Selling your Philadelphia Home
Thinking about selling your Philadelphia Home? If so, hopefully this blog will help guide you in how to prepare forputting your house on the market.
For houses that are already updated, or for seller’sthat aren’t wanting to do any fix-ups: It isamazing what a good cleaning and decluttering will do for showing yourhome. Take a weekend to prepare your house for sale. Spend Saturday decluttering and gettingrid of all that “stuff.” Decluttering will help your home appearbigger, and you may end up with a better layout without changing anythingstructural. It’s all mental. Get rid of all personal itemssuch as family pictures and gifts from Grandma and Grandpa….. (I am notsuggesting you throw them away, just get them out of site.) When potential buyers see pictures of youliving in the house, it is hard for them to imagine them living inthe house. “Google” home staging tips, and visit openhouses in your area for ideas on how to prepare your home for sale. Thiswill help to not only to see what the competition is like, but also to stealideas! When it’s your own house, it’s hard to see what the possible”hang-ups” that buyers might have. (Everybody is guilty of this.) When going out to visit open houses, take your time and think about whatcomes to mind when viewing a house for the first time. This will help younext time you are walking through your own front door. I bet you will seesomething that needs changed, removed or fixed. Spend Sunday deep-cleaning the wholehouse. Go to Wal-Mart and buy $30 worth of cleaning supplies, and Ipromise you this will be the best return you’ll ever get on $30bucks! Start on the main floor and work your way out. I say thisbecause it’s a fact that as time goes on, you’re going to get lazy with the”deep-cleaning.” We can’t have you getting lazy on the firstfloor as it’s the first impression a prospective buyer will have.
For houses that need work, or for seller’s that wantto give their house a face-lift: Start by declutteringand getting everything that isn’t a necessity out of the way and intostorage. Depending on how much work needs to be done, you may need tocontact a contractor or somebody to help with the fix-up process. REMEMBER the GOLDEN RULE when getting your house ready for sale……DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON PROJECTS THAT WILL NOT DIRECTLY RESULT INAN INCREASE IN VALUE! That being said, there are alwaysexceptions to the rules. For example, if you must sell your home quickly due topersonal reasons or what not, there may be things you will want todo to improve aesthetic appeal that may not bring a direct return oninvestment, and though you won’t see a direct monetary return, you will besaving money by not having your house on the market longer than it needs tobe. For example, replacing your roof before you sell your houseshould directly result in an increase in sales price (and maybe a quickersale), whereas replacing the front door most likely will not.
Always keep in mind that most buyer’s will buy based on their emotions and feelings they get when they walk through the door…..this will trump most other feelings……(as long as the house has walls and a roof!)
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Zach Skidmore
www.CenterCityHomes.com / 215.901.7844
Prudential Fox and Roach REALTORS®
530 Walnut St., Suite 260 Philadelphia, PA 19106
