What Makes Your Listing Any Different?
As more and more homes come on the market and inventory creeps up, competition for listed homes increases. This means that your property must stand apart from the competition (“comps”) if you are hoping to garner the attention of your ideal buyer, and get top price in a quick fashion.
While there are some simple To Do’s that you can focus on to set your listing apart, most people simply ignore them, or whine that they are '“too expensive”. Let ask you, if you were to invest $10,000 in updates to your home prior to listing to ensure you got $50,000 more in net proceeds, is that “too expensive”. Too often, sellers want the desired end result without putting in the time and effort of marketing their listing differently.
These To Do’s (in order) include cleaning, painting, and staging.
If you can’t clean up your dishes, sweep your floors, or make sure there aren’t urine stains on your toilet, what kind of person do you think is going to “feel at home” when looking at your property? You already know the answer to that: a sloppy cheapskate.
Painting makes all the difference in the world in terms of reflecting light, repairing damaged walls, and even making the space appear larger than it is. Plus, most folks these days want a “move-in ready” home, rather than having to invest additional time/money, or negotiating an unnecessary credit, which only prolongs closing.
Investing in home staging is one of the best ways to ensure you set your listing apart from the comps. Not only does it market a particular lifestyle to your prospective buyer, it clearly defines the living space, so they don’t leave the property having to do guesswork or focusing their attention on the next property their headed to view.
Do you really think your ideal prospective buyers are looking at JUST your property that day? Don’t kid yourself. The buyer’s agent has several others to show them immediately after, in case yours doesn’t “check the boxes”. Make sure YOUR property checks those boxes, and invest in these updates so you can market your property like a real professional.