If you want to know what’s really going to help your home sell, go to the people who sell a lot of homes. Realtors in the top realty companies spend their days looking at real estate listings and showing houses to potential buyers — after years of experience, they know what will help a house sell, and what will virtually guarantee that a house sits on the market for a good long time.
1) A Clean House
Your house may be sturdy, spacious, and priced to move, but unless you clean it before showing it, you’ll have a difficult job convincing potential buyers that it’s worth their time. And it goes beyond questions of hygiene — in the eyes of a potential buyer, a dirty house means an un-cared-for house, and in the backs of their minds, they’ll always wonder about what else you’ve neglected. A dirty house isn’t an impossible sell, but it does make the road a lot rockier.
2) A Clutter-Free House
Even immaculately clean houses can look cluttered. Different people have different decorating styles, some of which are more minimalistic than others, so you may not even be aware that, to others, the interior of your house looks… busy. The main problem with clutter is that it makes it harder for a potential buyer to really see the space and imagine themselves there. As a seller, your job is to make it as easy as possible for buyer to visualize themselves living in your home.
3) An Adequately Photo-Documented House
These days, it seems like everyone uses the Internet as a springboard when looking for homes for sale. Be sure the photos you post make them want to take the next step and view your home personally. Avoid focusing on your furniture. Try to capture the spaces and how they fit together. Be sure to get plenty of shots of the kitchen. And please: resist the temptation to use a wide-angle lens to make the spaces seem bigger — nobody’s fooled.
Realty companies want your home to sell just as much as you do. Listen to their advice, heed their experience, and in no time you’ll go from having real estate for sale to having real estate you just sold.
