Where to Begin when Selling your Home
So you’re ready to sell? Maybe the house is too small, large or just not what you want. The problem is not with your home, but it just doesn’t fit your family anymore. Something attracted you to it initially, and that something could be just what another family is looking for. But you need to look at your home new as if you were buying it all over again.
Sprucing up the house will leave a great impression on potential buyers. You need to grab attention and create excitement about finding a house that looks and feels well-cared for. Buyers know they’ll encounter fewer problems if they buy a cared for home, which will make it more appealing and stand out from the rest of the market. Preparing your home correctly will save you time on the market!
Looks are not the only thing that will draw potential buyers, but a good first impression makes an impact on a number of levels. A buyer considers how a home feels and smells, how their friends and family will react and how they imagine it would be to live there.
Simple improvements through your house can grab the attention of potential buyers. We’ll help you show them why your house is right for them.
Preparing your Home for Sale
First impressions make all the difference on a buyer’s decision-making process!
Home Styling or Staging is not about decorating, but turning your home into a model to de-emphasize its flaws and appeal to the broadest range of prospective buyers. When your home is on the market it becomes a product. You need to highlight the positives and make people feel like they could live there. The best way is to “neutralize” the surroundings.
REALTOR® Magazine Online has provided these helpful styling tips in their article “Setting the Stage” comprised of the best kept secrets from real estate pros and stagers for things you can do at little to no expense to put a home in prime showing shape.
- Clear out closets and clutter—sellers can give away or pack up toys, linens, and small kitchen appliances to store offsite. Buyers are also forgiving of storage boxes neatly tucked away in a garage or basement.
- Focus most on the most visible areas—the foyer, kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and family room.
- De-personalize the home by removing photos, mementos, and dated items.
- Use plants in colorful pots or inexpensive wicker baskets to fill in empty spaces.
- Look to home catalogs for little details on beautifying the home. For instance, group books, pictures, and objects d’art appealingly on bookcases.
- Try angling one or two pieces of furniture slightly and move furniture 4 inches to 6 inches from the wall to create more interesting room spaces.
- Put away large collections— porcelains, plates, and so on.
- Remove valuables, prescription medicine, collectibles, and breakables.
- Trim trees, prune shrubs, and make sure the lawn is mowed and watered regularly.
- In summer, turn on the sprinklers for five minutes, 30 minutes before the open house. It makes the lawn and driveway sparkle.
- Refrain from cooking anything that leaves a distinctive odor, such as fish, garlic, or cabbage.
- Hire a professional service to clean the home, including the carpets and the windows.
- Set the dining room table with attractive linens, dishes, and stemware.
- Arrange fresh or silk flowers throughout the home.
- Light a fire in the fireplace in fall and winter.
- A mirror in a pretty frame can make a small room feel more open.
- Use as much natural light as possible. Add extra lamps in dark rooms or corners.
- Make functional repairs—fix dripping faucets, sticking doors, and broken fences.
- Bring in another pair of eyes—even if it’s not a professional stylist. The person may see problems you and have missed.
To talk about your real estate goals, call or email us today!
helen@helenoliveri.com
847.967.0022
Testimonials
Helen has a great business model. She does what she knows best, and her team does what they know best. Communication with the office was great, and we always felt that Helen was just a phone call or email away. I would highly recommend Helen for the selling of your home.
Helen Oliveri and her team represent the highest professional level of expertise and customer service skills. Helen’s knowledge of the current market helped us sell our house in a very short period of time. She not only knew the specific requirements of the market, but also handled the transaction with attention to detail to fulfill the needs of her clients. We will recommend Helen and her team to anyone looking for a qualified agent to sell their home.
Helen and her team are the epitome of professionalism, organization, and efficiency. In the current market, having 35 showings in 10 days and going under contract after 18 days speaks for itself. I have told everyone in the area what a great job they all did and what a pleasure it was working with them. I could not have asked for better service!
Selling your home is stressful but not with Helen. She will guide you completely through the process. Also, working with the team was excellent. The team will keep you updated and help you with any questions or concerns along the way. I felt my home was marketed excellent. Honest and effective marketing. We were interested in selling our home not just listing it.
I felt as though I had a trusted friend by my side each and every step of the way while buying my very first home. Helen is honest and genuine, an invaluable trait in a friend, so you can imagine how pleased I was to find it in an agent! She answered all of my questions and explained the things I didn’t understand without making me feel silly or inferior. When the time comes, I won’t hesitate to entrust the sale of my home to Helen. Working with her was truly a pleasure!
Our experience with Helen was excellent. She was always available to answer questions and provide assistance and her marketing approach is by far the best. Helen and her team are amazing. We were in constant communication regarding showings, feedback, and open house preparation. We were motivated sellers and we certainly had a motivated realtor. Simply stated, Helen showed she cared and helped us to achieve a great outcome.
Helen was very helpful and honest when listing our house, telling us not what we wanted to hear but she knew would sell our house. She was informative and great with helping us stage our house and get the best from selling it. We were very pleased with Helen Oliveri and her real estate team. They helped sell our house in a matter of months and were always on top of things and were there to answer any questions we had. We would refer anyone to Helen and her team.
I can’t say enough about Helen and her team! We had a full price offer on our home within 4 days of listing and her team spent hours with us searching to find a new home that we loved in short order. We had delays on our sale and very difficult (this may be the understatement of the century) sellers for our new home and she and her team were fabulous. From dealing with low appraisals, to difficult negotiations, to following up hourly (literally) with our buyers’ lender when they had delays, her …
I cannot recommend Helen and her team enough! They were extremely professional, organized and aggressive in marketing my home and very responsive to all of my inquiries and needs from day one to closing. Well done Helen. You have a great team!
We had made the mistake of first signing with another team…..their claims being much the same as yours. What we learned was claims are one thing, but living up to them is another thing altogether. That experience made us even more “gun shy” of your claims of service and attention. You lived up to and went beyond every claim. Your work ethics and attention to detail inspired us to ask if we could put this letter together.