First Time Sellers Tips #4

You've decided to sell, possibly selected that right gent or gal to help you market the home, hopefully taken care of a pre-inspection and fixed the issues (or priced accordingly)....what next?

Get the house ready!!!

I'll break this into 2 parts exterior and interior. Today we do the outside, which you will have and will continue to recognize by the term "curb appeal." Here's the thing...if your house looks

• like crap on the outside no one is going to
• look beyond the first picture they see on the 'net
• get out of the car and grab a flyer
• call their (or your) agent to get more info
• WANT TO SEE THE HOUSE!

I hate to be the guy that breaks that to some of you....but it's true. If you're not appealing enough to do any of the above- who is going to go INSIDE the house? If potential buyers aren't going in the house...I'm pretty certain they're not buying it. (Now- all of this advice goes out the window if the house is a rehab, tear-down, fixer upper, etc. There- price matters more than anything else.)

So what can you do to make the house look nice and appealing?

I'd say trust your eye, but that might be part of the problem....so make sure you get a second opinion (like the expert one that your REALTOR can offer). There's dozens and dozens of things you COULD do to make the home more appealing but let's cover some of the basics....

• Clean it! There's no harm in making sure you've power washed the home, right? I don't think there's any sort of mandate that says you cannot clean your windows. This should go without saying, but keep it clean. This extends to having picked up the newspapers and kids toys....if people think you can't even keep your font yard clean, imagine what they think of the interior of the home (where you spend most of your time).
• Keep your lawn mowed and looking decent. Keep your landscaping looking good too....overgrown and dead bushes will hurt significantly more than poor/ different tastes.
• Is your driveway full of cracks? Has the blacktop not been sealed in about a decade? People WILL notice this...it's probably best that you remedy it.

Photo taken by Phoenix area Realtor Leif Swanson. I used house pretty far away to protect the local guilty!