The #1 Secret to Selling Your Home

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

CLEAN

If your home looks like someone could move in the next day without buying a sponge or disinfectant, then your home will sell.

You do NOT need to have stainless steel appliances and granite countertops

But you CAN NOT have:

Dirty paint

stained, smelly carpets

dirty bathrooms

discoloured grout

dirty appliances

smeary windows

smoke smells

Clean, clean, clean. You have learned to adapt to a certain level of unkemptness, but it is accelerated by 10 to a stranger.

We accept our own dirt but abhor that of a stranger.

[Tinksrival]

1. Um,

DUH!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. You may think Um, Duh

but go look at some houses for sale and you would be amazed how many people don't get this.

[AndyTiedye]

26. Many of the Houses for Sale are Foreclosures

The no-longer-owners aren't going to clean if they're being kicked out by the bank.

[NMDemDist2]

2. exactly!! and pack half your shit and put it in storage before you show

our home in PHX sold THE FIRST DAY it was in the paper. Three other homes exactly the same in the neighborhood took WEEKS to sell and this was at the very top of the bubble mania in PHX.

We painted and cleaned and then 'camped' in the house, it was ready to show every minute. When we washed our hands or brushed our teeth, the sink got wiped out and polished.

once we were in escrow we could relax and the best part?? most of the packing was already done!!!! and that was a great relief while in the midst of selling one home and buying a new one 700 miles away

:bounce:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. the house should be appealing

very clean
newly decorated
clean waxed floors, steam cleaned carpets
nice smell - baking bread trick!
sparkling windows
no dust, no mould on tiles
working faucets, toilets and appliances
nicely arranged furniture
manicured lawn and bushes - no weeds

go to 'open houses' and see which houses sell fast

[taught_me_patience]

5. Better advice... Price at a market clearing price

I don't give a shit how much you overpaid for your home two years ago. Price it fair and a deal will be made.

[nichomachus]

17. But there are limits

If there are no buyers, it doesn't matter how low you price it -- until it becomes attractive enough for some vulture to buy it on speculation.

But clean and uncluttered does help. I'm pretty good at imagining a house empty or with my stuff in it -- but there are places that challenge that ability.

The worst house I ever went into was Pepto-Bismol pink -- everything was Pepto-Bismol pink. All the walls, the trim, the carpet, most of the furniture, the bathrooms, the insides of the closets, kitchen and bath cabinets, sinks, toilets. I started getting nauseous.

I calculated that it would take the price of the house just to "un-pink" it.

[we can do it]

29. Winner!

[Common Sense Party]

31. Amen to that. So many people think the "deserve" the overinflated

bubble price of 2007, as if the last 2 years never happened. Or they're lowering it a little, thinking that they're "giving it away."

[mnhtnbb]

6. The managing broker in the office where I sold real estate in the late 70's

in CA used to tell us to say to prospects, "Your house is a virgin on the market only once". Price
it right and make it sparkle. It will sell.

Yes, clean, clean, clean, but PRICE is important, too.

[lunatica]

7. This reminds me of the dumps some people try to sell

It would seem obvious to do this, but when you go looking at houses where people still live in them, it can get pretty awful. I've been in houses where there were large holes in the walls, and the carpets looked like they were decades old and cruddy. Bleh! Spots on the walls, dirty grout and clothes left lying around in the bedrooms. I can remember all that bad stuff but I can't remember what the houses themselves looked like.

[Trajan]

8. My home was in a state of 'prepared stage' for about two weeks ....

EVERYTHING was placed OR removed according to making it look like a fucking museum piece ...

It was sparkling ...

We had 4 competitors after the first open house (Late 2003), and sold it at 3 % greater than the asking price ...

It was worth the extra effort ....

[NMDemDist2]

11. mine too. Hell I even painted inside the closets!!

in fact I played out the saga right here on DU in the DIY forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=287x2872


ready to sell kitchen




kitchen the way I lived in it

[goclark]

9. Totally agree

I have been extremely lucky selling houses.

Everything you have said counts.

I would also say, keep the colors of the paint easy on the eye for most buyers.

When I walk into a house and see a bright red wall, it could be perfect for the last owner but not for me.That causes me to be distracted and wonder what else is not to my liking.

And I always have it super clean from door knobs to windows.

When I lived in the Mid West someone suggested something to me that worked.

In a visual spot, have a few photos of the house in Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.

I always sit a bowl of little wrapped candies next to the pictures.

Each buyer always told me how much they liked the photos.

[oldnslo]

10. Sell it to the insurance company. No facelift required.

[BeatleBoot]

12. I thought the trick was burying a miniature statue of St. Joseph upside down

in front of the house?

Clean?

That's more work than 3 shovels of dirt.



:P

[sandnsea]

13. The price has to be right too

I've seen plenty of overpriced clean houses in the last 5 years.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. "Clean" is how you compete with "New"

The biggest obstacle to reselling older homes is the subliminal issue of other people's dirt (usage). People buy new homes because they are "unused" or "fresh" or "clean" or "brand-new".

It's no different than selling a used car. Have it detailed to appear fresh and new. For some reason home sellers don't get this.

[helderheid]

15. #1? #2. #1 is PRICE.

[EFerrari]

16. Yep. We have a winner. I'd be willing to clean anything

if the price was right.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. Maybe you. But lots if not the majority will pass on a place that is

"yucky" "skeevy".

A dirty place will sell but for less than if the owners had just done a basic cleanliness overhaul.

[EFerrari]

22. So, how many thousands of dollars are you willing to pay

for a $60 cleaner?

