Real Estate Tips

10 Tips to Get Your House Sold for Top Dollar!

1. De-clutter: You are trying to sell your house, not your stuff. So showcase your house. For every piece of furniture, ask yourself if it adds to the overall feeling of your home or not. If it doesn't, get rid of it. Think of it as pre-moving. EVERYTHING in your home is coming out anyway, you're just getting a head start.
2. Paint: Freshly painted rooms look so clean. Every single little mark or scratch that have added up over the years will disappear, and your walls will once again look vibrant and new. Stick to neutral colors.
3. Focus on curb appeal: Give it a good powerwash, fix little things, touch up paint, put out fresh bark dust, keep lawn mowed, plant colorful flowers.
4. Have a pre-inspection completed: Pre-home inspections can be a great way to find out ahead of time if there are any underlying issues that may need to be addressed before your home sells. It is also a great feature to advertise once your house has been listed for sale. 
5. Consider house staging: Professional staging has been proven that it helps a home sell faster, giving you the best possible returns for your property. Staged houses typically show better than unstaged ones, giving you a step up on your competition.
6. Treat it like a business: Your house is no longer just your home, it's an asset you are trying to get top dollar for: Your house is now an asset for sale. It's an asset that you want to get top dollar for.

   This means that you have to be very accommodating to showings. Yes, it's always inconvenient to show your house, but you need to work on the schedule of prospective buyers, not the other way around.

7. Ask for outside opinions from friends and family: Invite some friends over and have them be brutally honest with how your house looks – inside and out. They will mention things you've never even thought of.
8. Have a plan for when the call for showings come in: Clean and put dishes away, make beds, put away clothes/shoes, vaccum and sweep floors, wipe down counters and appliances, leave lights on, turn on scentsy burner, and most importantly leave for all showings if possible.
9. Take great photos: There is no excuse to not have great photos these days. Photos are very important – it's how you get people in your house.
10. Price it Right from the beginning: Pricing is really tricky, and this is one area that you will need to rely on your realtor for advice. When a house is first listed, it will have it's highest level of interest during those first few weeks. You want to sell it fast… but if it sells too fast, maybe you priced it too low. On the other hand, if you price it too high, then it might sit for longer than you want and that buzz and excitement will slow.