First Impressions - Selling Your Home in a Buyer's Market

Today's real estate market is definitely a buyer's market. In the opinion of many real estate professionals and agents it will remain this way for at least the next year or two. If you want to get the best deal when selling your home, you must look beyond the obvious and undesirable tactics of listing price reductions and conceding negotiating points. You must have a plan of action that addresses the buyer's first impression.

The real estate market of today is drastically different from the market of three to four years ago. Today: there is an abundance of properties on the market, property values are depressed, the pool of available buyers is smaller due to restricted credit access; and listing prices are showing drastic cuts. So how do you increase your chances for getting a fair value when selling your home? You can improve your property's "first impression". The picture a buyer gets when they see your property for the first time can make or break a deal.

It's the small things that influence the buyer's first impression of the property. It's all the little details that combine to form the picture the buyer sees when they first step out of the car. It's your property's "curb appeal". When someone is considering buying a home, their first impression will influence every consideration of the deal. It can be the deciding factor in a buyer's mind when considering the desirability of your property versus another property for sale in the same price range. Enhancing your property's curb appeal can be an important step in creating a good first impression. The little details, like a freshly painted front door, can help your potential buyer decide to consider buying your home instead of buying a house down the street, or they can make them get back in the car to look elsewhere.

Addressing your property's curb appeal should be your first plan of action. Look at your property from a buyer's perspective, as if you are seeing it for the first time. What is your property's curb appeal?

Is your lawn and landscape neat and well maintained, or do you need new yard mulch and to cut the grass? Is your lawn décor and furniture pleasingly arranged, or is it disorganized and hap-hazard? Is the sidewalk or walk-way clean? Are your flowers and shrubs healthy and trimmed? What about your roofline, is a gangly antenna the first thing you see? What about the periphery, your side yard and outbuildings, is there junk around the garage or a trash receptacle in plain view? Does your front entrance need painting or sprucing up, is it cluttered with décor items that possibly a buyer would not find appealing?

Walk around your neighborhood with a notepad. Stand at the curb and make notes about houses with things you find appealing, and also note those houses that don't look so good. What didn't you like, or what looked bad from the curb? Now take those notes and stand in front of your property. Look at it honestly, as if you were a buyer seeing it for the first time. What do you see? What is your first impression?

Chances are you will see things you had not noticed before, like weathered and faded mulch in the flower beds. Little things that you had taken for granted or assumed weren't important. Make a list of the things you can do to improve a buyer's first impression of your property. There may be a semi-major project or two, but more likely you will end up with a to-do list of smaller tasks that will take more time and effort from you than money. Use this list to improve your property's curb appeal so that when a buyer steps out of the car their first thought will be; "This looks nice". This is a very important step to creating a desire for your property that will help get you an offer, or perhaps even seal the deal.