Selling Your Home: 5 Secret Tips that Get Buyers' Attention

We've all heard the tips for successful selling: make sure you have great curb appeal, staging is important, pricing is key, etc. But if you REALLY want to wow a potential buyer and give them a boost of confidence, here are 5 insider strategies that will set you apart from most other homes in any market.

1) Begin selling the day you buy: That huge stack of paperwork you signed? Keep all of it. There are documents in there that will be invaluable when it comes time to sell: your appraisal, your inspection report, the boundary survey from your lender. These documents and others can help you and potential buyers years after you've forgotten about your closing. When buyers ask questions they not only genuinely want the answers, but the thoroughness and speediness of your answers goes a long way to helping boost a buyer's confidence.

2) Save ALL your receipts, warranties, user's manuals and quotes: Just like buying a used car, it's worth more to potential buyers when there is a paper trail of work done. As you get quotes for projects, get repair work done, upgrade appliances or systems, remodel or add on rooms and replace parts and components, save every piece of documentation: quotes, receipts, final bills of sale. Not only as proof of the work, but as a history for potential buyers of local service providers that you've worked with and should know your home. This is especially helpful if an appliance has has a service recall so you can prove that corrective work was done.

3) Pictures, please: Buyers want to connect emotionally with homes; when they start to, they're closer to making an offer. You can help them by providing pictures: off-season photos showing the transition from winter snows to spring bulbs, newly planted trees and their subsequent growth over time; the expansion of a yard from disaster to garden beds and beyond.

And for inside projects, they're worth more than 1,000 words. Before and after pictures showing the care and detail you included, special construction materials or techniques you employed that aren't readily visible can give buyers a boost, help to justify your price, and show how your methods and approach may differ from other homes they've seen with what appear to be similar changes. Telling your buyers that you added insulation and upgraded the windows isn't as powerful as before and after pictures of an energy audit with a thermal testing, for example.

4) Make a bragging list: Keep track of every thing you do: replacement fixtures, adding cabinets, building storage in a basement, everything. Buyers can sense a pride of ownership from sellers who have continually made improvements to their homes. List everything clearly, in chronological order and include the date you finished, what you did, the costs, who did the work, etc. You'll probably discover you've done a lot more than your remember.

5) Display it for all to see: Buy a new three-ring large binder and plastic inserts. Create a nice computer-printed cover with a few color shots of your home during it's best time of year. And then build your portfolio. Include groupings by rooms of the house, or arrange your info in chronological order, or pictures first, then documentation; whatever order you choose, be sure that potential buyers can see your masterpiece by placing it in an obvious spot when your home is being show by other agents. This careful construction will wow potential buyers, likely get them to stay in the house longer than they might otherwise, and help them understand your pricing better. Think of it as a combo brag-and-scrap book, giving buyers insider information to a home with a history.

Homes are being sold every day, no matter what the economic news, conditions or climate. You can be on that list, too, of sold homes by paying attention to what matters to buyers and putting your home's mysteries and proud moments on display.