Home Sales: 5 Tips To Get Your Home Ready To Put On The Market

Many buyers today want move-in-ready homes and will quickly eliminate an otherwise great home by focusing on a few visible flaws. Unless your home shines, you may endure showing after showing and open house after open house—and end up with a lower sales price. Before the first prospect walks through your door, consider some smart options for casting your home in its best light.

1. Have a home inspection

Be proactive by arranging for a pre-sale home inspection. For $250 to $400, an inspector will warn you about troubles that could make potential buyers balk. Make repairs before putting your home on the market. In some states, you may have to disclose what the inspection turns up.

2. Get replacement estimates

If your home inspection uncovers necessary repairs you can’t fund, get estimates for the work. The figures will help buyers determine if they can afford the home and the repairs. Also hunt down warranties, guarantees, and user manuals for your furnace, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and any other items you expect to remain with the house.

3. Make minor repairs

Not every repair costs a bundle. Fix as many small problems—sticky doors, torn screens, cracked caulking, dripping faucets—as you can. These may seem trivial, but they’ll give buyers the impression your house isn’t well maintained.

4. Clear the clutter

Clear your kitchen counters of just about everything. Clean your closets by packing up little-used items like out-of-season clothes and old toys. Install closet organizers to maximize space. Put at least one-third of your furniture in storage, especially large pieces, such as entertainment centers and big televisions. Pack up family photos, knickknacks, and wall hangings to depersonalize your home. Store the items you’ve packed offsite or in boxes neatly arranged in your garage or basement.

5. Do a thorough cleaning

A clean house makes a strong first impression that your home has been well cared for. If you can afford it, consider hiring a cleaning service.
If not, wash windows and leave them open to air out your rooms. Clean carpeting and drapes to eliminate cooking odors, smoke, and pet smells. Wash light fixtures and baseboards, mop and wax floors, and give your stove and refrigerator a thorough once-over.
Pay attention to details, too. Wash fingerprints from light switch plates, clean inside the cabinets, and polish doorknobs. Don’t forget to clean your garage, too.

Josh Schwab
Broker Associate
Keller Williams Executives
200 West Plaza Dr #200
Highlands Ranch, Co 80129
303-324-1112
Jschwab@yourdenveragent.com
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Winter Real Estate It's Not As Cold As It Looks

Not everyone out there is watching the amazing run Tim Tebow is having some people are looking for houses.  The fall home-selling season is a lot like the college football season — both normally end around Thanksgiving, but a smaller postseason keeps going long after that.  It used to be that spring and summer were the hot times to buy or sell houses, but people are much more mobile now. If you want to sell your house these days, you don't necessarily have to wait until spring to put it on the market.  True, most would-be homebuyers and sellers in colder climates still call it quits from late November until late February or so.

• But how can a would-be seller attract a buyer when there's ice on a home's walkway, snow covering the flower beds and little natural light to make a place look bright?  Here are five things homeowners must do if they want to heat up the chances of selling a property this winter:

1. Set a realistic price
House hunters expect discount prices in the winter, because they know that any homeowner who lists a property during the period really needs to sell. So sellers should list their homes at realistic prices to begin with.  We've been in a buyers market for so long now in most of the country that buyers are trained to lowball.
2. Advertise with snow-free pictures
If possible, you or your agent should try taking photos before it snows. If that's not feasible, take photos the first time the snow melts — even if it's just a brief winter thaw.
3. Maximize curb appeal
You always want your home to have good "curb appeal" — a nice appearance that's apparent from the moment a would-be buyer pulls up to the curb — but winter snow and gloom make that tough. To make the most of your home's wintertime look make sure all autumn leaves and any dead tree branches are gone. Keep your home's driveway and paths free of snow and ice and put a nice, clean doormat in front.
4. 'Stage' the interior for winter
A good real-estate agent or professional home stager can help you make your home's interior look warm and friendly no matter how dreary it is outside. Baking cookies or an apple pie shortly before house hunters arrive. This will give your home an inviting smell when would-be buyers come in from the cold.
5. Have good interior lighting
You always want your home to look as bright as possible to potential buyers, but sparse winter sunlight can make that a real challenge. Maximize all available lighting by having your home's windows professionally cleaned — inside and out — before you put your place on the market. Don't forget the storm windows.  Also consider replacing 40-watt bulbs with 75- or 100-watt versions — and put all lights on before every showing.

How To Lowball

We all love getting a good deal, particularly in this economic climate. Whether you're saving 75 cents on a bag of frozen french fries or $5,000 on a new home, frugality is in.

