how to get ready to sell?

I would really appreciate all opinions - buyers, sellers, first time owners, multiple owners - I am not attached to my house

we had always thought we'd leave in 2010, but I think I may want to move up to selling in 2009. Between the house getting "smaller" and my neighbors taking forever to sell (they are going to take it off the market and relist in the spring) I want to start getting the house ready.

Do I call realtors and ask for them to come in and critique our house? (I'm ready for it - we don't want to do anything major, but I would love to have a "to do" list for the next 6 months.

we have a price in mind that would cover commission and any upgrades we have done - it's $45K more than another neighbor sold for though. Do you think it's obtainable?

they have a 4 BR high ranch, we have a 3 BR colonial;
they have 1/3 acre, we have 1/2;
they are on a relatively busy street (cut through in the day), we are on a much quieter street;
we only have 1 neighbor (the other 4 lots are town property) they have the usual 5;
We have a fenced in pool area that is set back at the back of the property - I know pools are not a selling point, but it's very well fenced and far away from the house - we have 2 young kids and there has never been a worry about it.


we were thinking about getting a heater in the pool for next summer -is that foolish to do if we are going to sell - we want to enjoy the pool though if we are there


our living room carpet is 3 years old, but has some unremoveable stains - should we replace?


our kitchen is 2 years old, but we never got a new refrigerator - we were thinking about offering a credit to the buyers to buy their own ($1500) - is that a good idea?


we thought about offering paying a point for the buyer (would turn out to be $4-6K for us, but the buyer would benefit from the lower interest big time) is that something we should advertise or use in our counter offer?


do we list 10% higher, since everyone seems to be bidding 10% lower?


we painted ~1-3 years ago (depending on the room) do we repaint? touch up? they are all neutral colors (except the kids rooms)


What simple things should we do to sell easy and quick?


TIA - all advice welcome - my feelings won't be hurt at all!!

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Whenever we make an improvement to the house I keep in mind the time we will eventually put it on the market. It's easier since this was a starter home I guess, and we tried to keep in mind which made the most sense and what buyers want.

For you, I think your location is awesome, your yard is SO private and large which are things not everyone can ever have. You have that den which is really nice.

The carpet you mentioned - I would def. replace it when you are ready to list it - people see those things and think the house (even if it's incorrect!) wasn't always cared for. I would ask the realtor about that credit for the fridge - I would think that would depend on how the market is doing but it may not be necessary.

Otherwise, when it's our time I plan to just really DE-CLUTTER! Store or toss a lot of the crap we won't need for a while - I swear the previous owners did this because I do not understand where it all went in our house with 3 kids!

Where are you hoping to move to? Close by, I hope!

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Where is your house? It sounds great!! And you sound like such a thoughtful and conscientious seller. I'm a buyer (and seller) in this market right now...and I've been rigorously shopping for about 3 months. It's brutal out there. Prices keep dropping, and sellers are becoming more an more cautious about who to enter contract with. It seems like your early planning will pay off for a quick sell when you're ready. Good Luck.......

PS: If you're serious about paying for the point....that might help in keeping your sales price higher. I don't know what it means for your bottom line...but it's a fantastic advertising idea to attract buyers. Just be careful about the type of buyter this might attract.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

A REA can definitely come in and evaluate your home for you and help you "stage" it better. The best thing we did was rent a storage unit ($1 for the first month at Public Storage - we were VERY happy with them) and put anything not totally necessary in there. It opened our whole place up. The REA also came in and moved some furniture around and she had me leave out some decorative pieces - like vases and stuff. Our full bath upstairs was kinda outdated, so she really helped us to show that room better. She also recommended some small fixes - new knobs for the kitchen cabinets, possibly redoing the kitchen floor. We took some of her suggestions and didn't take others.

Pricing is tricky. If you start too high, you won't get traffic at all - and it's hard to get an offer if people aren't coming in to see it. I think that was our original problem. Once we lowered our price to 10% below the comps, we had 2 offers within hours. Almost 6 months later and everyone in our area is still on the market.

Also - are you comfortable having two mortgages, financially and emotionally? If so, for how long? Really sit down and figure how much it takes to run your original place, even if it's vacant. For us, it was about $2k a month, so I wasn't going to sit on the market for 6+ months just to make an extra $10-12k.

I think offering a full point is awesome, but I don't think I would start with that. Again, if your base price is too high, people might not come by at all. It could be a really good negotiation tool, though.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

I would start by eliminating anything you would get rid of when you move and stage the house before bringing in the REA so they don't tell you the obvious and focus on the improvements. I would not invest in a pool heater if you don't plan to stay - you probably won't see enough return on that investment. Instead, work on the curb appeal, freshening up (ie: the carpet you mentioned). Your incentives sound like good ideas but you might want to hold those options back as negotiating points at first.

