Preparing your Winnipeg home for showings by real estate agents

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Making sure your home shows it’s best

 

There is an old saying that goes: “Your home is never more exciting than the first couple of weeks on the market”. So when you put your home on the market (and I mean the REAL MARKET, by LISTING IT with a REALTOR®), make sure that your home shows it’s best.  Because here is a bit of reality: About 80% of your total showings are going to happen in the first 5 days…… Here is why:

When you put your house on the market, there are any number of potential buyers who have been waiting for YOUR HOME. And they will rush in to see your home in the first few days, checking it out to see if it’s worth competing for. If the buyers find fault with your home, they simply move on to the next one and MAY NEVER RETURN.
So it’s very important to have your home as ‘show-worthy’ as possible. Here are a couple of simple tips to get you started:

1) Clean Clean Clean

Counters, bathrooms, carpets, lights, windows. Kitchen cupboards, sinks and the garage. Clean everything. Don’t leave buyers with a bad impression.

2) Declutter

Kitchen counters should be empty, except for perhaps those Tea-Sugar-Flour-Coffee canisters. Less furniture is better than too much. Box up everything you don’t need. You could designate a room in the basement as the ‘junk room’ and move extra stuff into there.

3) Paint

If there are any areas where the paint is fading or flaking, paint it. Stay away from the wild colors and stick to earthy, neutral tones. That “Bright Red” kitchen wall looks funky in a magazine, but is not everyone’s cup of tea.

4) Be out of the house (or condo)

During the showing, try to be out of the house.  Many buyers feel uneasy about really looking at your house, opening cupboards and looking in closets, with the home owner standing over them.  Even in this hot market, the home owners should make sure that the buyers feel comfortable and at ease.

5) Remove Pets

Not everyone loves pets….in fact, some people are allergic to them.  So its best to remove them, and in fact try to remove all evidence of them.  If you can have them stay at relatives for a few days, thats even better.

When you buy a home, it’s the visuals that count. To sell your home faster you may want to stage your furniture and belongings to help give your home more personality. Generally, a less cluttered space is more appealing when you’re selling a home.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  Please consider subscribing to this blog, and receiving the latest posts in your email, twice a month.  You can find my facebook page (please LIKE the page) and follow me on twitter. . Follow @bokauffmann Also check out my Podcast on i-Tunes .

Filed in: Latest Posts • Seller Info
Tagged with: condominiums • home selling • Real estate • real estate market • Winnipeg