John Adams
The fall selling season is upon us, even though the heat of summer remains. Now is a great time to get ready for those who buy real estate in the fall, and place your home at a competitive advantage to others in the marketplace.
Here are five ideas to put you ahead of the pack:
1. Make sure your home is in MOVE-IN condition.
Sellers have a terrible habit of identifying a defect in their home, then saying to themselves, “The buyers may want to make that improvement for themselves.” Trust me, they don’t.
The reality is that buyers rarely want a project. And if they do, they will make their offer low to reflect the cost.
If needed, you are better likely better off replacing the roof, repairing the plumbing, or updating the decor before the prospective buyer ever sees the house in the first place.
2. When showing your home, use SMELL to your advantage.
Fall is a great time to produce wonderful smells from the kitchen. At the very least, boil a pot of water with a stick of cinnamon in it for a seasonal odor. Better yet, bake cookies or bread while your home is being shown.
Do not underestimate the power of the olfactory sense in helping buyers make a decision. It won’t make the wrong house right, but it can make the right house better.
Also, make sure baths and laundry areas smell not just OK, but wonderful.
Stores today are full of excellent odor enhancers. But nothing can help a dirty diaper hamper. Make sure it doesn’t kill your sale.
3. Keep the yard and exterior tidy.
Have the leaves raked on a regular basis, and make sure the gutters are clean during the marketing period. Little pine trees growing in the gutter are an absolute NO-NO.
And it's a good idea to dress up the front entrance with a coat of fresh paint and a couple of baskets of bright flowers. This is an inexpensive way to draw visitors into the front door, and it can separate your home from the competition.
4. Turn on every light in the house before you show it to a prospect.
Every buyer I have ever met says they want a "bright, cheerful house." This is in direct contrast to your desire to save energy costs and keep wattages low.
To make matters much worse, some idiot at EPA decided to quit selling 100 Watt light bulbs, just when you need them the most.
Take my advice and pay whatever it costs to replace all your dim 60 and 75 Watt bulbs with new 100 Watt Compact Fluorescent bulbs. It’s only a few bucks and it makes a huge difference.
Oh, and please don’t forget the basement or crawl space — make it really bright — it becomes a selling point.
5. Hold your OPEN HOUSE in the daytime.
As the fall progresses, our sunset gets earlier and earlier. So make sure prospective buyers see your home in the maximum daylight available. That translates into afternoons between 2 and 4 p.m.
And while we are talking about time, remember that we are located in the Atlanta sports mecca, so take into consideration the Bulldogs, the Yellow Jackets, and the Falcons. If you must have on open house during a game, at least offer a live broadcast at your property.
These are just a few thoughts to give you an edge in the fall selling season. All the other rules of selling still apply.
Because the Fall season selling is more difficult than other times of the year, I have prepared an expanded video discussion of the topic on my website.
