How to Market Your House

With the competition to sell residential real estate in every market in the nation, everybody needs an edge. Today, homeowners compete against every other home on the market plus banks with foreclosed properties offered at a discount. Making a home a showplace get a property sold expeditiously. Whether for sale by owner (FSBO) or helping a seasoned real estate agent, making a house shine can get homes sold in record time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 5 gallons of paint
• Wallpaper
• Wallpaper Trim
• Broom
• Dust pan
• Bookends

1. Move the excess furniture (including lawn furniture) to storage. Make the house look livable and uncluttered. Of course, you live here everyday but put away the items that do not give a clean path for a buyer. Make every real estate agent want to bring their clients into your home. If it is impossible to move furniture to storage, ask a neighbor if they will store it for a few dollars a month or rent a mini storage that sits in front of the house or in the driveway. The $300 storage fees will add $3000 to the price of a house.

2. Paint or wallpaper every wall. Put up a bright border print, if possible. Remove personal items from the walls and any knick-knacks that could catch a buyer's eye. Cleaned the windows and open the drapes to let the light flow into the room.

3. Move books forward on bookcases and group them from the tallest to the shortest on each shelf. Use bookends to create gaps in the middle. Remove controversial books on theology, politics, witchcraft or any subject that could interest a prospective buyer more in your bookshelf than buying your house.

4. Make the bathroom shine every day. Find a place to put everything away and do your best to make that bathroom smell airy and fresh. If the house has more than one bathroom, use one and keep the others immaculate. Find a place for dirty laundry so the odor does not spoil the smell of the clean house.

5. Make the beds every day as if this is the day the house is going to sell. Consider this an investment in selling your home.

6. In the wintertime, open the window every day possible to air every room completely. If that is not possible, cook potpourri in a pan on the stove to produce a pleasant scent in the house. Because not every buyer likes odor, be subtle and hide cooking smells.

7. Clean the garage, furnace and hot water heater area. Every buyer looks in those areas. Clean out the areas under the sinks.

Tips & Warnings

• In the summer, keep the grass and bushes trimmed and mowed. In the winter keep the walks shoveled all around the house and driveway. If it is impossible to move furniture to storage, ask a neighbor if they will store it for a few dollars a month or rent a mini storage that sits in front of the house or in the driveway. Small rooms look big without much furniture.
• When selling rental property, do all of the repairs listed above. Treat your tenants like gold and give them incentives to be cooperative. If you lose tenants over selling, consider investing in rental furniture to make the property shine. The lost rent may show up in your higher sales price. You cannot give up pets. Be available for showings or compensate neighbors or friends to be there. Take the long view: pets are not the biggest determinant whether or not your property sells. If a real estate agent tell you that your pet can kill a sale, find another agent.

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