What makes a house sell?????
 

We want to put our Courtyard Villa on the market. Realtors all have their own opinions on how to "improve" it's selling points. It has some great selling points already. All new SS appliances. It's in Duval which seems to be selling pretty well still. Comes furnished if wanted, Carpet only in bedrooms etc.....
What are the things you would look for aside from the obvious basic maintenance?
I

Location, no clutter, granite counter tops, plantation shutters, windows in the lanai, nicely painted, clean and no pet or smoke odor and priced correctly.

Professional pictures. Not the 'great' one the realtor says they will take, no the ones they Actually pay 150.00 to a pro to do.

Advise from a retired Realtor....

Unclutter.... you want the house to look as it has lots of free space, Less is more, especially the kitchen counters

Remove family photos..... you want buyers to picture themselves in the new house

Rid the home of smells...Dog, Cat....smoke....

These are the main 3 I used to advise. Good luck with your sale...

Clean, clean, clean, and priced competitively. Unless your villa has something special it's just one of hundreds for sale so price it right.

A Buyer :1rotfl:

Location, Location, Location.
And Price

neutral colors and no outdated or worn furniture. Possibly bring in someone to stage it

A village friend who lives in Buttonwood would be great to tell you what to paint and what to get rid of and what to add. She is wonderful with interior design. I told her she should do it for money. If you want to know her name message me.

I think the price and if it has the basic feature the buyer is looking for. I would tend not to spend any significant of money on improvements. How do you know what the final buyer will want? I would price the home a little higher with the idea of saying I'll reduce the price and you can use that money to do xxx.

Completely agree. My heart was absolutely set on a house from photos. I was ready to talk husband into it. It was in the upper limit of what was budgeted for....but, but....so beautiful, fresh, modern. Then I saw the photos previously taken of the house before the new owners bought it. Large tell tale cracks in the cement etc. Wow. Couldn’t run away fast enough.

Spend no extra money, except on neutral paint, cleaning materials.
Declutter.
Keep out of the way and let your agent show prospective buyers round.

Photos are key. Joe Hamlin takes by far the best I've seen and has drone and a 3d camera . he understands perspective . fair honest and low-key. Joehamblin@gmail.com
Good luck from Jules r.

I had not done the granite, garage floor, crown molding, etc. Took TV six months to sell. Neighbors home with upgrade sold fast. Buyers prefer homes with the upgrades or they will prefer new ones.

I am looking for a cyv in Duval...please message me, I would like to see it before you list it. Thanks...bowlngal@comcast.net

What makes the house sell?
 

I would definitely go along with enclose the lanai with windows, gutters, solar lights if it is dark inside the house, and priced right.

Remove overgrown shrubs or prune way back. Make sure front door is visible from street and is freshly painted in an inviting color. Pressure wash or paint house/driveway. Walk inside and sniff. Walk through as if you are a buyer. Open closets. Then get rid of 2/3 of your decorations, clothes, and supplies. Then clean until the house smells fresh. Remove heavy curtains to bring in light. Clean windows. If your cabinets look worn, pay a pro to paint them. The more updated your home looks the more money you can expect. Make sure your interior is freshly painted in neutral colors. If you are not capable of doing it yourself, consider hiring someone to stage your home. Right now is THE time to sell. If you try to take on too much and wind up not getting it on the market until the snowbirds leave, it will take longer to sell plus you will get less. We used Remax to sell our home and they were incredible.

Inside decor doesn't matter to me. How old is roof, air conditioner, water heater and windows??? Those are my concerns as a buyer.

Price right - sell by owner; OR outside Realtor
 

TV Realtors will wow you with data, but will not sell your 'used' home. Nope - too busy selling the new stuff.

So do your own research on line, advertise (much of it is free) and sell your home at a 'fair price'. That means maybe lower than the professional listers, but you still take more home as you avoid the commission. Then again TV will list it high to please you and then continue to move the price down - down - down.

IF you just do not want to sell by owner, find a nearby but not in TV realtor. Sign a short term contract with YOUR option to extend. You want to be in charge if they do not perform.

As others have said, be certain your realtor agrees to have professional photos taken. De clutter — get rid of Knick knacks, family photos, extra furniture, etc. Remove clothes from your closets to make them look more spacious. Make your house look like a model home. Put items in storage if you have to.

Definitely neutral colors, NO WALLPAPER, chair height elongated toilets, landscape weeded & bushes trimmed.

