Hall - 101 Easy Ways to Make Your Home Sell Faster

A Fawcett Columbine Book
Published by Ballantine Books

Copyright 1985 by Barbara Jane Hall

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-91675
eISBN: 978-0-307-77580-1

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Why is it that one house sells within days after the realtors sign appears on the front lawn and another lingers for months on the market? Youve probably seen this happen in your own neighborhood: the Harrisons charming little Cape sells the first week for the full asking price while the Campbells tidy Colonial languishes for seven months before it finally moves at $8,000 less than the listed price.

In todays tough real estate market, far too many sellers are spending endless months, even years, watching prospective buyers troop through their homes without making an offer. To avoid this kind of frustration, you must learn the secrets of making your house more salable. And no, you neednt invest $5,000 in a new redwood deck or $10,000 in an in-ground swimming pool to make your home a quick seller. The fact is, if you were to carry out all 101 tips recommended in this book, your total outlay would be measured in mere hundreds rather than thousands of dollars.

Thats right, most of the following 101 tips will cost you little or nothing. If you want to reap the rewards of a fast sale of your home, what you must be willing to invest are your time, your imagination, and a little old-fashioned elbow grease.

The rewards should be obvious to all. There may, of course, be urgent reasons why you have to move, such as a job transfer, relocation, or retirement. Ask any friend or neighbor whose house took ages to sell, and you will hear an all too common tale of frustration, annoyance, inconvenience, and disappointment. Having hordes of strangers invading your private domain for months on end is no picnic for you and your family.

More important is the fact that the longer a house is on the market, the less likely the seller is to receive a high offer. Its human nature to suspect the quality of merchandise that has been on the shelf for a long time. A slow-selling house makes prospective buyers nervous. More often than not they either reject the house or make a ridiculously low offer in the hope and belief that the weary and discouraged owner is desperate to sell.

Happily, it doesnt have to be this way. Selling your home, though rarely a fun experience, can be a painless and profitable oneif you follow the guidelines offered on the following pages. And dont neglect to involve your family in this project. It is a cooperative venture with one shared goal: to make your home sell fast.

Remember that youre not selling a house, youre selling a home. That structure consists of far more than four walls and a roof. A home is a personal shelter, a haven from the pressures of the outside world, and a warm, inviting setting for family living. Although a house is probably the biggest purchase a couple ever makes, the decision to buy one is never purely rational. Buyers buy with their heads and their hearts.

Beyond the obvious considerations of location, size, quality of construction, present condition, and design, buyers look for special qualities that appeal to their emotions. Often they probably have no idea what these hidden, emotional qualities are that draw them to one house over another. Its your job to prepare the groundwork, to set the scene for a buyer to fall in love with your home. Believe it or not, many a house has sold quickly because of a spectacular lilac bush, a cozy windowseat tucked under the eaves, or a kitchen bay window filled with potted herbs.

Put yourself in the buyers shoes, and remember that they arrive at your front door wanting to fall in love with your home. They are eager and filled with happy expectations. If you dont know how to take advantage of these feelings, your customer is likely to beat a hasty retreat with a tight smile and a thank you very much. On the other hand, if youve done your homework and set the stage, or stages, correctly, every room in your home will greet the customer with a pleasant surprise. Your home will sell itself.

Let us assume that you and your family have made the big decision. Youre ready to sell. Youre no longer just thinking about it or toying with the idea. This is the real thing. First, settle down in your favorite easy chair, close your eyes, and try to remember your feelings the very first time you walked into your home. Now, pick up a pencil and start listing your impressions of your homes most positive features in the first column of Chart One (opposite). This list should be purely subjective. Let your remembered feelings be your guide: the more personal, the better.

Ask your spouse and your children to add their own special positive reactions to the chart. Dont forget that its important to get a childs-eye view if you hope to sell to another family with children. Your teenage daughter may remember how she fell in love with your home years ago because of a swing that hung from the old oak tree in your backyard. Dont make the mistake of ignoring childrens special impressions. They are an invaluable addition to this chart.

To complete the list, take a slow tour through every room in the house (bathrooms, too), then canvas the attic, basement, garage, and finally the yard. Make an effort to note at least one positive feature in each area. Include not only the items that attracted you to the house in the first place, but also those desirable features you have added since you bought it. If your list spills off the printed chart, as it probably will, lucky you! Youve discovered that your home has lots of salable assets.

This exercise is tougher, but equally important. Your first list was fun; for this one, you have to be ruthless. Try to imagine that you are a stranger seeing your own house for the first time. Plunge right into the spirit of the game by starting your dispassionate tour from the street. Then take a pencil and start filling in the first column of Chart Two () with every negative feature you can find.

Dont skip any area of your home or property. Is the upstairs hall too long and dark? Is the kitchen too small? Is that forsythia bush getting out of hand? Again, invite your family to participate. Try not to let your love for your home color your objectivity.

You must neither close your eyes to your homes negative features nor let them depress you. Once aware of them, youre going to learn to solve the problems with ingenuityand a very small outlay of cash, if any.