Because that's what presentation amounts to. Maybe some people can afford that, and maybe those properties are better on tour. But if you're serious about getting the best deal, price trumps clean.

[nichomachus]

19. That's you

a lot of people don't want to do that and are turned off by dirt and clutter. It's a psychological thing. I had a friend not consider a house because of the color of the walls. "It's only freaking paint," I told him -- $20 a gallon at Lowes. But it was too late, his mind was made up.

The common wisdom is that the purchase decision is made within the first five minutes. If the initial impression is good, you have a better chance.

Oh -- and get the smoke smell out. If I walk into a house and smell stale cigarette smoke, I am so out of there, because I know it's in the carpets, the walls, everything. And it will take a year of repeated cleaning to get it out -- if you ever can. I have walked in the front door of a house, smelled smoke, and turned right around -- 30 seconds in and out.

[EFerrari]

21. It is me. And also the family real estate business.

And I will sell our secret for getting the smoke smell out to you as soon as we get Vince to do the ad. :P

[helderheid]

32. It's me too (a realtor) and my mother of 30+ years in the real estate business.

[nichomachus]

33. It's me too

but it's not for a lot of other people. They have no imagination when it comes to looking at living spaces. I live in an area with a lot of retiree snowbirds. In those cases, Wifey wants the new home to be sparkling clean, move-in condition -- turnkey if possible. Then, a year later they decide they didn't like the furniture that came with the turnkey sale and off it goes to the consignment shop. We have more consignment shops than churches around here. They are like temples of ugly stuff.

[helderheid]

30. Yep. ANYTHING will sell for the right price. Yes you'll get a better price if the place looks great.

[MineralMan]

20. True enough, but not the only thing...

My wife and I sold our tiny little house in California four and a half years ago. It was a crummy little ex vacation home in a coastal town. Funky, to say the least. 700 sq. ft., no central heat (just a Franklin stove in the living room). One bedroom, one bath, and a remodeled back room that could serve as a bedroom in a pinch.

It was my house for 30 years. Both my wife and I smoke. The walls in the entire house, save the bedroom were knotty pine, circa the 1970s. The kitchen had my very own homemade cabinets. It did have a nice ceramic tile floor, though. The rest of the house had 1950s rubber tile in a blue and white checkerboard pattern.

The house was actually below grade on half the house. Ugly stucco exterior.

It sold the first day it was on the market. Why? Because it was the cheapest house available in a town that was a hot item in the area. It was tiny, funky, smelled like cigarette smoke, had no carpeting.

We had three offers, for the asking price and sold it to the potential buyer who didn't need a mortgage. The house was paid for already, so we didn't use a real estate agent, and just ran it through a title company.

It's not always clean that sells. Sometimes, in the right situation, it is price, and price only. The buyer completely redid the inside and outside of the house, added a couple of bedrooms and a bath.

We moved to Minnesota and bought twice the house for half the price.

Rules work, most of the time. Sometimes, though, the rules get ignored. You can sell an ugly house if the price is right.

[SharonAnn]

23. So, they were basically buying the land. It just happened to have a building on it they could use.

[MineralMan]

25. No. They didn't tear down the house...they just

added onto it.

Besides, I didn't care. The bottom of the market in 2004 was about $350K. I sold our cottage for $337K. I didn't pay a commission, so it came out about the same. The real estate market was completely bizarre just then. The top third of the market wasn't moving at all. The middle took months to sell, but the bottom was super hot. Go figure.

I was a happy guy. I paid $20K for the house thirty years before. We needed to move to MN, so things worked out just fine.

[nichomachus]

34. The truth is, all anyone is buying is the land

Houses are basically just sticks and bricks -- and are worth less every year. The price of the house is determined by the value of the land.

Anyone who believes any differently is one of the reasons we see these incredible housing bubbles. The value of the structure itself decreases over time, as it ages and needs more and more money to keep it up, just like your car. The only thing that has value is the land.

When people forget this, they end up paying way too much money for housing.

[Catherine Vincent]

24. Of course!

Years ago a friend of mine was house shopping and one house she visited, the lady was there cooking something that smelled like crap. She said that threw her off big time, she didn't want to finish looking at the house. What was that woman thinking? :)

[AndyTiedye]

27. That Woman Was Thinking "I Hope They Don't Buy The House"

They were probably renters there, and would have to move if your friend bought it.

[katanalori]

28. a few more good tips:

Place some Vanilla in oven and turn it on. BRIGHT sells - open all drapes and blinds and turn on lights for showings. LEAVE your house during the showings - take a walk! If you have pets, take them with you on the walk. Remove all personalized things, especially family photos.

[verges]

35. I thought it had something to do

with burying a statue of some saint or other in the backyard.

[SmileyRose]

36. A house down the street is priced 30% too high - on the market a year now

It was steamed and pressed within an inch of it's life, the flipper put in granite and stainless and hardwood everything and wants his money back. Idiot. This part of town is up to about 20% section 8. You can't ask $130,000 for a $99,900 house because it has granite. Shut up already. So now that sucker has sat vacant for a year, we've had to sic the county on the flipper to maintain the yard and put the front door back on after it was broken into. The house has now been trashed because it was vacant so long.


By contrast, another house that was due for cosmetic updates got hit with a crew of 10 from the local "minniemaid" place to make it nearly spotless, priced 5% below market and sold in 4 hours after hitting the market.

We never had a bubble here, and housing values here have remained pretty stable. About the only thing I've noticed is the appearance of a whole subdivision's worth of new bigass houses in the MLS for about 2/3 of what they sold for a year ago. That said, other parts of Atlanta are suffering miserably on loss of home values.