Tips for Selling Your Home in Today's Market

Selling your home in today's weakened market is no small task. Before placing our home on the market, we prepared it from top to bottom before we contacted a realtor to list our home. That meant clearing out a lot of clutter that we all tend to accumulate. Doing this job before you contact a realtor is a great idea. It also makes the home much easier to maintain as buyers call to view the home on short notice.

Curb Appeal
Curb appeal is huge when it comes to attracting buyers. Most buyers will do a drive-by first to see what the exterior of the home looks like and also to survey the neighborhood. If things look good outside, they can assume things inside the house will be similar.

In preparing our yard for sale, we had little to do, except to re-mulch the existing flower beds. I also transplanted about six Hosta plants along the front sidewalk, leaving plenty of room for the Asiatic Lilies to bloom in their deep red color. The contrast between the green hostas and red lilies was striking. A fresh layer of mulch on top gave it that crisp, well-cared-for appearance that buyers love to find.

Along the white railing of our front porch, I attached two small flower planters and filled them with Allisium, Dusty Miller and a bright red geranium. I took small strands of creeping myrtle from the front bed and poked them into the planter, allowing their tendrils to gracefully hang over the edges of the planter boxes. This provided a very charming and welcoming appearance to buyers as they came up the front walkway.

Back Yard Relaxation
Our back yard has what we call a "bird island". It is an area about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide which contains a variety of small flowering plants and shrubs along with an assortment of bird feeders. It provides interest as we sit on our covered back deck each morning and watch all the bird activity. Growing on one side of the covered deck we have two Clematis vines, a miniature rose bush and a neat row of miniature azaleas. Sitting on the back deck provides rest, relaxation and nourishment to the soul. We have thoroughly enjoyed this area of our home and we know the new home owners will too.

Keeping the lawn neatly mowed is a must. It shows not only that the home and yard are well cared for, but it also shows off the size of the yard.

Welcoming and Comfortable on the Inside
Inside our home, we made sure everything was clean but not antiseptic and sterile. We wanted people to feel like they were at home in our home. We removed all of our personal photos and replaced them with more generic items so the buyers could visualize themselves in the home. Also any rooms that needed a coat of fresh paint, got it. Since we had already done most of the painting before we decided to sell our home, we had only the master bedroom and bath to paint and freshen up.

Once our home was on the market, we had a very pleasant surprise. The very first couple to view our home, loved it, made an offer and we are now heading quickly toward our closing date.

Doing the preparations prior to listing the house made everything run so smoothly for both our realtor and us. The home inspection revealed everything inside and outside to be in excellent condition with no repairs required. By planning and preparing ahead of time, it removes the stress so typically associated with selling a home.

We are now looking forward to our up-coming move and settling into a new community. Already we are mapping out the flower beds and bird feeders we plan to install, making our new home as comfy as the one we just sold. In today's economy, buying and selling a home could be more difficult, but by doing the work ahead of time, it makes selling your home much less stressful.

Source: Personal Life