As a professional moving company, our business is closely tied to the real estate market, and the successful buying and selling of homes. Although our specialty is home moving, we aim to provide added value by providing helpful tips to help you succeed in marketing your home. In previous blogs we outlined many things you can do to prepare your home inside and out for optimum market appeal. From the first curbside impression to staging your home and creating spaciousness and light inside, there are myriad things a homeowner can do to increase the chances of a stellar sale.
Ed Bangle, Broker Associate for Intero Real Estate Services stressed the importance of working from a thorough punch list when preparing your home for sale. First, a comprehensive punch list keeps the focus on detail during a potentially stressful time. And the devil truly is in the detail, because it works like this: A buyer pulls up to the curb. She notices that the lawn is overgrown and weedy. As she approaches the door, she notices, even subconsciously perhaps, that the porch light is tilted and tarnished. The dusty plastic porch plant is tacky. That’s several strikes against the house before she has even gone inside, and these subtle mental aversions (nicely termed “objections”) add up to a more difficult sale. Homeowners need—as much humanly possible—to eliminate detractions, which often are easily remedied.
Secondly, a punch list actually gives you one less thing to worry about. Confident that nothing will get left out, you can focus on the most important tasks first. And there’s something just fun about striking an accomplished activity off a list!
When Ed notices that a homeowner is not taking actions specified on the list, it usually boils down to overwhelm. One way to tackle the list is to hire a handyman, sub-out all or some of the tasks on the list. You will pay in money, but you will save time. If you are a self-starting Do-It-Your selfer, by all means go for it. The idea is to move your home through the sales process, whatever it takes.
It doesn’t matter if you are going to do the the work or hire someone the key is to start with a list of what needs to be done. The better the home looks the quicker it will sell and the more money you will get for the property. Good luck and do try to have fun during the process.