Selling a Home: A Recipe for Success

If you've recently listed your home for sale, you should already have painted, cleared clutter from indoors and outdoors, and replaced any broken items that could detract from its appearance and value. So if the phone rings and your realtor needs to show the home today, you think you're ready to go. But you need to stay organized and pay attention to detail in order to give your home every possible advantage of selling in this buyer's market.

Everyday Organizing and Last Minute Primping

It's not easy to live in a house that can be shown at a moment's notice. Things will go much smoother for a last minute showing if you and your family are in the habit of making their beds everyday, picking up dirty clothes and toys and wiping down the shower. But if some things got out of order, go through the house right before the showing tossing items into a laundry bin that you can pop into the trunk of your car. Strive to keep your countertops and table tops free from mail, newspapers and clutter and keep the bathrooms and kitchens wiped down. Place dishes in the dishwasher after every meal, keep dusting wands handy for last minute run-throughs and vacuum regularly. Mop floors as often as needed and keep a sprayer mop available for last minute touch ups.

Find a Pet Sitter or Take Felix and Fido with You

Most likely you will leave your house whenever it is shown and you would be wise to take your pets with you, or arrange ahead of time for a pet sitter. For one thing, you don't want someone accidentally letting the cat out of the house and no one want to hear a barking dog while viewing your home. Worse, you don't want a scared dog biting a stranger. Not having the pets in the home gives potential buyers a chance to see every room in the house. It's ok if there is evidence of pets, such as beds or bowls, as long as there is no damage from pets and the home is clean. A buyer will be impressed with a home that is clean and fresh smelling, even though pets are part of the family; it indicates that you are responsible and that you keep a well-maintained home.

Good Scents, Bad Sense

While a steaming pie set on a kitchen counter is inviting, don't overdo it with artificial air fresheners. A potential buyer could think that something's fishy and you're trying to cover it up. Make cleanliness your first priority: Empty the kitchen trash can daily and keep the kitchen smelling clean by washing sinks daily. Run a solution of baking soda and water or bleach water through the drains weekly. Keep the bathrooms as clean as possible. A basket of potpourri or unlit scented candles are fine; just don't overwhelm with fragrance.

A bright home is a spacious home

Always turn on lights and open shades before a showing. A home that appears bright, will appear more spacious and attractive to buyers. In a room that doesn't have much natural light, it may be advantageous to swap out darker colored furnishings for lighter ones ahead of time, and turn on every light in that room when showing the home. When a room appears dark, not only does it seem smaller, it gives the impression that the homeowner wants to keep buyers out of those spaces. Keep it bright and welcome potential buyers in so that the can see all the outstanding features of your home, which may now be the home of their dreams.

To find out more about selling a home - visit http://www.robertjrussell.com

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Picking the Best Comps

Even if you work with an agent, you will want to do your homework on pricing, and comps play the biggest role in setting a price. Using Zillow, you can find and compare comps on a map. For most addresses, Zillow has compiled a list of 50 comparable transactions based on available data. But this data is just the beginning. Once you have a list of recently sold homes that have something in common with the one you're looking at, your own knowledge of homes in the area is the best tool you have, whether you are buying a home or selling one.

Here are 4 tips for choosing the best comps from a list:

Location, Location, Location

Select comps as close to your address as possible. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, a comp within a block or two of yours might not be a good comp because it sits higher on the hill, and has phenomenal views, or it's closer to a main arterial or freeway. Likewise, a house similar to yours could be a mile away, but still is part of the same market area since neighborhoods are not always carved out in neat, rectangular-shaped boundaries. This is a good comp, even though it's farther away.

Also, ideally, homes in developments should be compared against comps from the same development since these homes were all built together at a specific time, by the same builder/developer.

Select Recent Comps

Ideally, the most recently sold homes will have the strongest bearing on what your home will bring, but in slower markets, you might not have that luxury. Rule of thumb: Getting comps from the previous 3 - 4 months is ideal, but if not, then look back 6 - 8 months. In some cases, transactions that occurred two years ago are still considered comparable.

Price Per Square Foot

Price per square foot is a time-honored method of real estate valuation. However, it doesn't account for a choice location, a move-in-ready home, or personal criteria. You should also factor in how the property was measured and whether the square footage includes the garage or other detached buildings on the property. Lot size can also be a significant factor. While a few hundred square feet difference may not impact market value, a private wooded 3-acre lot will fetch much more than a similar house on a cookie-cutter half-acre for example. In such cases the dollars per-square foot figures can be very unrealistic.

Fuzzy Stuff

You have your data, you've compared the numbers, but here come the individual characteristics. These things are more difficult to quantify, but could boost or detract from a home's value. In order to be comparing apples to apples, you need to consider these "soft" features when pulling together your comp list. For example, consider:

• Curb appeal - The house sits on the "nice" side of the street; it's neatly landscaped and has sidewalks.
• Condition of exterior - Visually make notes of the condition of the roof, paint, chimney, driveway, fences, etc.
• Nearby amenities - Walking distance to cafes, shops, and restaurants.
• Neighborhood - Is the house well-kept but all others around it falling apart? Do celebrities live nearby? Will the paparazzi create traffic concerns?
• Traffic/noise - Is it located on a busy street or near a noisy freeway?
• Schools - Is it in a good school district? Whether you have kids or not, owning a home in a top school district adds tremendous value to a home.

The work you do here will go a long way in determining the fair market value of a home.

http://www.robertjrussell.com

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