Preparing your home to maximize its selling price

Your home is your most valuable asset, both financially and emotionally. You’ve lived there for years, raised your children, sent them off to college, and made countless memories. You also paid thousands of dollars to purchase your home and maintain it in a condition you can be proud of.

When it comes time to move on, it makes sense to maximize your home’s selling price. There are hundreds of things that will improve the value of your home, but concentrate on the ones that produce the best increase in value for every dollar spent.

Don’t get overly complicated. Adding a bathroom, or upgrading the kitchen can add substantial value if it’s done right, but it might not increase the value nearly as much as you invest into the project.

Start with the front of your home. Cut and edge the lawn, pressure wash the façade and driveway. Remove debris and tidy up landscaping. These projects cost nothing but the increased curb appeal will make your home more attractive to buyers.

Inside the home, the most important thing is to make sure it’s clean and smells nice. A house that’s been lived in can accumulate dust in the places you never look, so clean it from top to bottom. Get rid of the clutter as you’ll be moving soon. Before listing your home is the best time to get rid of your junk through a yard sale or at the landfill. Making the house smell nice is essential. Get some help from a friend to give you an unbiased opinion as you may be “nose blind” to your own home, especially pet odors.

When I list your home for sale, I only have 24 hours to get your home into the Multiple Listing Service. This means when I come to take photographs, you need to be ready with a clean and tidy house. As a professional photographer, I’ll prep as necessary for photographs by straightening furniture, opening blinds and turning on all the lights, but you’ll need to have as much done as possible first. As the only local Realtor® offering 3D virtual tours of your home at no charge, my buyers will be able to walk through your home online so it’s no good hiding your canoe behind the sofa!

Once your home is listed, keep it ready for showing by keeping the lawn mowed, and the interior clean. When your home has a showing, make sure it’s extra clean and tidy, and leave the lights on and the blinds open so it’s nice and bright. If you have a pet, secure it so it’s safe during the showing.

Keeping your home clean and well maintained will help it sell faster, and promote multiple offers, which can increase the selling price. Call me at 813-486-3160 and I’ll come and take a look at your home and let you know if it’s ready to sell or what can be improved.

By Marcus Price, Realtor® with Century 21, Bill Nye Realty Inc.

Make sure the kitchen is clean!

Speed will give you the key to your new home

As a buyer in today’s red hot real estate market, a matter of hours can make a difference to whether you get your dream home or not. With starter home inventory at very low levels, the majority of homes that are priced right, usually go under contract within a matter of days, if not hours in some cases. This year I have personally sold houses and had those homes under contract at or above the asking price within 24 hours of listing.

Before you even start actively looking for a home, contact your mortgage lender and get pre-approved, as this will help your Realtor® know which homes you should be looking at. It will also be necessary to have that pre-approval letter in hand when you are ready to make an offer.

Your Realtor® will then set you up a search in the MLS that will email you any new homes that become available within seconds of them being listed. Make sure the email you give your Realtor® is one that you get immediately (on your smart phone for instance). Then, be ready to go and see that property and put in an offer on it as quickly as possible, as hours can make a difference if it is a desirable home at the right price.

When choosing a Realtor®, make sure you get one that is available 24 hours a day and will actually answer their cell phone when you call, or at least call you back within a few minutes. If you have any questions about searching for a new home or listing your current home for sale, feel free to give me a call on my cell at 813-486-3160 and I’ll be happy to help you out.

By Marcus Price, Realtor® with Century 21, Bill Nye Realty Inc.