It helps your home sell if you have it staged nicely, but there are a few things that really turn off buyers. While they may seem minor to you, in a buyer’s mind they start planting seeds of doubt as to the overall state of your home. Stage your home properly to keep the buyers interested.

• Turn off the perfume store smells! Use air purifiers to remove smells from your home. Buyers assume you have something to hide if you have strong scents of fruits and/or perfume. There are also many buyers with perfume allergies which makes all those scents a real turn off!
• When you de clutter and stage your home, don’t stuff everything into closets and storage areas. Rent a storage pod and put things you don’t need in there and have it taken to storage. Buyers DO look in closets and they want to see spacious closets, not packed full ones.
• Have all your lights in working order and all the bulbs too. It does not look good when only one of three bulbs in a lamp works. It may seem minor, but buyers will take note.
• Put pets in kennels or take them with you for showings. Not everyone is an animal lover. Even animal lovers don’t want to see your kitty walking all over the kitchen counters or be jumped on by your dog.
• Put your personal papers away. Don’t leave repair bills, financial statements, and the like lying around for the buyers to see. Buyers do see more than you may think, so put your papers away.
• The garage is part of your home. Make sure your garage is fairly clean, neat and tidy and not stacked to the gills with your stuff that would not fit anywhere else.
• Keep your yard looking great. Mow the lawn, trim the bushes, pull the weeds. The first impression a buyer has is the exterior of your home.
• Make sure your gutters are clean, the exterior paint is in order, walkways are clear, and your home looks inviting.

The best month to buy a home is January. Why? There are less buyers out looking because of the weather. Sellers are more likely to sell because buyers are scarce and they often receive all their holiday bills in January, and they obviously need to sell or they wouldn’t normally list their home in January.

The best time to sell a home is in the spring. Why? The weather improves, the buyers come out of the woodwork! 60% of all moves occur in the summer which means the buyers wrote their purchase agreement in the spring.

The best day to list your home is a Thursday. Why? Because it gives buyers time to see it come online and then schedule showings over the weekend.

The first Tuesday of the month is the best day to make an offer on a home. Why? The seller has just paid the mortgage on the home and if he really wants to move he is not happy about paying for a home he no longer wants, and if no one has made an offer from the weekend showings by Tuesday, a bit of panic will set in.

Pricing your home – don’t end it in a zero. Why? Studies show that people perceive an exact price, such as $179,327, as lower than rounded ones, such as $170,000, even when the rounded prices are actually lower. Real-life sales show that one zero at the end of an asking price lowers the final sale price by .72% and two zeros lower it by .73%. That may not sound like much, but it can add up to thousands of dollars.

Housing prices are on the rise and are expected to continue rising so you should wait to sell your home? Wrong! In most cases, when you sell your home, you are going to be buying a new home. Yes, the price of your home will be higher in a couple years and the price of the new home will also be higher but what many sellers aren’t thinking about is the interest rate. Most forecasters say that the interest rate has already bottomed out and will be on the rise. What does this have to do with selling your home now or down the road when it may be worth more? The loan on your new home will cost you more because of the higher interest rates. Currently mortgage interest rates are 3-4% but in a couple years they are forecast to be 5-6% and on a 30 year mortgage for a $300,000 home, that adds up to a lot of extra costs in mortgage payments, thus making the home more expensive. Right now it is a seller’s market making it a great time to sell a home, you can find a home to buy and still get in on super low interest rates. Don’t wait – sell your home soon!

Why Sell Now? If you have been thinking of selling your home, now is the time to get it on the market! The real estate market has been a buyer’s market for a long time now but recently we are back to being a seller’s market with such a low housing inventory and so many buyers. Below are some of the top reasons why now is a great time to be a seller!

• Did you know that inventory levels declined 31.6 percent to 12,202 active listings in February 2013, the lowest number for any month going back to January 2003.
• Increased buyer demand has created bidding wars for homes on the market that are priced correctly.
• That average time on market to sale has dropped some 20% from just one year ago.
• Buyers are out in full force and want to buy now to take advantage of the still low interest rates.

There are other reasons for you to put your home on the market and I would be happy to sit down and discuss them with you. Contact me if you would like me to do a market analysis for your home or fill out the Complimentary CMA Form here on my website!