Simple selling tips

June 12, 2008

Selling your home in today's Charleston real estate market There is a lot of homes for sale in today’s Charleston real estate market so buyers have lots of choices. A quick search in a very narrow parameter shows there are 311 homes for sale priced between $200,000 and $250,000 in Summerville.

Most buyers (hopefully) won’t want to see all of them so when your home is chosen to be viewed, make the most of the opportunity.

A few simple tips:

Make your home available to easily be shown.

Most sellers don’t require 24 hour notice to show their homes by appointment only. If you have a tenant in a rental home that you are selling, then your tenant has rights but discussing the sale of your home with your tenant might allow your home to be shown easier. If your tenant will be uncooperative, you might want to consider waiting until the lease is up before putting your home on the market.

If you have small children and need to tidy up before a showing, anticipate that by keeping everything as straight as possible and make your home available for showing within an hour or two of the call. The same goes for your pets, keep them in a crate or behind a small gate or in the yard (make sure they can be cool and have plenty to drink during the hot summer) or be available to take them off the property.

The best situation is to leave your home every day in no apology, mint condition ready for a showing that might happen on the spot. Quite often, as I drive around with a client, they see a home and wonder if they can see it now. A quick call to Centralized Showing Service to find out the showing instructions might possibly result in a sale.

Straighten up.

Keeping your home clutter free with dishes out of the sink, toys picked up, beds made and ready to show at all times is an inconvenience … but, the buyers will like your home more than many others they will be viewing. I’ve seen it time and time again, a reasonably nice home with good bones, nice floor plan, well priced, etc., be ruled out by buyers because they just couldn’t see past the mess. And don’t forget, if your home doesn’t appear to be clean, the buyers might assume that you haven’t been taking care of the important maintenance items either.

Don’t hang around.

Just about the worst thing you can do is not leave your house when a real estate agent rings the bell and opens the lockbox. You should not be there and if you are, you shouldn’t say anything more than, “hi, how are you, I’m just leaving.”

I once was showing homes to a client and the homeowner answered the door and said, “well, I was just leaving but as long as I’m here, let me tell you a few special things about my house.” She went on to tour the home with us for about 5 excruciating minutes. After she left, my buyer looked at me and said, “let’s go, I don’t like the house and I sure don’t like the seller.” The home might not have worked for the buyer but if it had, the seller may have ruined her chance to get an offer. To me, it just shows desperation on the part of the homeowner to think they have to “tout” what’s special.

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