Many homeowners ask me what they can do to obtain the most money for the sale of their home. There are two parts to my answer; first, deciding how much work needs to be done before showing it and secondly, and most importantly, maximizing the amount of buyers that see the home.
There are a variety of options when it comes to getting it ready to show, and those depend upon (a.) how much the homeowner is willing to spend in repairs or renovations before selling it and (b.) how much of a return the homeowner receives on his/her investment?
There are 3 main options when preparing a home for sale:
1. Upgrade and remodel the home. Nowadays, buyers want open floor plans, plenty of light and modern décor. Otherwise, a homeowner that remodels risks the chance of remodeling it into something buyers don’t want. There’s no return on that investment because the buyers factor in the cost of renovating that home into their purchase price.
2. Make it move in ready. That means, new paint, new carpet or re-stained hardwood floors and removal of all wallpaper. It’s not upgraded but ready to move in at the close of escrow.
3. Keep it as a fixer. If a seller decides not to spend any money but sells it “as is”, the home won’t generate as high of a price as a “move in ready” home will attract. Not all sellers want to spend money before placing it on the market.
Once a seller decides how much work is needed to get it ready, it’s time to clean it and take photos.
Regardless of how much work the seller wants to do, there’s one action that must be taken to generate the highest price. What is it? Showing great photos!!! Sounds too simple, doesn’t it? Fact is that 94% of millennials and 84% of baby boomers use the Internet as their first look into buying real estate.
In the buying process buyers look at a real estate website, either on a phone or laptop, and browses through new listings. They look at photos, and in that instant, decide whether to visit the home. Photos can make or break a buyer from seeing the home. Things like unmade beds, cluttered counter tops or dark photos turn off buyers; irony is, it may be a great place, but the buyers will never know. If the photos don’t make it look like a “Ten” in the eyes of the buyers, they won’t show up. On the contrary, if buyers like the photos, they will look at the property. So whether sellers to decide to completely remodel or sell it as a fixer, the photos must look enticing.
How does this generate a high sales price?
- The highest amount of interested buyers occur in the first 7 days of the listing.
- Great photos generate a desire to visit the property when they first see the listing
- The more buyers that visit a listing, the greater the chances of generating multiple offers which drive up the price.
- Also, at crowded or busy open houses, buyers feel more pressured to make a good offer, seeing that there may be stiff competition in the buying process, and they may lose out.
So whether your home is a fixer, move in ready or completely renovated, make those photos count; make your home look like a “Ten” and market it right to generate multiple offers.
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