5 Top Things To Do To Sell Your House

When you’re trying to sell a house, the most important thing to understand is what people are looking for when they’re buying a home. By putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes, you can get a better price and reduce the amount of time your property spends sitting on the market; while in a fast market a home could sell in 30 days, it might take an average of nine months in a slow market, and that can leave a lot of your money tied up in a house you don’t really need. Here’s what your prospective buyers want, whether they’re traditional buyers, rent to own buyers or real estate investors:

1. 1. A Ready-to-Go Kitchen
      Buying a house is already a big investment, and very few people will want to embark on a big and potentially expensive project like a kitchen remodel as soon as they move in. Plus, kitchens are one area of the home that can look very dated if they haven’t been recently redone. You may not want to invest tens of thousands of dollars in upgrades, since you probably won’t get a 100% return on investment, but making a few updates can pay off.

 

1. 1. Tons of Storage
      People will always be more inclined to buy a house with plenty of storage and room to grow. You can’t actually create more space before putting your home on the market, but you can make the most of what you have by organizing your storage spaces and de-cluttering; if prospective buyers see a bunch of stuff out, they’ll assume there’s no place to put it away.

 

1. 1. Usable Space
      Before people buy a home, they want to be able to envision themselves living there. For that reason, you want to show how the space can be used. That means making sure each room has appropriate furniture arranged in a functional way. If you’ve already taken your furniture and moved out, or if you don’t know how to make the most of your furnishings, you might want to consider hiring a professional home stager.

 

1. 1. Minimal Maintenance
      Maintenance is one of the major factors that keeps people renting and steers them away from buying a home (homeowners spend, on average, between 1% and 4% of a home’s value on annual maintenance, adding up to hundreds of dollars a month or thousands a year). So if you are trying to upgrade, do so in ways that don’t add a big maintenance burden. That perfectly manicured landscaping just looks like more work to a first-time homebuyer.

 

1. A “Wow Factor”
   Buying a home is an emotional, not purely logical, process. Census data from 2012-2013 shows that the single biggest reason people move is to get better housing (accounting for about 14.8% of moves), so you’ll need to have at least one thing that feels more luxurious than a standard rental.

 

If you want to sell your home please call us at 314-926-0660 or fill out this form