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
I really did not know Helen and her team too well, because Helen sold my house in a week! The first thing that Helen impressed me is her punctuality. Before I selected Helen as my realtor, I interviewed several others. One of them was 30 minutes late and did not even bother to call me. Helen’s follow-up is excellent. She kept me informed during the whole process and always returned my calls promptly. I would absolutely refer anyone to Helen for her real estate service.
Wow! What a whirlwind 5 weeks! I just want to take a moment and thank you both for all the hard work you have put in over the past several weeks. Your professionalism is to be commended. Tim and I both feel, if we had listed with you last summer, our home would have been sold then. I also want to thank you for the special gift, it was very thoughtful and I look forward to enjoying it! This house was Tim’s favorite home, so he was most thankful. We truly appreciate your thoughtfulness. …
Helen has great knowledge of the local market, great advice on every aspect of the transaction and great service. Our experience was terrific and I’ll recommend her to every buyer or seller I know. We were very pleased with the whole process. We both work a lot of hours and Helen and her team took care of everything. She’s pulled together a great group of professionals and I will definitely work with her again if we decide to buy or sell another property.
Helen is the consummate professional, working tirelessly for her customers, offering objective advice, available 24/7, and with an extensive knowledge of the real estate market. We received two offers in 2 days–need I say more? Helen is “the best of the best”, combining outstanding knowledge of the real estate market, fantastic instincts about negotiation strategy, and an ever-present professional demeanor. Helen has our highest recommendations!
Helen was very service oriented. We enjoyed working with Helen. Helen did her best to sell the house and did. Helen is the expert in the Hawthorn Woods Country Club and we would recommend her to anybody in the neighborhood to sell their home.
We truly appreciate that Helen’s entire team was engaging, helpful and committed to selling our home. In today’s economy, we were SHOCKED at how quickly Helen had secured a buyer for our home. We would recommend The Helen Oliveri Team to anyone who serious about selling!
The property that Helen listed and sold for us was our 6th home we have sold. Our experience was amazing. Helen is an outstanding broker, and knows her business better than any other realtor we have ever worked with. She is a top producer for a reason. I very highly recommend using Helen Olivieri as your broker/realtor when selling a home. She is outstanding at what she does.
Helen Oliveri is the best! Leave for vacation and house is sold, couldn’t have had any easier process as a seller! Thank you!
Helen and the team are a selling machine!! If you looking for someone with a high level of integrity, who provides an honest assessment of how to get your house sold then look no further. High energy coupled with superior professionalism and great service. What more could you ask for? We went with a different realtor to start. After 90 days of little or no activity we switched to Helen. Our house sold in a couple days!! Thanks very much to Helen and her team!
Helen is very professional, honest, and her experience shows. I was very impressed with the number of online and print resources created quickly in order to market the house in a timely manner. I also liked the updates of views from the various websites and the online portal so I could track showings and feedback. I’m sure your internal networking also did a lot for moving this property quickly. It was evident in the number of showings that people were seeing the information! Thank you for …