What Did You Learn from Selling Your House?

People will pay TOP DOLLAR for new carpet and new paint. Seriously, my former neighbors are still trying to sell their home 2 years later.
Also, you need a realtor(a good one). People get less when they sell themselves and it is too expensive and peronal to be dealing one on one with the buyer.
And I HATE most realtors.

Clean it, top to bottom.
Paint neutral colors, not bright white but a cream in an eggshell or satin finish.
Fix anything broken.
Power wash.
Clean up the yard
Rent a storage unit and take out one piece of furniture from each room.
Declutter,
put away family pictures
clean carpets
wax hardwood
Make sure you have all the same type light bulbs in every light. And make sure they are all working.
Use Febreze room deodarizers or Air Wicks Plug ins, change them to keep them fresh.

Before a showing:
turn on all lights
Flush toilets
Spray with Lysol
A bowl fresh fruit on the table or kitchen counter
Put the pets in a kennel for a while to really get it cleaned.

What you do when you move is tax deductible, like a storage unit and cleaning costs, that is if this is a move for a new job or company move, or military.

Everyone IS looking for a deal, which is why I think you need your house to stand out. But you don't have to spend a lot of money to make this happen. Make sure your house is spotless (pay to have the house cleaned if you can afford to) and find the money to have someone clean your windows inside and out, you'll be surprised by how much cleaner your house will look. And remove any obstacles like wallpaper or bold paint colors, that are specific to your decor. I don't think complete depersonalization is necessary, but you do need to declutter. If your kids toys don't already have a home in the living room, find a lidded basket or a storage bench to tuck away the toys on a moments notice. This is the same for random stuff on your kitchen counters, coffee table, nightstands and bathroom counters. Essentially, make sure you've got a home for everything.

We sold our house this time last year, in under a week. Now, I will say our house was in a very desirable suburb, in a very desirable neighborhood with a contemporary design. The contemporary design is in short supply, so for someone looking for this style, there are very few options. We were moving across the country and couldn't afford to drag out the process, so we priced fairly, but aggressively and we did a lot of clean up and minor repairs so the house was spotless. We repaired and repainted any obvious drywall issues (nail pops, scuffs and gouges, etc.), updated the faucets in two outdated bathrooms, which made them look more current, replaced carpet in our basement to match the new carpet we had replaced in the rest our our house the year prior (so essentially, all carpet was new). We had the entire house cleaned, including the windows, and we spruced up the garden with fresh mulch and put some potted plants on the porch, since spring hadn't really sprung yet. We also replaced the roof since we knew it would be flagged on the inspection. Oh, and we replaced the front door handle lock set and put on a new kick plate, which really made the house pop. We left the house spotless and went away for a week's vacation, putting the house on the MLS the day we left and had an open house the following day. We had three offers by the third day and closed less than a month later. All told, we spent just over $10K in repairs, but still made a profit on the sale.

Do all your math, and make sure you know what profit you might realize from the sale before you decide how much money to invest. You'll need to estimate the sale price minus what you owe, as well as any commissions, taxes and titles, title company fee, realtor holding fee, a home warranty and resale package fee (if you have them) and any cash you expect to pay at closing. This will really give you your bottom line.

Good luck! I hope this helps.

I don't know if this applies to you or not, but IF you have pets.. if you can, remove all traces of them during a showing.

I had a friend who's MIL was a real estate agent (not who we listed with). And she made an appt to show the house to a client. This friend knew we had a dog, and we took her with us when there was a showing--the only evidence of her presence was her crate in our bedroom--all the toys, etc were picked up/removed when we left for showings. Well, my friend told me that afterwards her MIL had told her, that she never would have noticed the "dog smell" if she hadn't seen the crate in our bedroom. I'm not an idiot, I know dogs cause odors. But we had pulled out the carpet and installed tile recently and the house was very fresh. We bath our dog frequently and she was fixed... so there really wasn't an overpowering odor. I know that all homes will have a different "odor" than what you are accustomed to in your own home. Pets or not. But if people can tag that odor/scent to a pet, they can be turned off to your home, making assumptions about lingering odors and what they may need to do to get rid of them.

So if you do have a pet, remove all signs of it before showings if you can. It simply eliminates the possibility that someone will be turned off from your home (justifiably so or not) simply because you have a pet.

