Tips on selling your house, Part I.

Today I thought that while we're hammering out the details on our upcoming properties, I would go over some tips on how to make sure you've got every base covered when putting your house on the market to sell. In this economy of declining home values, sometimes you don't have the room in your asking price to afford listing it under a real estate agent or Realtor. Thus, you don't have a guiding voice over your shoulder telling you where your time and money would most effectively be put to use. So here are the major points to consider when selling your home. Some may seem minor, but trust us, it can make the difference between selling a home for full asking and not selling one at all.

1. Landscaping, and in general, cleaning up the area from street to steps, is arguably the most important factor in selling your house. First impressions are everything, and even if there are stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, clawfoot bathtubs and twelve fireplaces in your house, if the potential buyer has already soured on the property because of bare patches in the lawn, weeds coming up through the beds or, (gasp!) litter in the yard, it won't matter what's inside. A strong curb appeal is the equivalent of a good, firm handshake that doesn't let go until the other guy does.

2. Ridding clutter on the inside as well as the aforementioned front yard is vital. It should go without saying, but you'd be alarmed to know how many sellers haven't done the bare minimum of picking up their personal possesssions and vacuuming/mopping before their house is shown. Go one step beyond that: steam clean the entire house. It's cheap and you'll get your money back out of the steam cleaner rental fee when the buyer offers you a full asking price for your house.

3. Smell, or more specifically, a good smell, such as that coming from a reed diffuser, candle or plug-in deodorizer, is the hidden weapon of all effective house sellers. Just as the scent of a dead skunk or rotting food will send you running out of a house, making someone think that you've been baking sugar cookies or having your bathrooms smell clothesline fresh (what is clothesline fresh, anyway?) will start to trigger positive emotions and memories, and make someone feel like they're walking through a place that's comfortable to them, that they'd like to call home. Scent is the sense most strongly tied to memory. Proven scientific fact.

4. Staging is a strong finish to a house that's already been cleaned and prepped for the open market. Obviously, if your house is still being lived in, effective arrangement of the furniture and accessories will help. Think spatiality, think symmetry, and think flow. A perfect example of good staging is in a store like Rooms-to-Go or Ashley Furniture. There are people who get paid a lot of money just to design those layouts for those stores. If you've already moved out of the house and it's completely empty, spend a day and a hundred bucks or so at Pier One, looking for sale items, paying special attention to things that can go on bathroom or kitchen countertops, or medium-sized vases that can fit in corners. Simply put, a well-staged home has a 50% greater chance of selling than one that isn't staged.

5. Wise pricing, that is, pricing that fits the current market trends (like sales records of comparable properties), is another vital factor to getting a property sold. Ever hear the phrase, "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"? Well, that's especially true in real estate. That's because anyone looking to buy in your neighborhood, even the moderately savvy buyer, won't even drive beyond the entrance to your subdivision without knowing what houses are selling for in there. If they're represented by an agent, and they probably are, that agent has already looked at several items: three very recent sales in the area, three actively listed properties in the area, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, any upgrades, etc. Read more about the specifics of "comping" an area here.

Coming soon: Part II of Tips on Selling Your House

--Auben Homes