Buyers expect a trouble-free home. They want to buy a house, move in and start enjoying it right away. They don’t want to waste time and money fixing up the place. If you don’t repair your house, it will be seen as a fixer-upper and you will not be able to attract the right kind of buyers, nor will you get the price you want for it.

Buyers, in an effort to protect themselves, will always inflate the actual cost of the repair. A simple fix that might cost you a hundred dollars now will cost a thousand dollars once the buyer has seized upon it.

After you’ve packed, try to store them offsite. But when this isn’t possible, choose a corner in the basement or crawlspace and stack packed items away neatly. Do not use the garage or the spare bedroom as a storage area. They provide more value when you exhibit them as living space.

REPAIR

Do not conceal problem areas in your house. This is unethical! Home buyers are savvy and if they see through your tactic you can be assured any potential deal is dead. Even if you manage to get past the buyer, it’s not likely you can fool their home inspector. The money spent fixing and upgrading will hopefully increase the value of your home to offset the repair costs.

CLEANING

Depending on your flooring type, vacuum, sweep, mop or scrub clean. For carpets, rent a steam cleaner.

REVITALIZING

Don’t want to paint the whole house? Try a different colour scheme for trims and doors. It will make your house look new again.

SHOWING

Be prepared to spend a few hours each week maintaining your house while you’re selling it. It doesn’t have to be done on the weekend. In fact, you should stagger the tasks. That way your house isn’t it its worst shape on the Friday before the weekend showing. Share the workload with other family members.

• The house languishes on the market for months and eventually the seller cuts the listing price, or worse, it never gets sold.
• The offers, if any, reflect the as-is condition of the house, which is usually a lot lower than the listing price.
• The sellers get frustrated because they are getting calls from bargain hunters who are looking for a cheap house to fix them up themselves.

You do not want this to happen to you. Your goal is to sell your house as quickly and as profitably as possible. We believe that our home selling advice and tips will help.

Prepare Your House For Sale is a four-step plan designed to maximize the value of your  Lowe Merion house.

We examine the importance of decluttering, repairing, cleaning and revitalizing. Each step builds on the other to turn your home into the kind of desirable sanctuary that buyers look for in any market condition.

Decluttering:

In Main Line real estate, buyers buy space. The more space you’re able to show, whether it be living or storage space, the more you’ll be able to sell for. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Most people are pack rats. Rooms have too much furniture and you’ll find stuff overflowing in every nook and cranny. There’s little space for walking sometimes, much less for living.

Decluttering is the process of reclaiming the space in your house from years of collecting and storing. Don’t expect the buyers to ignore all this and imagine your house in its clutter-free state. Buyers sometimes see dozens of houses in one day and their brains are overtaxed. Declutter so the buyers can see your house, not your mess.

If you do nothing else to improve the value of your house, at least do this. Remarkably, decluttering is free (it just takes time and elbow grease) yet a lot of sellers don’t put enough effort into it! To re-iterate this important point: buyers buy space in real estate.In my next couple of  post I will discuss repairing, cleaning and revitalizing

Call me  at 610-658-7322 today to discuss your lower merion home buying and selling needs.

Rachel has the important qualifications you should be looking for in a Realtor:
32 years in business !

Her designations include: GRI, CRS, SRES, ABR & ASP
Mediator for the State of Pennsylvania
Over 600 successful real estate transactions
She is in the top 1% of realtors nationwide
Rachel has advanced education in real estate marketing, law and finance

More than 31 years of full-time residential sales experience

A member of the highest clubs within Prudential Real estate: The President’s Circle, The Chairman’s Circle and The Society of Excellence
Welcomes over 80% of her business through referrals
Rachel is aware and sensitive to the relocating buyers’ wants, needs and concerns.

Rachel services the Philadelphia Main Line area including: BALA CYNWYD, BRYN MAWR, GLADWYNE, HAVERFORD, MERION, NARBERTH, ROSEMONT, VILLANOVA, WAYNE
and WYNNEWOOD.

When looking to buy or sell, ask for Rachel: your intelligent, experienced, knowledgeable
real estate specialist who cares about YOU.