I heard this idea on a DYI type show and think it is awesome! Put together a binder that contains everything from the paperwork including warranty on your water heater and/or A/C unit, instruction booklets for the fridge, dishwasher, garbage disposal,etc, and any other hints or how-to's for things like that sticky back gate that needs to be lightly tapped just so to open instead of kicking it.

I thought it was a great idea because personally I have all of that info floating around my house and to have it all in one place would be a god send!

We just sold our house, it was on the market for about 3 months which is pretty good here. We painted everything in neutral colors, cleaned carpets and had it staged. We bought a home and moved before listing so we wouldn't have the headaches of trying to always be "show ready" with two small children and a dog. I will say after looking at tons of homes you should put a LOT of your stuff in storage (like TURBO de-cluttering), people will be looking in closets and the more stuff the smaller the home will feel.

Good luck.

One thing I can tell you FOR SURE is to be honest about everything that you disclose when you go to sell your house.

I sold a great house in 2003 and was honest about everything. Fast forward to 2008, the same week I had gotten home from China with a new baby (all jet lagged and messed up in the head) and some guy came to my door and served me papers. The lady who bought my house was suing me 5 YEARS LATER over something totally ridiculous.

Basically, she didn't have the cash to take care of the house problem so she was looking to blame someone else--Me! I was covered by the truth but it was still a total pain and I had to pay over 5000 in lawyer fees. UGH...that lady...she was the worst.

I don't know if this has anything to do with what you're asking but I figure it can't hurt to know, right? :)

We sold and bought about a year ago. The sell was easy because the house was in a good location (adjacent to a park). But when we looked at houses, I think the one thing that made a house attractive was when it was clean. Not just inside, but also the window frames, siding, etc. Also, a lot of houses smelled really bad. Make sure you let in some fresh air before you have a showing and maybe have some scented candles or air freshener around. Another important factor for me was the state of the landscaping. Some houses had really run down yards and landscaping, which made we wonder how well maintained the house itself was.
Hope this helps.

The buyer will always ask you for favors, but never give you an inch. Don't be too inclined to grant the favors unless you get something in return.

Things like storing their stuff in your garage before you move out. Not a good idea.

We really lucked out and ours sold in about 2 weeks. There was a house down the street that sold the same week, but it had been for sale for 8 or 9 months. Things our realtor told us to do and we did included changing out all lightbulbs to 100 watt if possible to make everything brighter, changing kitchen knobs to make it look more up to date (ours were old white ones), declutting anything possible. We moved things around and donated some stuff. We also kept the house clean and mopped the kitchen and vacuumed before showings. I lit candles in the morning and blew them out before people came so it would smell nice. Also keeping the outside nice- we didn't have to worry too much about that since there was still snow when we sold but had to clear all the walkways, porch and driveway more often. We have cats and a dog and had a newborn (born the day the realtor was coming out to take pictures- we couldn't even stay to meet him, just left it open since he was on his way). I put a lot of the pet stuff away and more away when there was going to be showing. The original plan was to remove the dog and cats from the house while there was a showing, but we were still at the hospital for the first two and on our way home for one, so the dog was just in her kennel with a note that she was friendly and treats on top so they could give her one. We also left a note on the front door that the cats were indoors only, so please watch the doorways as you go in and out and the dog was in her crate downstairs and would be excited to see them and may bark. It worked out well and was much easier. I am very thankful that it sold quickly and we weren't trying to keep it clean for very long once we were home. Our paint was fairly neutral, or we may have painted to give it a cleaner look. We had one room that was recommended we may want to paint it was a little darker, but we had a 90 gallon fish tank on one wall, so that wasn't possible.

We did take a loss on the house, partly because we had it less than 2 years. We are currently renting because the house sold quickly and we are moving out of state in a couple of months. We are going to be looking at houses soon and are hoping to buy when we move if we can find what we want.

Good luck and hope it sells quickly.

Interesting fact I learned: Buyers can expect anything that is 'attached' to the house to 'be included in the sale'...so you might want to take down any flat screens TV's you've got mounted to your walls if you plan on taking them with you.

I agree with the storage unit or POD idea...always got to de-clutter and be VERY diligent about making sure everything is tidy before you leave the house...EVERY TIME...you just never know when someone wants to come take a look...the de-cluttering and taking everything personal out that isn't absolutely necessary to live really will help with the ability to keep everything looking sparkling clean!

