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Imagine it: You walk into a home that is beautiful on the outside with a manicured, landscaped lawn, perfect sized garage and beautiful mature trees that will give you perfect shade while enjoying your morning coffee or Saturday mimosa, then you walk inside and BAM; you get hit with clutter upon clutter in rooms, making them look smaller, the smell of cat urine or animal smells singes your nostrils, or a home that is simply not clean. Quickly you move onto another, more suitable home to satisfy your tastes.
When selling a home it is important that the buyer feels welcomed upon walking inside the home. If the home is unoccupied this makes it much easier to accomplish, but it can easily be done with an occupied home as well! There are just a few steps that need to be taken to make sure you get top-dollar for your home. Read below to find out the top 5 tips for staging your home to sale in San Antonio to get the best price and get multiple offers so you can move onto bigger and better things!
Remove personal Photos: You love your family and friends and want to cherish the wonderful memories you have, there’s nothing wrong with that…. Unless you’re selling your home! Getting people to see the home as theirs instead of yours is important and one of the easiest ways to do that is to remove pictures of family & friends that scream: this is still MY home.
Add Impersonal Pictures in their place: If you need inspiration think of when you walk into a model home! How clean & organized it is, how well placed the pictures are upon the freshly painted walls, this gives the buyer a feeling of wanting to adopt that lovely lifestyle. This type of setup helps buyers see themselves as the owner already and instead of worrying about issues of the home, they start arranging their furniture in their mind and wonder where they’ll place their television, bookcases and favorite sofa. When buyers start arranging furniture it is a key for the agent to know to push for an offer… which ultimately benefits you and brings us one step closer to selling the home!
Your dog is amazing and adorable, but…. Please arrange for a dog-sitter or take him/her along with you when your home is being shown. I have taken buyers into homes with pups, while a quiet one is okay (which I have yet to meet during my extensive list of home tours), even if the owner thinks they’ll be little angels and just nap in their kennel, usually when a stranger enters the home your angel turns into a little protector and will keep barking and barking…. and barking! I have had to leave several homes due to obnoxious barking, where the buyer couldn’t even focus on the home due to the loudness of the dog. On another note, there was a home the buyer and I actually had to stay in past our tour time while we had to corral the dog back into the restroom (which didn’t have any warning on the door saying a dog was in there ready to make his escape) and the dog bolted as soon as the buyer went to look at the bathroom. The basic issue is: You need the buyer to focus on the home, not the pet!
Keep it clean: I cannot stress this tip enough; a dirty home is not an inviting home. When a home is not clean, it reduces the value, feel and lets the buyer know that it wasn’t a well-taken care of home…. which makes them wonder what else might not have been taken care of while the home was under your care. Get a cleaning service or if it’s easier, put as much as you can in storage (or in boxes in the garage if separate storage is not possible) until the home is sold. This small step of removing the non-essential items will make the home more organized and easier to clean, making the selling process go that much smoother.
Keep it clean #2…. This means the outside as well: The same rule that applies above, why no one would want to buy a dirty home (unless you’re an investor and planning to flip in anyway), an out of control yard is a huge deterrent for home buyers. There was a gorgeous home I was doing an open house in for a co-worker of mine, to help her out, and she assured me it was in good condition prior to my arrival. I had worked with her before when she had too many listings (as I enjoy doing open houses) but this one was the last one I’ve ever done for that specific coworker because once I got to the home I was quite shocked that the front lawn, which is the FACE of the home, there were grass and weeds that were about a foot high!! When people came into the open house every single one of them mentioned the appalling situation the lawn was in and it made me look extremely unprofessional, even though it wasn’t my home or my listing. The high lawn blocked the sidewalk up to the home and there was a little fence that I tried to get situated to look nice but it was broken and wobbly, there was a wasp nest in the corner by the front door, broken lawn chairs (which I moved prior to the open house) but it was too much work to be done when I already had to set up signs, balloons & other items that morning. Needless to say, it was my least successful open house! Normally, prior to an open house I will go and take a look at the home the day before and see what needs to be done (if it’s my listing all of this is settled at the listing presentation, which outlines my expectations of the sellers as well as my client’s expectations so situations such as this are easily avoided) but since it was a last minute request for me to do an open house on her behalf due to another engagement she had to take care of I didn’t have time for my normal level of preparation. To get to the point: if maintaining the lawn is something that you are unable to do, then hire a weekly (or bi-weekly) lawn care professional, neighbor kid or someone that can take care of the lawn maintenance. Adding this step to the schedule will keep your home looking pleasing so you can get top-dollar from the buyer!
There are many other things to keep in mind while selling a home, all of which a Top-Realtor® will go over in their listing presentation. Above all, understanding that selling a home is not a passive role but a role that will be molded as the closing process nears. There will be home inspections which may point out some things that will need your attention, appraisals and a great Realtor® will keep you updated and informed as to anything that arises, good or bad, along the way! I help my clients continuously through the home-selling process but understanding that there are expectations required on the seller’s end as well as the buyer’s before going on this adventure makes everything go a lot smoother and leads to a faster and more satisfying closing. Good Luck and Blessings in all you do and if you are looking to sale your home in the San Antonio or surrounding areas, please do not hesitate to give me a call and we can schedule your appointment today!