House selling tip. It never hurts to repeat this one again ...

15 years ago

We are suffering a bit of a real estate slow down but not as bad as some areas of the country. We live in a desirable neighborhood but there are some good houses that have been on the market for quite a while. Friends put their house up for sale last week and got two offers right away. Their secret - the house and yard were absolutely, positively immaculate. I honestly can say that it was one of the cleanest houses I have ever seen. The house isn't perfect, but buyers really responded to the fact that from floors to ceiling, the house glowed.

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chisue
15 years ago
There was something new to me in the Chicago Sunday Tribune's Real Estate section. The article was mostly about the way people shop for homes today: websearch first, then drive-by's, then an appointment to see the property.

Stressed was the need for *great* photos or visual tours on the web. You want your home to make the first cut. One of the things they pointed out was the need to put on the site all the selling points of a home -- to think about what you have to offer to a variety of buyers.

An illustration quoted a buyer who only discovered on driving by that the house was convenient to a park. The sellers had no children and hadn't mentioned that in their web ad. The nearby park made the deal for the buyers, who could see their kids enjoying it daily.

Re: website photos. Lead with your 'best shot' -- which may not be the front of the house (as long as there is a front shot in the bunch). If broad, distance shots don't show beautiful detailing like moouldings or special hardware, include separate photos of the details.
terezosa / terriks
15 years ago
Another tip for pictures. DON'T include pictures that may show negative aspects of your home. I take pictures and create flyers for RE agents. I recently took pictures of a very nice home, but told the agent that I thought it was best to skip pictures of the master bath. The reason? Although it was a nice size, it was very dated, with forest green sink, tub and toilet. With so many homes on the market I think that many people would be turned off by the dated fixtures and would move on to the next home.
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jaynees
15 years ago
I agree that the pictures must show an immaculate house. My DH and I sold our house in NoNJ in the summer of 2006 just as the market was slowing down, and I'm convinced we got an offer after two weeks because of the excemptional photos that my husband took.

We showed our big private fenced-in backyard with the newly painted deck and cleaned patio table/chairs. Before taking interior shots of the house we packed up 1/3 of our belongings and put them in storage to make the house less cluttered. We took pictures using bright lighting to maximize visibility. When photographing the kitchen we made sure the counters were clutter-free. We cleaned all the windows and screens throughout the whole house - believe it or not, dirty windows can be visible in pictures.

My husband and I (well, mainly my husband) made sure the house was spotless at all times (tough to do when you have four cats, a dog and two toddlers). But we were ALWAYS ready for spur of the moment viewings once we put the house on the market because he kept it clean at all times.

We had a LOT of people come through our house and had at least three parties say they were putting in an offer. I'm convinced it's because it was clutter-free, clean and showed well. We opted to take the first offer that came our way because "the first offer is always the best" and we didn't want to take a chance on losing them and NOT getting other offers or getting later offers for less money. After some modest counteroffering we were quite happy with the final selling price.

House selling tip. It never hurts to repeat this one again ...

Comments (3)

chisue

terezosa / terriks

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