When we were looking we looked for something we could live with until we were able to do the improvements we wanted - not insisting on diamond move-in condiition, but we didn't want to gut the kitchen or replace the roof immediately. Focus on freshening up an minimizing maintenence points so prospective buyers don't focus on the work they would need or want to do immediately.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

thanks everyone

Posted by Teri
The carpet you mentioned - I would def. replace it when you are ready to list it - people see those things and think the house (even if it's incorrect!) wasn't always cared for.

Where are you hoping to move to? Close by, I hope!

Message edited 9/14/2008 9:51:34 AM.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

everything sounds great but regarding the pool- pools are always as "gifts" they do nothing for the selling price of the home- so do not invest anything, also your REA will tell you in most cases there is a 500.00 incidental fee that the seller gives the buyer that would include if the pool needs a liner.
Put the money elsewhere. good luck, its a tough market out there, we are in it too!

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Whatever you do, make sure you stage your house well!

Re: how to get ready to sell?

We are in contract on a house now, so as a recent buyer I can give you some of my opinions.

I wouldn't replace any carpets or buy a new fridge. If you have extra carpet, you can pay someone to cut out the dirty piece and replace. Not ideal, but the buyers may want another color than you would choose, and this gives them that option. Just price the house lower to make up for these.

I honestly don't think it's realistic to think you would get nearly $45,000 more than your neighbor who had an additional bedroom, even with the added features you mentioned, though your location and house type is more desirable. Many people really want the 4-bedroom homes. On basics alone, that may account for $15-20,000 more for your home (but a REA can do more accurate comps. for the surrounding areas).

The pool is a big minus for many people. We would not look at any house with an in ground pool. It's higher taxes, higher insurance, and a great deal of money to care for. This may get you a lower price than you hope for, especially if the pool needs a new liner and heater. I wouldn't pour any additional money into that because you will not see a return.

If the kids rooms are brightly colored I would repaint to neutral colors. We have no kids, so it was easier for us to imagine a room as an office when it didn't have pooh bear painted all over, KWIM? I totally agree with getting rid of all clutter--it makes such a difference!

Personally, as a buyer I'd rather a lower price than the seller buying a point for me. You have no idea what the rates will be like when you sell--in this market with us getting 5.75%, we would rather a lower price so we can put more down.

Do NOT list 10% higher figuring you'll get 10% less than asking. In this market people look at the houses that are priced well for the market. Overpriced homes don't get that traffic. Price what you want to get, get the traffic, and then look at the bids. We bid asking on a reasonably priced home, so people are definitely still doing that when a house is priced fairly.

We are selling our home, and priced it below all comps in the area because we wanted to sell quickly. And we did. And our neighbors who priced higher are finding themselves taking less than we did since we priced it accurately first.

Message edited 9/14/2008 11:30:28 AM.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Message edited 9/14/2008 1:41:27 PM.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

I would have a few REAs over - a big difference in your profit might be their commission -

I wouldn't get hung up on one comp. There is a house on my street that sold for $25K less a year and a half after I bought, but my house is larger, on a larger piece of land and more updated.

and the house sold in 3 days bc it was priced right. They could have gotten $10-15k more but they wanted a quick sale.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

See, I really think it's going to depend on who you ask because we just closed in July and I have some differing opinions than ready2ttc, although I can really see both sides of the coin. The house we bought had two of the issues you mention. The kitchen was nicely done and the owners had replaced all of the appliances with stainless except the stove. Now we have to replace it and every time I walk into the kitchen it drives me nuts!!!! Was it a deal breaker in buying the house, no, but it was always in the back of my mind during the negotiating process. Same thing with the carpet...we have carpet in our master BR only and there is a HUGE stain on the rug that I don't think I can get out. It's the first thing I noticed when I walked in the room. Again, not a deal breaker but the finishing touches really made a difference to DH and I, and probably would to other buyers as well. I can understand wanting to use the credit for the fridge as an incentive/negotiating tactic though...so it really depends on which angle you want to take.

I think the neutral colors sound good and if done as recently as you said I would not re-do. Touch up if there are any issues, but otherwise sounds good to me! As for the kids rooms, unless they are totally crazy I am sure they are okay too.

I would not do anything additional with the pool as other posters have mentioned...I don't think you'd get enough in return.

