! We live in a VERY rural environment and our property will likely be of interest to horse owners who seem to care more about the suitability of the property for their horses then for themselves. Our home is very large but it is cluttered. We are starting to pack up for moving to The Villages and hopefully we will be able to get all the boxes into the one room. We are selling a LOT of furniture, but I think our real estate agent wants to start showing it ASAP. I guess I might be a bit naive, but I am a believer in what is meant to be will be. If it does not sell, we will rent it out. There is always a market for renters....

[2BNTV]

We sold our home 3 hours after it went on the market. Our first day on the market, we held an open house. There were two others in neighborhood also for sale (comparable). I realize we were very lucky. All the tips above are excellent and I'd like to throw in my 2 cents.

Cleanliness cannot be overstated.

Attic: We completely emptied attic and swept away all cobwebs, small bits of trash, etc. Remember, people are going to look at your attic if they are serious buyers.

Basement: We removed all of our stuff from storage shelving in basement and wiped all dust from every inch. I've posted this before, but I even polished the hot water heater and heater. Lastly, we painted the cement floor so it looked extra fresh and clean.



Garage: In our garage, we cleaned and thinned out as much as possible and painted the floor.

Photos: We removed ALL of our photos artwork and placed just a few generic/boring pieces where there just had to be something on the wall.

Dining Room: removed hutch to make room appear larger and hung 3 floating shelves on wall for "art".

Kitchen: removed everything but two items on kitchen counter top. Also removed many items from pantry and "staged" it by making it look very neat. I made sure that our cabinets were attractively arranged inside, remember, people open your cabinets and drawers in your kitchen and bathrooms. They will also open your refrigerator.

Pets: Prior to open house, we removed ALL evidence of our dog and of course, took him off premises during showing. Luckily he does not shed.

Closets: We removed more than half of our clothing and arranged clothes, shoes, etc in an attractive manner. Our home was built in the 1950's and closets were not especially large during that time. To compensate, hubby built a large cedar closet in our basement.

We saw a show liked "Designed to Sell" or one of those and I remembered one of the hostesses saying that if things are very neat and clean, the buyers will believe that their home will look like this when they move their things inside, so tiny details count.

Salpal gave excellent advice. Three hours has to be the world record for selling a home.

:BigApplause:

I aslo watch "Sell this House" on cable tv and follow their suggestions as best I can.

1. Declutter, Declutter, Declutter
2. Depersonalize with no family photos, people want to see their stuff in their new home.
3. Cleaniless and neatness is important.
4. Make rooms appear bigger by rearranging furniture, should be able to walk around with no trouble.
5. Entrance wow factor is important.
6. Your home should have an inviting aroma.

I'm no expert but the homes on this show look like night and day after these changes are performed. I wish they come and do mine so I can move to TV.

Best Wishes on the future sale of your home.

[Tbugs]

We sold our Maryland house in 8 days in 2009. We did quite a bit of work on it. We had new flooring and carpeting installed by Empire Flooring. Did not get the top of the line but it still looked good. Had it painted inside about 6 months before moving so it was very fresh. Made sure all the door closed properly.

Yes, we spent money on it but the payoff was selling very quickly and at the asking price.

The clutter factor did not matter. We actually had moving boxes in the rooms when realtors brought in clients. Never had an open house.

One thing that did worry me was when I checked with my homeowner insurance (GEICO). I was told if the house was vacant (unoccupied) for 90 days, the insurance policy would be null and void. I would need to buy unoccupied dwelling insurance which was very high priced. Luckily, I did not need that. Has anyone else heard of Unoccupied Dwelling Insurance?

[oceangirl]

Our realtor just put the sign out today. I actually feel relieved. We went with the relocation dept and are very pleased with our realtor. She did a wonderful presentation. We are now going to put St Joseph near our sign.
As others have stated clean clean and declutter. I staged every room even the linen closet. I wish everyone good luck with selling your home. Hope to see you in Buttonwood.:pepper2:

:gc: look out here I come

[Bill-n-Brillo]

.....One thing that did worry me was when I checked with my homeowner insurance (GEICO). I was told if the house was vacant (unoccupied) for 90 days, the insurance policy would be null and void. I would need to buy unoccupied dwelling insurance which was very high priced. Luckily, I did not need that. Has anyone else heard of Unoccupied Dwelling Insurance?

We ran into the same thing when we sold a previous home in OH. We'd built a new place, moved, then went about readying the old house for selling. Our insurance folks knew what we were doing with the houses/moving but didn't raise any flags as they knew we were over at the old place on a regular basis, mowing the grass, etc. - it was only a couple of miles away from where we'd moved to. The situation did hit the wall, however, when the ins. co. district office queried the agent about insurance coverage on the houses. So we got a call that they were going to have to change the coverage on the old place. But it didn't bump up much, at least in our case, perhaps due to the proximity to our new home and how often we were over there. Became a moot point as the place (finally) sold about a month or two later.

Bill