1. Set Your “Goals”
Start with the basics for setting goals. This will help to guide your decisions going forward. What are you hoping to list for? This will come in handy when looking at your competition. You will figure out if you are going to list for top dollar and or if you are just going to list as the house is. When are you hoping to list and when do you want to close by? This question helps you and your Realtor determine the final list price. How much work are you willing to put in to get top dollar price for your home? Are you willing to stage, re-paint or do minor repairs to get the money you want for your home. Our owner Jodi put in $25,000 and was able to list her home for $50,000 more than asking AND she received 95% of asking price. The house had a solid offer in 6 days!
2. Search For A Realtor
Don’t know where to start? There is a lot of emotion when selling a house and you have to be able to have honest conversations with your Realtor. That is why we do not recommend hiring family members or friends for this job. You can always reach out to us, as we work with some of the best Realtors! We recommend interviewing 3-5 Realtors. Be honest about your expectations and ask for references. You need someone who not only does a great job, but will understand your expectations and follow through!
3. De-clutter. De-personalize. De-everything.
This one may sound familiar to you! Probably the most go-to answer for what to do to get your home ready for market. But there is a reason for that! It is important! When a potential buyer is walking through your property, you want them to focus on the property itself, not all of yours kids’ school pictures. The real reason is that staging is a marketing tool. If you have your personal decor and items up in the house, it is no-longer a property for sale, but it looks like someones home and that is a hard sell. The goal is to have the buyers see the property as their future home, rather than your current one.
4. Check All Your Planes (floors, walls, ceilings)
Imagine your space completely empty, or maybe it already is. If so, bonus points for you! Think back to school when you learned about the x, y, and z axis. Probably thought you were never going to use that again, but the idea of different planes stems from here. To make it easier to understand, planes inside your house would be referred to as your floors, walls, and ceilings. You want to check every inch of these so that you know exactly what kind of condition everything is in. There will be inspections and buyers always have a final walk through before closing. There is no point in trying to hide any issues. Someone will find them. And you do not want a sale to fall through later. Be honest and upfront. Some minor issues like your baseboard coming off the wall can be easily addressed before listing quickly with just a nail gun.
5. Find A List Of Local Subcontractors
After you have checked all of your planes (floors, walls, & ceilings), I can almost guarantee that you are going to find at least a few items that need to be addressed before you list it. That is okay! I would probably be concerned if you didn’t. Now that you have a list, you can find the appropriate people to help you out. Maybe you have a family friend who can help. Maybe a handy uncle. Or maybe you do not even know where to start other than googling! No worries! Elizabeth Erin Designs can assist you! We have a list of our trusted subcontractors that we would be happy to share with you when you work with us that we will give you!
6. Hire Us!
Home staging is a crucial marketing tool when selling your house in order to stand out above the competition and get top dollar. It allows your property to be shown in the best way possible. Online photos are vital, they provide valuable information to potential buyers. You want your photos to stand out from your competition. You need eye catching photos that grab the buyers attention and make them think “I want to see that in person!”
Now that you have gotten them to the property, the second part of our signature home staging kicks in, the physical space planning. Majority of buyers have a hard time visualizing how they would lay out their furniture. They cannot imagine where the sofa would go in a living room or which wall is the best one to put their headboard on. Home staging gives a clean slate of suggestions. A general understanding of just how much of their “stuff” will fit.
(P.S. Our verbal consultations can also help you save money by telling you how you can already use what you have to stage your home. Plus, we can help you with that list of items that need to be done before your listing goes live.)
7. Do. That. List.
Don’t wait around to see if buyers will notice the issues that you are already aware of. Be proactive! Give your listing its best chances by taking care of problem areas ahead of time. Plus, if you have us come out for a verbal consultation, we will help you add to your list and prioritize into what will give you the best ROI (return on investment).
So if you are thinking about selling your property, reach out before hand and let us work with you to get your property market ready! You can call us (515-986-1895) or email (office@ElizabethErinDesigns.com). Wanna speak with me personally, just ask for Katie! But don’t forget to check out our other Katie’s Corner blogs here. Blogs like Overcoming Problems Spaces and How To Stage Before The Holidays. Staging tips and tricks coming at you twice a month! Until next time.
