I am listing my house for sale/rent on Monday. I will talk to the Realtor about some tips on how to get get someone in here fast. I am curious though for anyone who has sold their house or rented their house if you did anything special when your house was shown? Did you light candles, did you pack up most of your stuff like pictures to make it less personal? Did you leave pictures to make it feel like a home?
LMK- I have a month to sell this place (not holding my breath on that one) or get tenants in here. I am going through a management company, but I need tips on things I should/shouldn't do when showing my house!
We just bought a house last year and I can tell you from looking at 50 houses that the less clutter the better! No obnoxious paint colors, candles help too! Good luck!
We rent out both units in a two family home that we used to live in ourselves. When I show either unit I just make sure it's nice and clean, smells good, neutral paints on the walls, sparse or no furniture (if there are no current tenants) and all of the window shades wide open to let in a bunch of light. Light is our best feature and we have beautiful big brand new windows so generally play up the place's best feature. If you have nice hardwood floors make them shine.
I never do anything more than that though- if you look desperate I feel like it works against you. I also try and remind people it's first applicant that passes a credit and background check gets it to speed up the application process.
We just sold our place last week. Declutter, declutter, declutter! I packed everything up, leaving only a few things to make the place still look lived in. Counters were bare, cupboards cleaned up. I had a painter come in and paint our basement. My H is a huge sports fan and had the family room (aka his man cave) painted Calgary Flames colours. I changed that immediately. Also, go through and check for little imperfections. You may not notice the few knicks in the hallway or the chipped paint by the stairs, but to your potential buyer coming through they will stick out like a sore thumb . Same principal goes for cleaning. Regular clean isn't good enough. I bought a stainless steel polish. It made my sink look brand new.
Everyone has already mentioned the most important point. Declutter! We packed everything away and took all pictures of us down and put up paintings etc. in their place and sold our condo in one day. Having really great professional photos taken by our realtor's photographer helped a lot. The place looked awesome on MLS and in that one day got lots of traffic.
Just know your market and make sure the house is priced reasonably so you can get traffic along with the decluttering, neutral colors and great photos of your place.
We also offered a bonus for the realtor whose clients buy our house. The bonus goes straight to the realtor unlike their commission which is split with the realty company. Extra motivation to have the house looked at.
We just signed a contract to sell our house for exactly what we wanted to in just a few weeks of having it on the market for more than we bought it for, it's definitely possible.
Our realtor is the one who mentioned it as a good selling incentive and it seems to have worked in our favor. We went with $1,000 and since we are making money on the sale we don't mind forking over a little to ensure we sell the place.
I'm a Realtor, I agree with decluttering and depersonalizing. The bonus is a great idea. Also avoid a lot of scented candles or room sprays because it will look like you're hiding something.
Like others said. Declutter! We took down about 80 percent of decorations while we were showing. Remove everything like toaster and coffee maker from the kitchen counter also to make it look like you have a lot of counter space. Also hide electrical cords. We basically taped all the wires and cords behind our tv/ receiver / speaker to the back of the tv. We even removed some furniture to make certain rooms feel roomier. Good luck!
Re: NBR: Tips on how to sell/rent your house
I never do anything more than that though- if you look desperate I feel like it works against you. I also try and remind people it's first applicant that passes a credit and background check gets it to speed up the application process.
We also offered a bonus for the realtor whose clients buy our house. The bonus goes straight to the realtor unlike their commission which is split with the realty company. Extra motivation to have the house looked at.
We just signed a contract to sell our house for exactly what we wanted to in just a few weeks of having it on the market for more than we bought it for, it's definitely possible.
Our realtor is the one who mentioned it as a good selling incentive and it seems to have worked in our favor. We went with $1,000 and since we are making money on the sale we don't mind forking over a little to ensure we sell the place.