Get Spring Show Home Ready to Sell

The first day of Spring is upon us - the traditional peak real estate selling season is about to start (although it has not exactly been quiet this winter).

Will we see a change with more properties coming to the market?  History says we will and things will get more active.  Let’s make sure your home stands out and is ready to sell - a quality well presented home will sell faster for a better price.  

Forget the fancy advertising, wow description, or agent enthusiasm. The most important thing you can do is offer a quality 'product' for sale.  No matter how things change, the basics still matter most - a well presented home will sell better.  Buyers will not see past or around things - they look at is what is right in front of them.  

Let’s do an inspection from the outside - even from across the road and check out street appeal.  If we’ve got just 10 seconds to make that all important first impression we need to make it count as buyers approach the home:

• Is the front fence looking immaculate?  Straight and true, well painted (side fences as well).
  
• The letterbox too?
  
• Does the house look good from the road?  Trim trees and shrubs that obscure the presentation.  
  
• Is the front entrance welcoming and tidy?  Clear of shoes and brollies, nicely painted and inviting.
  
• The roof and guttering - weeds have no place at our show home - especially not growing from the spouting.

A manicured front yard will send the right signals - a well cared for, well presented home.  That sets the theme for the buyers inspection and starts things off the right way.

Now inside.

Maximise light - you have already trimmed any trees and shrubs around windows and doors outside.  Inside get rid of the net curtains (yep, get rid of them!), and those big heavy curtains that keep the cold out in winter make sure they are pulled right back at a minimum.  Don’t worry about the furniture fading - you are not going to be on the market long enough for that to happen.

Now neutralise the home by removing photos and personal effects as much as practical - buyers want to see themselves in the home, so as much as practical remove yourselves to enable them to do that.  Make rooms look as large as possible by getting everything off the floor that does not need to be there, odd bits furniture make rooms look cramped and small.  Move stuff out to the garage or a storage unit.

Time for the elbow grease to get show home ready.  Our theme here is sterilise and revitalise.

The normal stuff, vacuum, wash etc.  Get the carpets and lounge suite shampooed and get the effort into those annual tasks - tile grout, in down deep in the shower, all those places the combination of winter and condensation show their effects.  The huge effort required to break free from winter hibernation.

As you go remember it’s the little things that count too - buyers will open cupboards, they will see broken light switches, blown light bulbs, leaking taps, sticky window latches, and lifting wallpaper.

I am not sure about yours, but our teenagers are about as far from show home sympathetic as you can get.  Time for “those” posters to go away - neutralise and sterilise...

Show home ready is clean and today, with neutral decor, fresh smelling and ready for the buyer to move in.  To do that you need to physiologically ‘move out’.

A quality ‘product’ will sell better.  Make yours stand out.