I love your idea of offering a point and this would have definitely been an incentive for DH and I. I would seek the advice of your REA when the time comes to see what would work with the current state of the market. Some may prefer a lower purchase price, but this is definitely something that could be negotiated.

As others have also said, furniture placement and de-cluttering/de-personalizing (to a degree) were some of the biggest things we noticed when looking. I can't even tell you how many closets or cabinets I opened and stuff fell out on me! I don't care how other people live, but it was a little alarm in our heads that perhaps storage was an issue. Some of the personal stuff can be distracting as well...don't eliminate it all and make it cold, but I found in some houses I spent more time looking at the endless pics of the adorable kids and pets than I did looking at the house. Furniture placement too is important - be smart about it. Our LR is large, but narrow and really long. The previous owners had HUGE furniture lined up against one wall that emphasized the narrowness, rather than trying to mask it. Again, something we noticed immediately and could be a deal breaker for some.

Cleanliness too really shows that there is pride in ownership and that the house has been taken care of. No dishes in the sink, no garbage overflowing, etc. You would think this would be an obvious thing when selling your house but I was shocked to see some of what we saw!

You will never please everyone because tastes vary so much, but by being as conscientious as you are and staging your house and making good choices, I'm sure you will do great! Best of luck!!!

Message edited 9/14/2008 2:26:18 PM.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

MommyofG - the incidental $500 you mention, that's not the $500 nondisclosure? Good Luck on your sale!

ready2ttc - Would lightly bleaching out the stain on the carpet be better?

as for the comp...I should say that there was another 4BR high ranch, 1/3 acre, but less busy street 2 more blocks away that went for $50K more than what we would want; a 4BR split on a really nice block, 1/2 acre for 50K less (but they are gutting it as we speak - maybe it was crappy inside?). There are currently houses for $75K more for sale - I'm anxious to see what they go for (4BRs) I hope the BR thing isn't that big of a downfall for us - you could easily put a nice 400 sq/foot addition over our garage.

The kids rooms are both blue - one in stripes and one with primary color shapes - but easily painted - not like the wallpaper I had to remove! Should I paint over the shapes and stripes? (The stripes are only half the wall)

I did a little research on buying a point. At the price we want to buy a point for 6% would be a $100K savings on the life of the loan. That's if the people decide to stay though, but I see your point about having a lower price for the down payment.

I don't think we can list at 10% over, it would put us over a 100K mark, but it will still be ~$50K lower than what people are listing their houses.


Karen - I don't really want to ride it out - I have heard that 09/10 will be the bottom and we want to upgrade in that bottom, so we will pay less as well, but we still need a decent size down payment, so that's why we can't take much of a loss


Meaghan729 - I hope that some REA are going with 4%, but I am figuring 5%


Katie111806 - I worry about our furniture - it doesn't fit right in our house - hopefully a REA will help there. Our cabinets are actually not packed and hopefully with more decluttering - it will help.

thanks for the advice!

Message edited 9/14/2008 3:04:06 PM.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Erica I'm sure you will stage & declutter everything & that will be great.
I would not put any money into the pool unless it will truly make you happy.
I would right before you are ready to list go to Home Depot or Lowes when they are having a carpet sale(usually every few months) & recarpet the room with something darker & possibly more durable but inexpensive.
I'd also keep an eye out for a fridge on clearance or a scratch & dent because IMO your newer kitchen will be viewed differently because of that one appliance.
Believe it or not I've read trade articles recently that say a kitchen 3+ years old is not considered new by buyers

I'm sure your paint colors are fine.

I would not offer to buy points or anything else unless I was negotiating with a qualified buyer.

I also agree that you've got to be serious with your starting price and unfortunatley I wouldn't worry too much about any of the homes that sold in the last few months because if things totally tank this winter(which they might) your new comps may look a whole lot different. That will be the info you'll need to determine whether or not 09 is the right time for you to sell.

GOOD LUCK!

Re: how to get ready to sell?

thanks everyone. We have beein thinking that we might wait for the right comp to come along - what if that is in June? maybe it will be fresh to people who have been looking int he spring?

I just went to an open house for my neighbor today and chatted with the REA. She gave me a realistic price we would get as being 10K lower than our lowest desired price...so maybe we are in the right price range? (she said that a colonial will bring in a lot more traffic even w/o the extra bedroom)

I'm feeling a little better. Now I need to get moving in the decluttering, packing up, and finish all the touch ups this winter.

Re: how to get ready to sell?

Start watching HGTV's Designed to Sell. It gives so many ideas. You want to make sure you keep your clutter away. Make it seem like there is a lot of storage. Paint the rooms! You'd be amazed what a fresh coat of paint does.