The art of the lowball offer
To kick it off, let's talk about that all-important step after you've found your dream home: submitting the offer.
If you're following the numbers, you're probably aware that most U.S. markets still favor homebuyers but that trend is quickly changing. That may lead you to believe that sellers are desperate and will take any offer you throw at them. You'd be wrong. While sellers may be more willing to negotiate now than they were in 2006, for instance, you still must perfect the art of the lowball offer. The key is research. Your agent  must know everything about the market, the property, the seller and yourself.

The market: There is no such thing as a national real-estate market, which means all this talk of a buyers market may not even apply where you live. Your real-estate agent can find out whether comparable homes are selling quickly or slowly and at, above or below asking price.

The property: How does the price of the property compare with those of comparable homes? How long has the home been on the market? The longer it has been listed, the more likely the seller may be to entertain lower offers. If it has been on the market for months or even years and there have been no offers, at some point the seller is going to give up and either accept a much lower price or just resolve not to sell it.
Another factor is whether the home will require a lot of work, if you're willing to do the work, you can generally find good deals on fixer-uppers.

The seller: If sellers already have purchased another home or are starting a job in a new city and must sell quickly, that will affect their willingness to settle for less. Being flexible on the terms of a contract also can translate into a lower price. For example, if the seller plans to move to a new home still under construction, he might accept a lower price in return for a rent-back agreement allowing him to stay in the home for some period after closing.

Yourself: Are you in love with the house or with getting a good deal?
If the buyer is in love with the property they might want to offer something closer to market value in order to lock it up, particularly if it's in a market with intense buyer competition. If the buyer is just looking to get a great deal they might take a shot at whatever they think is in the lower hemisphere of fair and see how things develop. In my opinion, a buyer's best bet for finding a great deal is to buy a short-sale property, but you must be sure you're cut out for what is usually a long, difficult process. You can also get a bargain when buying a foreclosure, but  those homes are priced based on what is owed to the bank, not on their actual value.
If you're looking at a distressed property, be realistic about whether you can handle buying a property "as is." If you've never picked up a hammer, the money you save on the purchase may not be worth the hassle and expense of hiring contractors to make updates — or even to make the home livable.

We know you love that house but please price it right!!

Many home sellers these days are unrealistically optimistic, asking considerably more than they're likely to get. As a result, they risk long delays in finding buyers, which means a lot of lost revenue while the house sits idle on the market.  Homeowners who bought after the housing bubble peaked in 2007 were even more unrealistic than those who bought before or during the bubble, perhaps because post-bubble buyers thought they got better bargains than they actually did. Nearby homes that have sold in the past six months or so may be quite different from yours in appearance or condition, and there may be too few recent sales to get a proper valuation. That being said, you won't have much chance of getting a premium price on a cookie-cutter condo if identical units have sold for less.  As a seller, you have a right to ask for whatever price you want, which you can drop if no one bites. You may get lucky, but asking too much involves a number of risks, even if you're just "testing the market" for a few weeks or months. On one side of the issue, you might get your high asking price, also it's possible that someone will find your home so perfect that it justifies a premium price. For example, a home with a garage converted into a shop may be a turnoff to most buyers because most of them have cars, but a nondriving tinkerer may love the extra work space.

More often, though, pricing your home too high works against you in some important ways. Here are three of them:

1. Agents react. Real-estate agents (yours and the buyers) may not want to waste time with a home that's unlikely to sell. Though a higher price means a bigger commission, agents might figure they can move two or three homes in the time it would take to sell yours, earning more even if each offers a smaller commission than your property does.

2. Buyers react. Buyers who like your house but pass on your property because of the price may find something else and close a deal before you drop your asking price to a level they'd accept.

3. You need that money. Even if you get your full asking price, the time it takes to get it may cause you to miss out on the house you want to buy. You may have to settle for something that's not as suitable.

Setting a proper sale price is both an art and a science. A key step is to shop carefully for an agent who can help you, looking for one who is very familiar with your community and comes with good references. Steer clear of dabblers who sell only a few homes a year. You want a pro who is on top of the market and will value a good reference from you. Keep in mind that a computer that spits out comparable sales isn't likely to know that your home has a new kitchen and the others don't.  Finally, keep an eye on the "traffic" - the number of potential buyers who come through your property. A good agent will have a sense of how many buyers are looking. If you are not getting your share, it's a sign you are reaching on price. If dropping your price is inevitable, it's better to do it sooner than later.