TEN WAYS TO FIX YOUR HOME FOR OPEN HOUSE

When selling your home there are no guarantees that a buyer will simply walk through the front door. In many cases you may have to bring your home to te buyer.                                        

Effective marketing will help ensure that your property receives maximum exposure to attract a ready, willing and able buyer. The appearance of your home, a buyer's first impressions, and other considerations can also affect the sale of your home. Be sure to explore tips for increasing your home's value.

Have you considered that home prices in your neighborhood and the value of your property is also factors used for pricing your home?

Increasing the Value of Your House When you're preparing your house for sale; remember the importance of first impressions.

The market isn't the only factor that influences whether you get your asking price. Appearance and overall condition play a major role.

Here are some easy things you can do to make your home more appealing to buyers. It is estimated that more than half the houses are sold before the buyers even get out of their cars. So stand across the street from your house and review its curb appeal.

• Brighten rooms: Shades of white account for 50 percent of paint sales, and for good reason: It's refreshing, restful and all furnishings look good with that color.

• Rearrange living room furniture: Begin by rearranging the sofa into the center of the room, and face it towards the fireplace or a picture window.

• Reevaluate room use: A rarely used guest bedroom can be converted into a home office.

• Use standing screens to mask problem areas: Tri-fold screens are one way to hide eyesores (like home office equipment).

• Fill an empty corner: By placing a large potted tree in the corner.

• Create intriguing centerpieces: If collectibles or framed family photos are spread throughout a room, group them together and minimize the photos by a few and match similar frame style.

• Refurbish cabinets: Strip and refinish old, dark wood. Add new handles or knobs. Replace doors with glass fronts or consider removing them.

• Get rid of heavy drapes: Replace with fabrics that blend with surrounding walls. Add tiebacks on each side.

• Apply self-adhesive wallpaper borders: Use them to brighten up a child's room or a bathroom.

• Cover a wall with mirror tiles: This is ideal for bathrooms, entries, and other small, dark rooms that lack impact.

• Get rid of garage clutter: organize garage by throwaway unneeded items. If you have shelves organized them in order for full utilization of the space.

Ask your friends and neighbors to view your home through "buyer’s eyes" and give you their honest opinions.

In general: cleaner is better, brighter and more open is better, no odors is better, and neutral colors are best. Make your home as appealing and uncluttered as the home you would like to buy.

OUTSIDE:

Good "curb appeal" is imperative. If people don’t like your house from the outside, they won’t want to come inside.

• Make sure your front lawn looks neat and tidy to make the first impression favorable. Cut the grass and trim the hedges and shrubs.

• Plant some extra flowers for color – or just put some pots beside the front door.

• Spruce up your landscaping with some fresh plantings. Even a few items can improve the look of things.

• Remove all dead limbs and debris. Give the lawn a fresh raking and the sidewalk and driveway a good sweeping. Patch any holes.

• Walk your fence line. Repair broken areas and paint or stain spots in poor condition.

• Put away lawn equipment. Arrange outdoor items, such as firewood or outdoor furniture, neatly.

• Take a close look at your front door. It’s a focal point and one of the first things your prospects will examine. If it’s faded or shows signs of needing repair, clean it, stain it, or paint it. While you’re at it, do the same with the back door and garage door.

• Repainting the entire exterior of your home is a fairly expensive venture, and really unnecessary unless the walls have bad blistering or peeling. But you can do wonders by simply painting window sashes, trim, and shutters.

• Replace faded house numbers with shiny new brass ones.

• If needed, repaint or replace the mailbox.

• Clean out debris in your rain gutters. Touch up with paint if necessary, and realign if crooked.

• Check the roof for shingles or flashing that needs replacing.

• Fix any broken windows or screens, and wash them for a bright, sparkling appearance.

• Test the entry light and the doorbell. It’s the little things that matter.

• Haul out any “junk” in your side or backyard.

• Clean out the garage. The perfect garage contains only cars – do your best.

INSIDE:

After you’ve tackled the exterior of your home, head inside. The goal here is to make everything look more spacious, more organized, brighter, warm, and homey.

• No matter what the season, do your spring cleaning. Clean houses sell a lot easier than dirty ones.

• About the cheapest way to make rooms seem warmer and brighter is by buying higher intensity light bulbs, putting them in every lamp in the house, and then turning them on. Also always open drapes and angle blinds to brighten rooms. This gives the house a friendly glow. Buyers will react positively, and feel good about your home.

• Brighten things with fresh paint. White, off-white, or beige walls make a room look bigger and lighter. And you can be fairly certain these colors will go with the new buyer’s furnishings. Painting the inside costs very little, gives a "new" smell, and makes a big difference in buyer perception.

• Too much furniture can make a home "feel wrong." So move out all your excess furniture, especially worn or outdated furniture, to make rooms seem larger and uncluttered, and take down pictures that hide walls.

• Clean out all your closets to make them look bigger. Store out-of-season clothes in the attic or basement, and get rid of excess items. Neatly arrange everything that’s left.

• Have a huge garage sale with all your excess items. Not only will you be reducing clutter, but you can use the money you earn to finance your touch-ups. You’ll also be reducing your moving costs.

• Clean all your windows and mirrors so they sparkle.

• Arrange the furniture so each room appears as spacious as possible.

• If the carpeting looks dirty, have it cleaned. If it looks worn, or is a loud color, consider replacing it. You will probably recover the cost, and your home will sell faster.

• Launder draperies and curtains, if needed. Dust blinds and furniture.

• Clear off the kitchen counters – that includes small appliances and dish- draining racks. Make the counters look as expansive as possible.

• Clean out the inside of kitchen cabinets. Leave them looking clean and spacious.

