Fantastic First Impressions Sell Homes!

Studies show that we make up our minds about people within seconds of meeting them.  It would probably be fair to say that prospective buyers do the very same thing with homes that they are considering buying. Some buyers even go as far as refusing to go inside the house after pulling up to the front of the home! If you want to be sure that buyers don’t hightail it out the door within moments of arriving, you have to create a fantastic first impression.

Take Off the Rose-Colored Glasses

You will need to start by looking at your home with “fresh eyes”. Try to look at every part of your home, inside and out, as if you are seeing it for the very first time.  You may be shocked at what you see!  Another suggestion is to “Break Up” with your home once you have made the decision to sell.  “Breaking Up” with your house will help you to distance yourself emotionally from the property and enable you to more clearly see your house for what it is and make needed changes to achieve the end goal of selling your house.

Curb Appeal

If you want to get buyers past the front door, the outside needs to be appealing and inviting. Would you want to buy a home that had peeling paint, dirty windows, and dead plants? Remove debris such as fallen branches and leaves.  Make sure the flower beds have fresh mulch and keep the plantings watered and trimmed. Flowers in front of the house or beside the front door create warmth and make potential buyers smile.

Something as inexpensive as a new doormat, house numbers, or a mailbox can brighten up the exterior of a home and make it more inviting.  Be sure to store away yard tools and kids’ toys when not in use.

Reel Them In!

Once you get prospective buyers in the front door, wow them with how clean, tidy, and uncluttered your home is.  Make them WANT to live there!

Start by decluttering and depersonalizing the space. It can be hard to put away the treasured family photos and knick knacks that mean so much to you; but you want buyers to be able to envision what the space would look like with THEIR belongings and mementos in it. You want the home to feel inviting, but not sterile. You may even want to consider having  your home staged while it is on the market. A professional decorator will come to your home and temporarily decorate it to give the best first impression–many times using your own pieces.

Once you have decluttered and simplified your space, Clean! Clean! Clean! And then clean some more! Every room should be cleaned top to bottom. Wipe down cabinets and clean out drawers–especially kitchen drawers.  Prospective buyers ALWAYS look in kitchen cupboards and drawers! You don’t want them to be turned off by crumbs, food drippings, dead bugs, or even worse–mouse poo! Wipe down appliances and clean all air vents and overhead fans. Sweep, mop, and vacuum every room in your house. You may even want to splurge on having a professional clean your carpets.

Major renovations will most likely not be in most sellers’ budgets, but you can plan a small make-over for the biggest impact.  Focusing on the kitchen, bathrooms, and flooring can update and brighten your home without breaking the bank. While you are in renovation mode, fix EVERYTHING that is broken–leaks and drips, holes in the drywall, broken hinges and handles, electrical face plates and burnt out bulbs. You may have forgotten about these minor issues because you have lived with them for so long, but you can guarantee that a potential buyer will notice and wonder what other issues are lurking. A fresh coat of paint in a neutral color is an economical way to brighten up any space.

Keeping Up Appearances

Your home is finally in pristine condition. {sigh} It looks like something from a magazine.  Heck–you might even be thinking, “Why would we want to leave this? I can’t remember the last time our house looked this good!”  Now comes the hard part–keeping everything clean and put away. Every week, maybe even multiple times a week, you will have potential buyers coming through your home. Sometimes you will not have much notice from your agent.  Be flexible with showings and ready to bolt out the door at a moments’ notice! When we were selling our last home, the listing went live mid-afternoon. I had set the table and was standing at the stove cooking dinner when our agent called to say that potential buyers and their agent were on their way down the parkway and would be there in less than 20 minutes. Several things went through my mind ranging from “How exciting! Our first showing!” to “Oh no! Our first showing!” to “It’s dinner time–how rude of them to come now!” I pushed dinner to the back burner, rounded up all four kids, and ran to the neighbors’ house.  We had a signed contract in front of us less than three hours later for several thousand dollars more than the asking price!

Keeping your house in tip top shape at all times can be overwhelming and exhausting, especially if you have children or pets; but all that hard work will pay off when that fantastic first impression that you made leads to a contract!