Maybe include a golf cart. May just sway a buyer.

The home owner is never objective. We all think our home is wonderful. After all we picked it and filled with thing we like. We have several of our properties on the market now and these are the changes the listing agents wanted:

1. Declutter. Take out all personal photos; remove those treasures displayed on the shelves.

2. All drapes off windows and doors

3. Repaint rooms with non neutral colors

4. Nothing on the kitchen counters

5. Empty out the garage

6. If you have carpet have them cleaned

7. Empty closets to the extent possible

As a Realtor for 25 years I'd say price location and declutter!! Get a storage space if you need to just get stuff out of there!
Also clean!

Location, location, location. Price slightly lower then others, no clutter, no smell. I sold my house in 3 days in a bad market this way. I used to be a realtor years ago. Neutral paint.

Imho ...
 

Oversimplification perhaps, but only one thing will get that buyer: PRICE! Certainly other factors—some already mentioned—play a role, of course, but a home in need of work and/or one in a less-than-ideal location will still sell—at the right price point.

Beginning of this thread has cyv in Duvall

Ohiobuckeye
 

You pretty much put it in a nutshell. We’ve built & sold 14 homes & the only discrepancy we had with all of them was the realtor price some of them to high so we would be sure to go with them. The last one we sold was the worst they came back with an offer from the buyer $45,000. less than what the realtor said it was worth, of course we said absolutely NO. We couldn’t believe that our realtor would even ask if we would take that much, we thought she was working for us not them. We counter offered back $23,000 higher & they took it. So JSR22, if you want to sell our house we’ll hirer you next time!

All of these are good replies. As a former realtor, I totally agree with the over simplified answer PRICE. A realtor is looking for the best commission. You’re looking for a buyer, as quickly as possible. Trust me, price it right and it WILL sell.

You're like me... concerned with the basics that cost a lot of money to replace. Unfortunately, most buyers are just the opposite. They're more concerned with cosmetics and how "pretty" the house looks, never mind the fact that it may look totally different with THEIR stuff in the house.

I'm not saying that a house shouldn't look nice. I'm just saying that when it comes to cost, it can cost a lot more to replace the basic essentials, than it does to make the house look "pretty".

I am looking to purchase a cyv in Duval...please contact me before you list with a realtor...bowlngal@comcast.net

Have a friend that might be interested.

What I valued most when I looked for a resale:
1. Walking distance to one of the Town Squares and/or at least one rec center.
2. Open front patio
3. Granite countertops
4. Some updates if more than ten or so years old
5. Clean modern flooring (carpet ok)
6. Clear, quality pictures and lots of them
7. Realistic price
That’s about it. Good question.

It's those home baked cookies, giggle, snort!

All are great suggestions but You never know what the perfect buyer might want. We were making tandoori chicken and were upset that someone wanted to see the house. Guess what? The buyers were from India and the house smelled like home to them. Several have suggested enclosing the lanai and that might be just what some would want;however, for me that would be a turn off. I love my outdoor lanai. You just never know.

Message me, gracie girl. My text is 216-773-2295

The amazing sale
 

We moved from a 2500 sf home built in '97 in August to a villa down here. Our house sold one day later. Our appliances were the ones we had bought 6 years earlier, but they were top brands. We had all the carpeting removed and wood-like floors put in ALL the rooms (except toilets and bathrooms). We had a fix or two on the roof. We had new screens put on the windows AND a new screen on the bird cage. We had a relatively inexpensive landscaping done for show; we had the entire interior repainted, and, finally, we had the garage floor epoxied. We asked a pretty high price and got it.
Yeah, we worked our buns off for 3 months, every day and night, but it paid off. I was absolutely shocked at the swiftness of the purchase. But, we didn't have any granite counter tops. Granite is going bye-bye anyway, plus it tends to be too porous. AND OH, I almost forgot. We had purchased a home appliance warranty which we DONATED to the newcomers when they bought. Sometimes it takes a lot of small things that grab the prospective buyer.

Some great ideas. Love the minimalistic ones. Want to price it fairly but having a difficult time finding comps with the very large yard and golf view

I wouldn’t put a lot of money into changes.
Everyone has such different taste if you change carpet to wood they may not like the color ( as an example).

Neutral colors are important. Decluttering is a must.
I look at resales and the first thing I notice is just too much STUFF. The worst is every space with something on it. Less is more.

Another important consideration is the view.

Price

Steve