Selling your home in today’s market

I am often asked “what’s it going to take to sell my home in this market?”

My answer: take the advice of your local Realtor and live by the rule of the three Ps: preparation, price and patience.

Preparation

Much like any profession, i.e. an auto body paint shop, a tax preparer, or a professional athlete, being prepared for the main event is crucial to a successful outcome.

Painting

An auto body paint shop will not just paint your car the way you bring it to them off the street — they need to perform hours of preparation prior to your car entering the paint boot.

The same rule should apply to your home prior to going on the market for sale. Curb appeal is often overlooked because sellers focus most of their attention on the interior of their home.

A fresh or recently painted exterior is very helpfu.

Consult your local painter on color choices and remember that your selection should be chosen to please the masses — no cotton candy pink, lime green, baby blue or neon yellow!

Curb appeal

Nicely manicured landscaping with colorful vegetation is very helpful too.

Be sure to keep walkways leading to the front door trimmed; it doesn’t help when potential buyers have to fight their way through overgrown landscaping just to make it to the front door.

Be sure that your home isn’t hidden by overgrown landscaping too.

Cleaning

Have your windows cleaned (both interior and exterior sides).

Now that you have curb appeal, you want to keep the momentum going once the buyer steps foot into your home.

A clean home free of clutter and personal paraphernalia is key to your success.

Indoors

Freshly painted interior walls (or touched-up walls if your paint is in good condition) is very helpful.

If you’re going to add color, consult an interior designer or professional painter (I often see interior paint jobs that “glow” or completely clash causing the buyers to run out of the house like they’ve seen a ghost).

Flooring is also important

If your carpet is dated, stained or worn out it needs to be replaced (or at least professionally cleaned). Hardwood is very appealing but if it needs to be refinished you’ll get a good return on your investment.

Repairs and inspections are important, too

A pest inspection should be performed and Section 1 items need to be repaired (i.e. dry rot, fungus damage, termites, etc.).

A home inspection is not a bad idea either. If you can repair the defects it will make the escrow process a lot smoother (buyers prefer to move into a home that does not have a bunch of repairs that need to be made).

Price

Far too many times I hear the same story from my colleagues, “I spent hours researching the market and providing comparable data to my client and they insist that their home is worth more than the price I have suggested!”

Your Realtor should have physically previewed your competition, not just data from the Multiple Listing Service. Often times family members, co-workers, friends and neighbors influence sellers regarding pricing strategy, which leads to an overpriced listing.

An overpriced home usually ends up selling for less than a home that was priced by your Realtor because you end up chasing the market down (pricing your home to sell quickly is key because the longer your home sits on the market the lower it’s going to end up selling.

If you don’t receive an offer in the first three-to-four weeks you should consider adjusting the price).

Keep in mind that after three or four weeks on the market, your home will begin to lose attraction.

Patience

The average sales cycle is about 100 days (from the time your home goes on the market to the time escrow closes).

Please be patient and remember that your home will eventually sell.

Gone are the days of buyers following the “For Sale” sign installers around and writing offers on the trunk of Realtor’s cars.

If your home has curb appeal, is well maintained, free of repairs and is priced to sell, it will eventually sell.

(Doug Hecker is a Realtor with Frank Howard Allen in Petaluma. He can be reached at 775-2256)