HOME SELLER TOOLS

Top 10 Tips for Selling A Home:

CMC has learned some valuable pointers for preparing a home for a quick sale:

• Keep both the exterior and interior of your home in impressive condition. Paint any part of the house that needs it.
• Enhance your home's natural beauty by cutting and trimming your lawn, making sure that landscaping is in top condition.
• Clean your carpets and patch or replace if necessary.
• Keep your kitchen spotless and uncluttered. Remove unneeded items from kitchen cabinets to show off their spaciousness.
• Rooms will appear larger if you remove or store any excess furniture.
• Organize your closets and clean the garage and basement to show off their storage space.
• Clean all appliances and have them in good working condition.
• Repair windows and screens so they show and work properly.
• Remove and replace any permanent fixtures - such as chandeliers - if you do not want them to be a part of the sale.
• Before every showing, open the drapes and turn on the lights in every room of your home. Also make sure that pets are not obtrusive.
  
  
  

Preparing Your House for A Quick Sale:

When preparing to put your home up for sale, your first concern should be the home's exterior. If the outside, or "curb appeal" looks great, people will more than likely want to see what's on the inside. Keep the lawn and landscape nicely manicured. Trim the bushes (season permitting); plant some flowers. Be sure your front door area has a "Welcome" feeling. A fresh coat of paint on the front door looks great.

Of all the rooms inside your home, pay special attention to the kitchen and bathrooms. They should look as modern, bright and fresh as possible. It is essential for them to be clean and odour free. A fresh coat of paint just may do the trick. Have any leaky faucets taken care of. A call to a plumber is a wise investment.

Since you want your home to look as spacious as possible, remove any excess or very large furniture. Make sure that table tops dressers and closets are free of clutter. Don't use your garage, attic, or basement to store these extra things. These areas also need to have the impression of space. Instead, put them into storage. Make sure walls and doors are free of smudges and look for anything that might indicate a maintenance problem, such as cracked windows, holes in the wall or stained ceilings.

Finally, if your basement shows any signs of dampness or leakage, seal the walls.


Your Asking Price:

Pricing your home is a very important part of the sales process. Here are some points to help you figure out how much your home is worth:

• Forget about personal attachments to your home. Buyers don't care how much you paid for the home; how many memorable moments you and your family shared in the home; how much cash you need for the down payment on your next home; how much time and money you've invested in your home's hardwood floors, fresh paint, lush landscaping, or other improvements.
• Get a CMA. Invite a CMC Real Estate Professional to visit your home and provide you with a "comparative market analysis" (CMA), which shows the prices of comparable of recently sold homes, homes that are currently on the market and homes that were on the market, but weren't sold. Keep in mind, the on-the-market homes are the "competition" for your home.
• Do your own market research. Go to open houses in your neighbourhood and try to make an impartial assessment of how those homes compare to yours in terms of location, size, amenities and condition. Assuming all the asking prices were the same, would you buy your home or someone else's?
• Consider market conditions. Are home prices in your area trending upwards or downwards? Are homes selling quickly? Will your home be on the market in the spring home-buying season or the dead of winter? Are interest rates attractive? Is the economy hot or cold? Will you be selling in a buyer's market or a seller's market? Is the local job market strong or are employees fearful of loosing their jobs? All of these issues (and many others) contribute to the "market conditions" for selling your home. The CMC Real Estate Team can work with you in assessing the market conditions and evaluating how your asking price fits in with current conditions.
  
  
  

Showing Your Home:

Showing your home is one of the most important steps in selling your home. Keep these tips in mind when showing your home to prospective buyers:

• Keep it bright: A home should have a bright and positive appearance. Indoor-lighting plays an important role in the proper exhibit of your home -- turn on lights throughout the house.
• Keep it clean: A personal inspection of every room before a showing is an absolute must. Be sure to focus on the kitchen and bathrooms.
• Keep the noise-level down: Many sellers make the mistake of thinking that soft background music improves the showing. Unfortunately, this just isn't true! Noises tend to divert the potential buyers from focusing on the beneficial features of your home. Turn off all TVS, stereos, and radios.
• Neutralize the smell: In the short term, it may be necessary to avoid cooking certain foods while your home is for sale. Strong smelling foods might be offensive to a prospective buyer. Also, check the entire house for any distasteful odours.
  
  
  How To Use Feedback:

A good salesperson will tell you that customer feedback is an important part of any sale. This is also true with selling your home! A CMC Real Estate professional will make sure important feedback from both potential buyers and their real estate agents are collected after a showing. After all, how can you improve your chance to sell if you don't know what potential buyers are thinking?

Collecting feedback and reading it is the first step, only, in using potential buyer feedback when selling your home. Our Team will work with you to interpret feedback and recommending any action that may be necessary.

Usable feedback might include a comment like: "the house seemed dark." This kind of feedback is easily remedied during the next showing by turning on more lights and opening drapes.

Another example: "the yard seemed smaller than what was described." This might be caused by too many items (toys, outdoor furniture, play-equipment, etc.), spread throughout the yard.


Feedback is always worthwhile; the issue is, knowing how to use feedback to better your chances of a quick sale.