Preparing your home to sell
Make it look great !
Presentation is everything! Home buyers are attracted to clean, spacious and attractive houses. Your goal is to dazzle buyers. Brighten-up the house and remove all clutter from counter tops, tables and rooms. Scrub-down your house from top to bottom. Make it sparkle. Simple aesthetic improvements such as trimming trees, planting flowers, fixing squeaking steps, broken tiles, shampooing rugs and even re-painting a faded bedroom will greatly enhance the appeal of your house. Also, make sure your house smells good. That's right, clean out the cat box and light mildly scented candles.
Invite a neighbor over to walk through your house like a buyer would. Get their opinion on how it "shows." The stuffed donkey in the family room may have to go to your in-laws for a while.
Pricing your home effectively
Do not over price your home. Over-pricing when you sell a home reduces buyer interest, makes competing homes look like better values, and can lead to mortgage rejections once the appraisal is in. Over-pricing when selling a home is the single biggest reason why many home sellers don't sell their homes successfully. Remember: the home selling market dictates the price (not what you think it should be worth).
One of the best ways to correctly price your house when selling is to find out how much other homes, similar to your own, recently sold for in your neighborhood. Talk to home sellers, buyers, check out the real estate listings in your local newspaper or contact "Westchester Realty" for you'r free Comparative Market Analysis (CMA).
Typically, if you set the price of your home at 5 to 10 percent above the market price, you are likely to end up with an offer close to your home's true value. Also, you may try calculating the cost per square foot of your home compared to the house selling prices in your area (divide list price by square footage of livable space). If your house has more features or other desirable qualities, you may want to set a slightly higher house selling price.
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