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 is a pleasure to work with. She is very knowledgeable about the current market and gives good and honest advice regarding pricing. She responds to phone calls and email in a very timely way. She has surrounded herself with a great team of professionals and they get the job done! I will recommend her to anyone looking for a great realtor.
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.
Helen and her team operates in a very professional and courteous manner. Everything was handled well from the beginning through the closing process. Would gladly recommend her services to anyone.
Helen is an expert at marketing your home and takes full advantage of every marketing channel available. She is responsive and knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. They really pull out all the stops to get your home sold. We really appreciated the professionalism of the team, even when we got cold feet and were in a panic, they talked us off the ledge. The team took us through the sale of one home and the purchase of a new home and we couldn’t be happier. Well done Helen Oliveri Team!!!
My experience working with Helen was excellent. She is the pit bull of real estate! Not only knowledgeable and professional but very aggressive when it comes to selling your home. I would highly recommend them if you need to sell your home fast! Despite having so many listings she was always easy to get a hold of. Her knowledge of our local market was exceptional! I would highly recommend using Helen for all your real estate needs.
5 stars across the board. If your looking for a realistate agent that would walk through fire to sell or find your next house The Helen Oliveri Team is the place for you! And they’ll let you use there moving truck for FREE!
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. …
Thank you so much for all your help in selling our home. We have had a fantastic experience with you! We are still in shock that you sold our home before the sign was put in the yard!!What a pleasure it has been to receive “play by play” communication. We felt secure & well-informed each step of the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We were very pleased to have Helen and her team market our home and find a buyer so quickly in a very difficult sales environment. Our experience was excellent with great follow through and we were sold in two weeks. Working with Helen was excellent, she was very responsive. She and her team are true professionals!
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 …