What can I do to make my house sell better?

[2moretrees]

This is a question that my friend asked me. It's a tough house market but circumstances are that she needs to sell and sell fairly quickly if possible. Any real estate agents out there or people that have sold houses quite a bit in the past that have good suggestions on what is most important to do? She doesn't want to lose a lot of money, but I think is willing to price the house fairly if it means it will sell quicker. It's 20 years old so it does need some work. What areas are best to concentrate on to sell it and which areas can be left as is?

[momof1in150]

Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses. The least expensive thing they can do is to declutter and purge. You are going to have to pack it eventually so why not now. The less stuff in the room the bigger it will look. That being said make sure each room has a purpose and don't let the buyer guess about what the room is used for - an overcluttered bedroom that is also used as an office will be confusing to the buyer. Make it a bedroom.

Paint is also a great way to go. Paint the walls a neutral color and paint the trim white. White trim makes a room look clean and helps make the room pop.

An overpriced house will not sell no matter what improvements you do. She should ask for a Competitive Market Analysis from at least 3 agents and listen to them when it comes to pricing. The reason a lot of houses aren't selling is because of price. Too many people think that they can price a house for what they want instead of what it is worth.

[stressedmama]

Clean, clean, clean! That means declutter and make sure everything is as clean as possible (ceiling fans, railings, etc.) Spruce up the outside in front (trim shrubs if needed and add some pots of flowers or hanging plants). If you are going to spend money to do small repairs concentrate on the kitchen and baths like last person stated. Kitchen and baths sell houses.

[PrincessPerky]

I will ditto the declutter..we looked at a house that may not have been any smaller than our current one, but it seemed so...full of stuff..... I figured if they couldn't find spots for their stuff neither could we.

Course if I tried to sell right now you would find stuff everywhere! I really need to declutter, baby keeps getting in the way,

[disneysteve]

I think the single best thing to do to sell quickly is to lower the price. Buyers will overlook a lot of stuff if the price is right.

Short of that, I agree with making it clean and uncluttered. Take away personal items, family photos, "odd" artwork. If you have pets, make sure there is no odor or stains on carpets. And clean up the outside. Mow the lawn. Trim the shrubs. And make sure everything works. No bulbs burned out. No leaky faucets or toilets.

[amberbamber]

Clean, clean, clean. EVERYTHING! Pack away everything that she CAN. Put all family things away.

And competively price.

[jIM_Ohio]

This is a question that my friend asked me. It's a tough house market but circumstances are that she needs to sell and sell fairly quickly if possible. Any real estate agents out there or people that have sold houses quite a bit in the past that have good suggestions on what is most important to do? She doesn't want to lose a lot of money, but I think is willing to price the house fairly if it means it will sell quicker. It's 20 years old so it does need some work. What areas are best to concentrate on to sell it and which areas can be left as is?

My realtor told me these key elements to moving a property quickly.

Get the price point right the first time. Buyers search based on price, if you list high, the people coming to house will be looking for an upscale house- if yours does not meet criteria, no offer would even be made to be considered.

If you price it right, the people which can afford that price and want that price will look at your house.

Space- people have a hard time seeing open space (in rooms), so make sure each room has furniture. At same time most people would look at things on floor of a closet as clutter and that the closet was too small- so keep things off the floor.

The fact someone says "they don't want to lose money" implies they might not be able to do #1 (price it correctly). If you have a property you want to get rid of, you need to price it to sell, not make money. There is a difference.

[maat55]

Make it look like you would buy it or sell it cheap.

[Snave]

How good of a friend are you? The reason I ask is that if you won't ruin a friendship or hurt her feelings, offer to walk through the house and give her your personal opinion on what needs to be cleaned up, put away, painted. Why some realtors won't do this is beyond comprehension. We walked through some houses when we were looking and I can't believe no one told the sellers to put stuff away and de-clutter.

[Lori63]

How good of a friend are you? The reason I ask is that if you won't ruin a friendship or hurt her feelings, offer to walk through the house and give her your personal opinion on what needs to be cleaned up, put away, painted. Why some realtors won't do this is beyond comprehension. We walked through some houses when we were looking and I can't believe no one told the sellers to put stuff away and de-clutter.

Ditto! We had fixed some things when we were going to put our house on the market. Then, our realtor walked through and gave us more to do, but it was SO helpful.
I also started packing things to get them out of the way.

[cptacek]

In addition to what others have said, clean the carpets, make the house smell good, make the bathroom look like no one ever uses it it shines so much. Don't make the big screen tv the focal point of the living room. Put up not-cheap-looking curtains (ok if they ARE cheap, they just shouldn't look like it...can either of you sew?) on all the windows to finish the look. Paint is cheap, so if there is, for instance, an ugly deep red wall (like there was in my house) paint it with Kilz first and then a nice neutral color.

Most of the stuff your friend can do themselves. Labor to hire is expensive, their labor is free!

Have flyers on the outside of the house so people interested can pick one up.

My blog has some before and after pictures of my kitchen and living room and some reasoning behind why we did what we did. We redid the rest of the house but I don't have those pictures up yet.

[gamecock43]

sorry...i'm tired