Home Seller FAQS

Welcome to my website’s page of frequently asked questions about selling real estate. I have attempted to use this page of my website to provide answers to many of the questions I am frequently asked by various clients. I hope you find them useful. If you have a question please do not hesitate to contact me.

8 Ways to Make a Home Sell Faster

1. Eliminate countertop clutter as much as possible. A countertop covered with small appliances, utensils or other items looks crowded. Clear those items off and it will give a more spacious look and appeal.
2. Pack up the your ‘too personal’ items. For example, don’t leave toiletries on the bathroom counter, Stash family photos, and take down your ‘To-Do’ bulletin board…
3. Be prepared for some snooping. Some prospective buyers will pull open drawers, look in your closets and peek around the shower curtain.
4. Make sure things work properly. Faucets dripping, burned-out lights, and squeaky hinges take away from the home’s appeal.
5. The house should be “white-glove clean”. Mop, dust, vacuum, clean the baseboards, wash the windows, and touch up the walls… Make sure the house looks clean and fresh with no un-natural smells. Get rid of pet odor. Even are your favorite air freshener should not be used. (A loaf of bread in the oven is another thing).
6. Make sure the front door is clean and presentable with polished hardware. Power-wash the entry and walkways.
7. Remove any furniture that makes rooms feel crowded. Having a room that is sparsely furnished is better then having one that is overly crowded. A buyer should be able to imagine their own furniture in the room.
8. Stage every room for the kind of room that it is. If you’ve turned your formal dining room into a home office, put it back. Bring back the formal dining table and chairs and remove the desk and computer.

Need some advice for selling an empty house?

1. Clean top to bottom. Purify the whole house. A fresh coat of paint will really do wonders. Clean or replace the carpeting, maybe re-finish the wood floors. Clean the windows, appliances and bathrooms. Make the place sparkle as best you can to make it look as close to brand-new as possible.
2. Spruce up the landscaping and exterior of the home. Trim the shrubs, throw down new bark & mulch, paint the front door (the rest of the house to if necessary). Hire a landscaping service to keep the grass mowed regularly.
3. Turn on the lights, power-up. The tendency is to turn off the utilities when you leave. But keep things turned on. The rooms should be made light and inviting. The air conditioning should be on to keep the place cool and inviting — or the furnace running to keep the house warm and inviting, depending on the season.
4. Window treatments should be left in place. Don’t take them with you. And clean them. If you have to keep some ‘special’ window treatments for any reason, replace them with something that matches, is tasteful and conservative.
5. Leave some items behind. If any room in the house has no ceiling fixture, leave a lamp plugged into the wall (preferably sitting on a nightstand instead of on the floor) so it can be seen at night. Also, you should leave a few key pieces of furniture. For example, a decorative alcove item or a small table and chairs set in a view sitting area can help in partially staging the home and to plant seeds for a buyer to imagine their own things going there.
6. Leave all the appliance manuals on the kitchen counter. If you don’t have them, order them from the manufacturer or print them off the internet. Also, leave a summary of your last 12 months’ utility bills for visitors to view. You can get that off the internet as well. Another good idea is to leave some photos of how the place looked when it was furnished in a picture book on the counter. Add your sunset, spring flowers or snow pictures if you have them.
7. Don’t forget about keeping the house secure. Vandals love empty houses. And, insurance companies do not. So, consider installing some type of alarm system, which is good selling point anyway and helps with the cost of homeowners insurance. Also, it’s not a bad idea to notify your insurer that the house will be empty and ask what steps need to be taken to keep your coverage in force.