Raleigh, North Carolina.  Pre-Marketing Your Home.  We often hear about Ben Franklin’s “yellow Page” approach to decision making.  He would take a sheet of paper (I don’t know if it was yellow or not) and draw a line down the center.  On the left he would list all the pros he could think of in taking a proposed action and on the right all the cons.  The one with the greatest number of items supposedly determined his course of action.  If you are going to be putting your home on the market within the next three months to a year you should do the same thing AND as quickly as possible. The more time you give yourself to take care of problems or to make your home more presentable, and SELLABLE, the better.  In this day of slower sales and more competitive offers it is imperative.

When making your list be objective.  Tell the truth about what needs to be done - even if it hurts.  When you think you have thought of everything call a real estate agent and have him or her look at your home.  If you don’t know one call the office nearest you of a large firm and ask the office manager to recommend an experienced one.  Tell him it may be some time before you are ready to sell and don’t sign any listing agreement until you are ready to put your home on the market.  Also, you might want to think about asking him if you can hold an agents open house.  In doing this he would set a time for agents to show up and go through your home.  You would provide coffee, soft drinks and cookies.  They would provide their time, expertise and thoughts about what you should do to get your home ready to sell.  If you opt for an individual agent do not tell them what YOU think.  You don’t want their thoughts and information to be colored by your thinking. 

The importance of an experienced agent is that of knowing what the current market wants, expects and is buying in your price range and in both your city and your specific subdivision or area.  Ask the agent if he/she/the office has a list of recommend contractors to do any work that might need to be done.  Also, ask the agent who he or she suggests as a home inspector.  You are well advised to have a home inspection done.  Depending on the size of your home and the area you live in that can run from $250 to $400 - or more.  If you call one ask what he charges before saying yes.  Before you call find out what the square footage of your home is because you will be asked for it.  Most of the time this is money well spent.  A prospective buyer of your home will, in most cases, have an inspection done (which they pay for) so the more you know what to expect about your home’s problems and what an inspector will suggest that the buyer ask that you have fixed - the better.  Sometimes an inspectors report can be used to your advantage when you want to show that you know your home’s condition and that you have had needed repairs done.  How to use it should be gone over with your agent prior to being shown to the buyer or buyer’s agent.  There are times when you want that information to only be available to you.  

There is much, much more that can be gone into about getting your home ready to put on the market but this is a good base to start with.  If you are getting ready to put your home on the market why not call me.  I would be happy to assist you.

John  Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com 

Staging.  Quite often this question can be restated as - TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL - which is often a result of the decision you make about the first question.  Even though the Triangle area is blessed with a strong job market and a relatively healthy housing market, it is not immune to the housing market problems affecting much of the rest of the nation.

Those of you with homes to sell now or in the near future have a lot of competition from both new and resale homes in every price range.  As always the question is “what do we do to get our home ready for market and get a leg up on the competition?”  From the git-go you already know most of the answers an agent will give you going in.  You know your home needs to be squeeky clean (most think there home is but in reality it quite often it isn’t even close to what it should be). You know you need to get rid of the clutter.  If necessary you may find it necessary to rent storage space to get the surplus “stuff” out of the house.  You know you need to fix those things that need to be fixed.  This is where a substantial majority of people fall flat on their faces. 

When it comes to repairs the thought is ”We will fix what we can and let the next guy take care of the rest!”  You don’t think that when you BUY a house so why should you think that the buyer of your home will accept that approach?  Furthermore, a potential buyer will almost always have a home inspection done that will lead to the laundry list of “here is what’s wrong and here’s what we want done”.  You know your home better than anyone else so if you know a move is coming up in the next few months make a list of the problems you know of and get a certain number PROPERLY taken care of each month.  This keeps these expenses from needing to be taken care of all at one time.  When I say properly taken care of, most of you are not plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. so hire people who can do the job and do it right.  I could go on about other things “you know” but let’s cut to the chase.

A service most sellers aren’t interested in and, for the most part, totally ignore is staging.  The lady of the house thinks she is as a good at decorating and arranging as anyone else and in making her home look its best.  Let me say that you paid for the home, you live in it and it it should enjoy it and have it  look how YOU want it to look - until it is time to sell it.  At that point you are the least objective about your home and how it looks.  Frankly, it doesn’t matter how good you think it looks. What does matter is how potential buyers think it looks.  Enter stage left - staging - - - maybe.

The need for staging comes at a time when it is most needed BUT at a time when the sellers expenses are at their highest. There are moving expenses, repair expenses (especially from a buyers home inspectors report), purchase of another home expenses, I could go on but the pain meter doesn’t make for good reading.  Thus, when an agent/broker suggests that staging would not only be helpful but needed in order for a home to have its greatest appeal and to garner the highest price, it is usually rejected out of hand.  “We don’t need that additional expense”.  The bottom line is that nine times out of ten you DO need that additional expense and it can make the difference in how long it takes your home to get sold (if at all) and at what price!

Good staging advice and actual staging can run from $200 to $2,500 - or more.  I can tell you that most of the time whatever you spend on staging will be made up (or more) by time and money (and sanity) saved by a quicker sale and what you don’t leave on the closing table per the final price received.  Nuff said!

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com