Until last summer, you could plan on listing your house in Seattle and selling it for a crazy amount of money in a crazy short time. That window of opportunity is now closed, so if you are looking to list your house and sell quickly, I have lessons from my own recent selling experience that I'd like to share on how to maximize your investment in a squishy sales climate.
In a nutshell, it boils down to getting your house move-in ready combined with removing any objections for the future homeowner.
Robin's 5 Tips for Selling Your House in a Changing Market
1) You Have to Emotionally "Break Up" with Your Home
What do I mean by this? It's time to shift perspective and look at your house through a different lens. Put yourself in the buyers shoes; do they see the memories and experiences you shared in this home? Not at all. They are trying to see how they will be building their OWN memories in this space.
As you prepare your home for sale, your mental soundtrack should be, "Let It Go" from Frozen (sorry for the ear worm, haha!). It's now time to depersonalize the space.
Start calling it your "house", not your "home". This subtle mental shift helps in the breakup process.
2) Fresh Paint, In the Right Colors, Makes a World of Difference
Outdated colors are an impediment. Fresh paint removes a huge objection for buyers - remember, buyers want it to be move-in ready. They do not want to invest time, effort or added expense to have it repainted after spending big buck$ on buying the house. So take care of that. Yes, it's part of the cost of getting your house ready to market.
3) Staging Works. Period.
There is good staging and there is bad staging. Make sure your agent offers a great staging resource.
4) Curb Appeal Matters
You need to get buyers out of the car and into your stunning house. If you don't create an visual invitation by showing a good face to the world, they will move on to the next pretty thing.
5) Kitchens Sell Houses
Okay, this last one I got from The Property Brothers, but they are spot on.
If your kitchen is less than perfect, it may be a simple case of switching to new knobs. Or maybe an upgrade like painted cabinets will shift the whole perspective on a trouble spot.
If you have gross grout, outdated oak, or other kitchen challenges, you will want to make smart improvements (remember, we are removing buyer's objections) that will give you a $$ return.
Our Results Were Worth the Effort
Our house went on the market the same weekend as our neighbor's. Yikes!
Here's What We Did to Help it Sell Quickly
We upgraded the kitchen a few years ago (even back then we had resale in mind), we freshly painted the interior in current trending colors, the staging was ah-maze-ing, and our rock star agent, David Rush, nailed the pricing.
We received a solid offer in only 11 days. Market norms at the time were 6-8 weeks.
Compare That to Our Neighbors Experience
They kept their 1990's paint colors, did only minimal staging, plus showed a dated kitchen - and yet they offered a lake view and newer construction than our house. In a robust market, that would have been enough to receive multiple offers at above asking price.
However, they lowered their price by $70,000 after only two weeks, and then removed the listing altogether after a month. Ouch.
Meanwhile, we successfully sold our house.
Are You Thinking About Making a Change?
If you are faced with overwhelm, or you're ready to feel great about where you live, I can help. You might find all you need is a fresh coat of paint and some new knobs. Or maybe it's time to start planning for bigger changes.
Here’s how I work: We start with an initial consultation. Think of this as your access to my designer’s brain available to you for your specific needs. Our time together typically lasts about 2 hours, and we can cover a lot of ground during that time.
We can work on colors, discuss an overall vision, window treatments and furniture, even pencil out some budgets so you know how to anticipate the next steps. Following our consultation, if we decide to do more work together, I’ll create a scope of work outline on how to make the ideas we discussed a reality. If not, no worries, you have at hand the issues and potential solutions to go forward on your own.
It’s a fun experience for both of us to work on solutions, and I am here to support you either way. You can reach me at 206-794-0314 to schedule your consultation. Or you can email me at robin@robindalycolor.com