Monthly Archives: November 2011

Cars Have Their Place, but Not in Front

This is tricky, because there is so much opposition to it. Do not park your car (or have your neighbor park their cars) in your driveway or even in front of your house. Rather park cars in the garage.

“What?” I can hear many people asking. “That’s outrageous. I can park my car anywhere I want. That’s my right. It’s even written in the constitution…or should be!”

Let’s look at it from the buyers viewpoint. Suppose you are a buyer looking at a house and an agent takes you in a nice neighborhood. As you drive down the street, there are cars, all makes, all models, all ages, parked all over the place. Some are in front of the homes on the street, others are in driveways, and still others are parked on the front lawns. In short the neighborhood looks like a repair yard or at best a haven for mechanics.

Consider the neighborhood where there are no cars parked on the streets. What does the potential buyer see? They see the HOMES! The area looks open, with lots of space, low density and well cared for homes.

Park your own cars in the garage. If you don’t have room then clean it out and make room. Stuffed garages mean “if there is not enough storage in the home for you then there probably won’t be enough room for me”. Move it out! Rent a POD…do something but get rid of it.

Remember: It’s the Sizzle, not the Steak. Till Tomorrow Candie

Where to Begin?

Here is a technique that costs you almost nothing, but will not only give you a quicker sale, it can add extra money to the selling price.

Put yourself in the home buyer’s shoes. What do you want to see when you first walk in a house?

Beyond neat, clean appearance, most buyers want to see how their furniture will fit in. It is not uncommon, for example, for buyers to measure the living room to see if their couch will fit nicely.

If your house is filled with your own clutter, buyers won’t be able to visualize putting their things in the house. Your things will be in the way.

Remember: Buyer’s have no imagination. You can tell a buyer that her dining room table will fit in your dining room, but if your oversized dining room table is crowding the room with barely space for chairs around it, she is not likely to believe you.

You will want some furniture in each room, otherwise the rooms tend to look small. Furniture makes rooms not only livable, but gives them proportion.

Remember: Too much furniture and too much clutter makes the room look small. In addition it makes it look like yours- not theirs. You want buyers to see each room as their own. The more they see themselves fitting in, the more they will want your house and the better the offer will be.

Till Tomorrow….

Candie Your Nashville Connection

How to improve the profit on your home with small investments: This is first in a series of 50+ Techniques and Strategies to improve the value of your home.

Make a Better First Impression:

Everyone knows that you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression. That is particularly true when it comes to your home.

When you want to sell your home, first impressions are critical. Among real estate people this is called curb appeal. This means the home looks good when a potential buyer first drives up and parks on the curb. That good impression should continue as they walk through the home.

Real Estate Agents know that a buy or don’t buy decision is made with that first impression, even though buyers may not realize it until later. If the initial impression of your home is favorable, potential buyers walk through your home thinking positive thoughts. They will be looking for reasons to reinforce their positive thoughts…the reasons to buy your home. It will take something very negative to knock them off this first track.

If however the first impression is negative, the buyer goes through your house with the mindset that says, “show me why I should change that first impression and buy this place.” Now the buyer has to be turned around- a much harder job.

If you are planning on selling your home, it is imperative that you immediately begin improving the curb appeal of your house. If, however, selling your home is just a thought you have for the future, you should remember creating curb appeal doesn’t happen overnight. If you start now and work on creating curb appeal over a period of years, the cost will be greatly reduced to say nothing of the stress.

Talk some more tomorrow……..cw