Tips for Louisville Home Sellers: Clean vs. ClutterFree

Look what a difference 10 minutes can make. All of the extra appliances and utensils have been put in cabinets, the top and side of the refrigerator have been cleared, and the soaps, etc have been stored neatly under the sink in a basket. The countertop appears 50% bigger at least.

If you are selling a home in Louisville, Shepherdsville, Mt Washington or Oldham County it is important to know how to properly stage your home so that it sells for the most amount of money in the least time. Tips like these are part of my comprehensive marketing plan to sell your house. Whenever you are ready, I am here to help.

Louisville Home Sellers, Don't Give Your Money Away...

…unless it is for a good cause.

As of today, 9848 single family homes and condos are listed on the MLS for sale in the Metro Louisville Area. This number represents a 10 month supply which, by definition creates a Buyer’s Market.

However, the fact that we are in a Buyer's Market does not mean that you, as a seller, have to be or act desperate. In order to sell you home for the most money in the least amount of time, you need to ...
1) Select a good agent with a strong marketing plan
2) Price the home properly
3) Prepare the home to sell.

Please notice that nowhere above does it say to tell buyers that you are desperate and/or beg them to look at your home and take it from you at any price. Despite this, almost 5% of the homes for sale in Louisville contain the phrases 'motivated' or 'bring all offers. Bullitt County and Oldham County are only slightly better.

When you include ‘Motivated Seller’ or ‘Make an Offer’ in your listing, this appeals to the wrong customer. Before a buyer even sees your home, he or she is thinking about getting a deal and YOU have given them power in the negotiation process.

If you truly need to sell your home quickly, work with your real estate agent to price the house at the lower end of the CMA range and then negotiate fairly with buyers who come because they are interested in purchasing your home not because they are interested in trying to get a great deal.

If you are going to give money away, give it here or here or to whatever worthy cause you choose to support. But, don’t give it to a buyer just because you want to generate traffic.

Use the tools available to you and close a transaction that is fair to everyone. When you are ready to sell your home....

I am here to help.

Sellers: Are you ready?

The cliché “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” is true for home sellers now more than anytime in recent history. Today’s buyers have certain expectations that must be met in order to obtain an offer. Among them, the price must be fair, the house must be in very good to excellent condition, and the home must meet their needs AND wants. Nationally, this is a tremendous change from a few years ago. While not as pronounced, the change is noticeable here in the Louisville real estate market as well.

Depending on where you live in the Louisville area, your property will be competing with as many as 2 times the number of homes for sale as it would have if you sold 2 years ago. This means that if there were 10 similar properties in 2006, there could be 20 now. If all of the houses were identical, the odds of a buyer selecting your home would have fallen from 10% to 5%. Fortunately, all homes are not identical and, even more beneficially, you can help control whether your house will sell.

Selling a home is about creating emotion and reinforcing it with logic. To be successful, you and your real estate agent must work together as a team. If each of you takes care of your responsibilities, the whole process will be rewarding for everyone involved (buyer, seller, and agent). A good agent will make sure that the property is listed at a fair price and will provide exposure so that other agents and interested buyers can find your house easily. A very good realtor will make recommendations for updating or staging your house before it goes on the market. The rest is up to you.

When a prospective buyer comes to your house, will they see an overgrown yard, deteriorating shutters, and a broken down fence? If so, why do you think they would even come in the front door? Once inside, will they find a clean, clutter-free, and well-kept home or will they see dishes on the counter, dirty clothes on the floor, walls in need of painting, etc? If it is the latter, why do you think that they will make an offer? You must make the buyer(s) feel as though they WANT to live in this home. If you don’t, someone else will.

You have but one opportunity to create this emotion, are you ready?

Are you sure?

As always, I am here to help.