• Clean the oven and all appliances. Wash the grease splatters from around the stove. Don’t forget to polish the chrome on the sink. Clean out the refrigerator, use a clear wax and polish the floors.

•  A grungy bathroom will kill sales. Make each bath look like a guest bath. Polish the tub, toilet, and bathroom sink. Clean all tile, grout, and caulk, replace cracked tiles, and regrout if necessary.

• Put out fresh towels and a new bar of matching colored soap when the house is to be shown.

• Clean the furnace/air conditioner return filters and vents. Then crank up whichever one is appropriate to make your home as comfortable as possible.

• Get out your tool kit, and fix all those little things that you’ve lived with over the months or years.

• Tighten loose doorknobs, drawers, cabinet handles, towel racks, switch plates, and outlet covers.

• Tack down any loose molding, glue down any lifted wallpaper; replace any cracked switch plates.

• Fix sticking doors and windows, squeaking doors, and wobbly stair banisters.

• Fix leaky faucets and remove water stains.

• If it’s time to spray or bomb for bugs, don’t wait until the last minute.

WHEN YOUR HOME IS SHOWN:

When it’s time for a Realtor to show your home, all your preparations will be worth it. But there are a few final tips that can add that little extra magic.

• Before prospective buyers walk in the door, give your home the welcoming aroma of fresh-baked bread or cinnamon rolls. (A pot of cinnamon and water on the stove will give the same results.) Do not smoke in the house!

• Clear out the kids, their toys, the cat, and the dog.

• Turn off the television, stereo, and radio. Like kids and animals, they too can be distracting.

• Turn on all your lights – open all the drapes and blinds – even during daylight.

• Put out fresh flowers, your best towels, and a nice tablecloth.

• Make yourself scarce. Many prospects feel like intruders when the owners are present. They tend to hurry away, or fail to ask the questions they’d like to ask. Your absence will put buyers at ease, and give them a chance to spend more time looking at your house, absorbing its advantages and visualizing themselves living there.

• Be polite, but avoid conversations with prospects. Their agent needs their complete attention to increase their interest in your home.

• Don’t apologize for the appearance or condition of your home. You’ll only call attention to things the buyers might have overlooked.

• Don’t try to complicate the sale of the home by discussing drapes, furniture, appliances, etc. If the buyer wants any of these items, the agent can ask about them later.

• Keep your home on the market. Let your home be shown even when you’re not there. If you don’t, you’re limiting the showings – and actually keeping your house off the market many hours a day.

• Always keep your home ready to be shown.

HOLDING OPEN HOUSE 

 Drawback of Holding an Open House

You tend to lose some control if you have several visitors at the same time. It’s very hard to read interest levels when you are dealing with multiple guests. You don’t get a chance to screen people who walk through your door during an open house. You should have another person with you throughout the event, and remove your valuables from the house beforehand.

You may want to hold your open house by appointments to pre-qualified buyers that are ready to purchase your home. This eliminates countless hours of valuable time wasted showing and negotiating with “buyers” who can’t buy no matter how much they love your house. Buyers should be pre-approved for a loan before you begin dealing with them.

Basic Rules of Thumb

If you prefer to hold your open house in the traditional way basically, you put up a sign and/or run an advertisement and invite people into your home to look around. They are usually held in the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday. Sundays are usually the best, and 2 – 5 are the best times. Make sure your open house is not competing with a major televised sports event or major religious observances.

Advertise your open house in the weekend real estate section of your local paper or, if there are several homes for sale in your neighborhood, you could simply put up directional signs to your house and expect to pick up some traffic from other open houses in the area.

Put up an open house sign in your front yard and place open house directional signs in your neighborhood and on well-traveled roads just before the open house. Check with your homeowners association and city about possible sign ordinances.

Always put the house in prime showing condition. Put soft music on and play up the best features. Turn on lights in darker rooms and be sure the house smells nice. Offer cookies and punch and have fresh coffee so the aroma fills the house and creates a wonderful atmosphere. Put away all small valuables.

Have a sign-in sheet or guest book and get the name, address, and phone number of everyone who attends. Use this information to confirm that the potential buyers are motivated and to make follow-up calls. Make notes, write down positive impressions and comments.

Have house information brochures and financing sheets ready. Have a friend or neighbor take care of your kids and pets. For safety reasons, always have at least two people showing the house. Pick up some blank sales contracts in case someone wants to buy your home.

When buyers come through, let them look around without you. Introduce yourself at the door, shake hands and tell them you’re available to answer questions. Then, let them look.

Follow up after the open house with everyone who came through. Simply ask if there is any further information you can provide about the house and if they had an interest in the house.

MAKING THE MOVE EASY ON THE KIDS

• Moving from one house to another can be especially troubling for the children.
• But if parents deal with their children's concerns and needs thoughtfully and include them once the decision is made to move, much of that distress and discomfort can be avoided.
• Children see moves differently than their parent's do, and they benefit much less from the change in their comfortable routines, or so it seems at the time.  Children will feel scared on the thought of new schools and new friends.
• Most often, a change in houses or communities heralds an important step forward for the adult members of the family. The family moves because Daddy or Mommy has a great new job or a promotion in reward for years of hard work.
• They move because financial success has allowed the purchase of a bigger and nicer house in a more costly neighborhood.
• They move because they can finally afford private bedrooms for each child and perhaps a pool in the back yard.
• In the 1990's, mobile and hard striving people typically live in a house for about four years and then move on as their careers or fortunes allow. That short time span is only a small percentage of the life-to-date for a 30 or 40 year old, but the same four years is half the life-time of an 8 year old, and it includes almost all the years he or she can remember.
• To a parent, this house may be only the place they have lived recently. They think of it as a way station on the road of life. To kids, however, it may be the only home they have ever really known. This is their house, the place they feel safe and comfortable and thoroughly at home.