Wow Margie's got it going on!! Listen to what she says, plus, wash your windows and put out fresh flowers on the porch and deck if you have one!!! I always lit a candle before our showings, but blew it out before I left. We sold our house in 5 days.

Bend! I feel you...

We sold in Oregon a little over a year ago. Luckily, we sold in six days and I truly believe it is because we priced aggressively and staged our house in a way that when people saw pictures of our house online, they wanted to come see it!

We did a few small things that made a HUGE difference:
We painted our walls a pleasing neutral color
De-cluttered...it's amazing how much you like your house, and think about keeping it once you have removed all of the "stuff" that is bogging it down!
We removed everything off our kitchen counters, except for two things. The coffee maker and the toaster.
We took every personal picture down, except for one in our bedroom that was in a 4X6 frame and very discreet.
We bought a potted plant and placed it near our front door to add a pop of color as people were walking in.

As far as keeping it clean...it is really easy once you have nothing out to make it messy!

When we would have a showing (an average of 6-8 a day...good photos make all the difference), we would turn on all the lights. Flush the toilets and close the lids. Make our beds, and make sure all closet doors were closed. We also opened up all of our blinds.

As far as buying a new house? That was the most stressful part. We couldn't even look at new homes until we were under contract for the house that we were selling. I was three months pregnant, which probably didn't help! But the best advice I would give right now, is to trust that the market will reward you by pricing your home aggressively.

Good Luck!

I haven't sold a house recently, but I can tell you what we liked about houses when we were looking to buy.
We looked at over a dozen houses. The one we bought was the only one we looked at that was being lived in.
The house felt homey when we walked in. We liked seeing how the spaces worked with furniture, the personal touches in the rooms, and the decorations on the walls.
The houses that were staged felt cold. They were so clean they were almost sterile. And I didn't like how the furniture was arranged because it didn't seem natural. It was not how I thought people living in the house would arrange things.
The house that was lived in was clean but not sterile. A couple of the rooms were cluttered, but that didn't bother us. We were not buying her things, just her house. We could still see the features of the house, like windows, floors, and closets. When we looked in closets it was nice to see how much they could hold because they had things in them.

We hated, absolutely HATED, the wall paper in the dining area, entry way, and both bathrooms. Those things can be changed without much expense though so they didn't really matter to us. What was more important was the appliances that came with the house, the square footage of the house, how big the bedrooms were, and the floors.

Those were the things that made us buy the house, not any remodeling or fancy extras.

We had our house on the market for 8 months last year and will be listing it again this week (trying to cut-down on my commute, so it's not a "fire sale").

Just some of the advice we have received...
- Your house is only worth what someone else will pay for it, not what you think it's worth, not how much you have put into it, upgraded, etc.
- Square footage will "trump" charm and upgrades in most cases
- DECLUTTER! Your house should be tasteful and essentially devoid of "you". We took down photos and anything overly personal. The walls are all neutral now and the house was/will be spotless when we leave in the mornings.
- Showcase "features"... we have hardwood cherry floors that absolutely sparkle... when they're clean. So- they get mopped twice a week rather than twice a month!
- Try to tone-down less desirable aspects of your home. For us, we have a small lot, but we keep it well-landscaped and clutter free (all outdoor toys come inside the garage where they are organized well b/c our garage is huge!)

We plan to rent b/c we are taking a huge loss on the house. That way we can recover some of the loss and figure out where we would like to be!

We're in a situation where we're moving from the city to the suburbs of Chicago. We've already put a contract on a new house and will be putting our house on the market in June.

I recently edited an article on this subject so here are a few tips:

1) Showcase any light in your house (make sure windows are sparkling clean and window treatments are open during showings...replace any burned out light bulbs too.
2) Make any obvious repairs (broken outlet covers, doorknobs, holes in wall, chipped paint, etc.). This is an inexpensive way to optimize your showing.
3) De-clutter, like the other posters mentioned...people don't always have a lot of vision, and will sometimes go into a showing thinking - could I move into here right away?
4) Close your toilet seats before a showing!!!!!!!
5) Don't put something on the stove to cook...I don't know how that ever became a popular thing to do, but many people are turned off by a strong food smell when coming into a house. Instead opt for a fresh-smelling glade or airwick plug-in (somewhere you can plug it in out of view) and ONLY use the fresh linen scent.
6) Spend about $150 and have a cleaning service come in and do any stairwells, porches, laundry room, bathroom, windows, and all of your floors.

Good luck!