Preparing your home for Sale

The chill is in the air and even though the leaf color won’t be as spectacular, one can tell summer is over and we are headed into the fall.  This particular season is the most unique one as it relates to the real estate market. I would guess that this will ring true this year as well.  If you are thinking of selling your home, you want to take advantage of these next several weeks because once we hit Thanksgiving and move into early December, the number of buyers will decrease causing the sales activity to go into a bit of hibernation.  Sellers will need to be cognizant of this fact and we recommend the following if you want to be one of the homes that go under contract in the last quarter of 2019

1. Make sure you are priced correctly.  This is not the time to put your home at a higher price to see if anyone out there might make an offer.  If you want to try this tactic, we encourage you to wait until the spring when there is more buyer demand.
2. Do whatever you can to create curb appeal so that those looking will be drawn into your home versus it being eliminated for how it looks from the outside.  Just this week, a house was held open and the agent watched cars slow down but then drive away because they didn’t like how it looked from the street. For more detailed information, click on this link to get advice from Corbin Snow.  https://wina.com/podcasts/creating-curb-appeal-for-your-home-2/
3. Do whatever you can to declutter your home.  You are going to move any way so take the time to get rid of stuff that will not make the trip to your next home   You want each room and closet to look as big as possible so even eliminating stuff from the places of storage is important.  Steven Landis and Brandon Lloyd explain why taking the time to do this on this podcast link. https://wina.com/podcasts/asklandis-on-decluttering-your-home/
4. Talk to your Realtor about getting the home professionally staged before it becomes active on the market.  The more you can create balance space the better. It will help the house appear bigger. For example, consider painting the walls the same color as the draperies.  The stager will help you implement things we have already discussed here like: making sure rooms don’t look overcrowded, what furniture needs to go or moved, putting new doors and drawer fronts on cabinets if you can’t afford new ones.  Sometimes you can even get a new front panel on a perfectly good dishwasher vs buying a new one. A stager can provide you a creative and objective eye in a way that you can’t because you live and are comfortable in the space. Learn more by clicking on this link.  https://www.inman.com/2015/05/07/6-reasons-why-a-professional-home-photographer-is-worth-the-price/
5. Finally, once all is done, have your home professionally photographed inside and out.  If you can afford the extra cost, get drone shots as well. Why is this important? Because over 90% of people searching for homes start the hunt on the internet.  You do not want your home eliminated because it didn’t show well in the photos. Click here to learn more about why good pictures can make a difference https://www.inman.com/2015/05/07/6-reasons-why-a-professional-home-photographer-is-worth-the-price/

We hope you have found this information helpful.  If we can help your further, email us at homes@searchcharlottesville.com or by calling 434-951-5124