Tell me all the things

[Deleted]

About selling a house. Tips, what not to do, what to expect? We have found a few houses in another area that we are interested in. I texted the lady who sold us our current house and told her we are interested in listing our house. She wrote back "Exciting! What time can you meet today?" is she going to want to walk through my entire house? It is so not show ready. I've never worked with a realtor on the selling side of things and I'm so nervous about this whole process. 

[nomad100]

Declutter. Depersonalize. Price appropriately. Fix any little lingering projects (like paint touch ups, loose knobs on cabinets, etc.)

Expect to gets calls for showings with little notice. Expect scheduled showings to not actually happen. Expect to not always get feedback from potential buyers.

On the plus side, when you are getting the house ready to show, you get to throw away or donate all that stuff you have been putting off dealing with because you have to. We ended up getting rid of a ton of stuff. It seemed like we were making daily trips to the local Goodwill for over a week.

Not sure how long you have been in your current house but if you have your home inspection report from when you boughtand there are items that can be easily fixed/addressed, take care of them before you list.

ETA:  Good luck!  Selling can be frustrating and exciting at the same time.   

[pantsparty]

There was someone here who posted a bunch of tips from her mom, who's a realtor. I remember a few of them - one was take all personal effects down, and another was take half of your belongings out of cupboards / shelves so it looks like you have more space. I don't remember the rest, lol. Good luck!

[Kit]

Definitely do not overprice. The market is going back up, but slowly and not as high as sellers want to think.

De-clutter, and if you have any wacky paint colors, paint them neutral*.

*Brought to you by a house painted pink that H and I toured a couple of weeks ago.

[nomad100]

Oh, and what Kit said.

When we bought our first house every single room was a different color. Every single room. And none went together. Colors ranged from mint green to terra cotta orange to pale pink to bumblebee yellow and bright blue to dingy cream. We called it the clown house until we repainted. And we ended up repainting all but the two rooms that were painted tan.

[Waffles]

Jun 3, 2013 8:18:52 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

Declutter. Depersonalize. Price appropriately. Fix any little lingering projects (like paint touch ups, loose knobs on cabinets, etc.)

Expect to gets calls for showings with little notice. Expect scheduled showings to not actually happen. Expect to not always get feedback from potential buyers.

On the plus side, when you are getting the house ready to show, you get to throw away or donate all that stuff you have been putting off dealing with because you have to. We ended up getting rid of a ton of stuff. It seemed like we were making daily trips to the local Goodwill for over a week.

Not sure how long you have been in your current house but if you have your home inspection report from when you boughtand there are items that can be easily fixed/addressed, take care of them before you list.

ETA:  Good luck!  Selling can be frustrating and exciting at the same time.   

What she said.

Also, know your product.

Questions we get a lot: orientation of garden, utilities bills, general area questions (closest shops, schools, accessibility with public transport, quality of schools, etc.).

All fairly easy to answer when you live there.

[mbcdefg]

I've never sold a house, but I can tell you from experience that it's wise to have a structural engineer check out a house - especially the foundation - before you purchase it.

This message is brought to you by my torn-apart, tool and lumber-strewn backyard and significantly lighter savings account thanks to foundation problems that our inspector somehow missed.

[nomad100]

Waffles makes a good point. When we bought the sellers had a years worth of utility bills available for review so we could get an idea of those costs. They also had the last 2 tax bills. This was nice because it gave a more complete picture of the total cost of ownership. I had forgotten about how much we liked that.

If you are computer or drafting savy, draw up a floor plan of the house with room dimensions. Our sellers did that and it was very handy.

mbcdefg That sucks! But a good reminder that home inspectors are not the end all be all. If there is an area that you are concerned about (foundation, chimmney, roof, etc.) get a separate inspection by someone that only deals with that area.

[melodramatic26]

Though we didn't end up having to go to market (private offer) we spent 18 months getting ready to sell our house and spent a couple months looking to buy a new one.

Fix everything you haven't. Meaning, the small holes in the wall, door knobs that need replaced, grout that needs cleaned, lighting fixtures that don't match, etc.

New paint in every room. Total pain in the ass, but I can't tell you how many houses I was turned off by because their walls looked dinged up- scuff marks, dirty around the lights etc. It made the house feel "old and used".

Declutter. And then declutter some more. And then more. We rented a storage unit and moved stuff out. And kept moving out things. Mark the boxes well so that you know what's in each of them. I moved out clothes, dishes etc that I didn't need for the current season. Take out the dishes in your cabinets you don't use every day, remove serving platters/bowls, wine glass, beer mugs, things of that nature that you "might" use occassionally. Make your closets as bare as possible. I can't tell you how many times I would see closets filled and think there just isn't enough storage in the home if the closets are so full.

Remove your pictures. I actually asked ML about this one because I had heard this advice before but didn't see what the issue was as long as there weren't a ton of family pictures out. Well, I found as I was looking at houses to buy that I was creating scenarios of the family in the home based on the pictures. And most of the time if I saw family pictures with kids, it made me start wondering why they were moving and I would start to assume that they were out growing the home. Then it made me think that the house wasn't big enough for us, etc. It sounds like a silly thing to do, but really, take down the pictures.

And finally, price your home right. I have/had so many friends that are selling their homes now too and for our area, the demand for "starter" homes (which is what we are all selling) just isn't as high as it was when we bought. If you really want to sell your home quickly, you have to price it right. Be realistic.

[VeryViolet]

I think this really depends on your market. I know near us things that are priced right are selling in days or even hours. So my main advice is don't overprice. If you are in a slower market I think it then becomes more important to stage, declutter, etc. The one thing my husband had an awful time overlooking was paint color. If you have a lot of bold colors definitely consider painting everything a neutral color.

[Deleted]

This is all great advice!!! I will be a busy girl this weekend.

[Kristinmo]

Here's the post someone was talking about earlier:

pandce.proboards.com/thread/129171/people-who-sold-homes

[ering1115]

Jun 3, 2013 9:19:17 GMT -5 VeryViolet said:

I think this really depends on your market. I know near us things that are priced right are selling in days or even hours. So my main advice is don't overprice. If you are in a slower market I think it then becomes more important to stage, declutter, etc. The one thing my husband had an awful time overlooking was paint color. If you have a lot of bold colors definitely consider painting everything a neutral color.

Same area as VeryViolet and if the house is priced well (maybe $5k less than what you want) people are getting into bidding wars and upping it to $25-50K over ask.  It is INSANE.  Around here the magic number seems to be $600K- as long as you are under that and priced well, you could be selling a house that is full of crap and painted purple and people would buy it.