

Marketing to Sell!
Tips and Ideas
There are really two phases when it comes to preparing your home. The first phase is getting it ready for the market and the second phase is getting it ready for showing. We’ll start with the first phase – getting it ready for the market. Take as much time as necessary but as little money as possible to maximize appeal. The best way to do this is to walk around your entire home with a notepad – paying careful attention to everything; check the walls for chips, holes or uneven paint. Fix all leaky faucets and make sure they shine (and consider replacing them if they don’t).
Once your home is officially ‘For Sale’, you need to make your home sparkle. This is an area where you can’t overdo it. Be sure to concentrate on your kitchen and bathrooms. Your buyer will be expecting a used home – but the brighter your home shines, the easier your buyer can ‘see’ themselves purchasing and moving into your property. It’s a good idea to box up any times that haven’t been used for a while. By boxing up your possessions you will add visual square footage to your home – thus increasing its perceived value. Ask a friend or relative to help you out with this – or even consider renting a storage space to keep your belongings until you sell.
De-cluttering the home is the toughest thing for sellers because they have built so much intrinsic value in the house. After years of living in a home, clutter collects without the owner even realizing it. But unfortunately, the buyer does notice it and is affected drastically by it. Collect clutter on shelves, counter tops, drawers, closets, garages, attics, and basements.
Pretend you are walking into your home for the very first time. Or better yet – get an outsiders opinion. Ask a friend to point out clutter. Notice all areas of clutter and begin eliminating it by boxing it and putting it into a storage unit until you move.
Now might be a good time for a garage sale. If you were going to get rid of anything before your move anyway, do it now before the house is even shown.
It’s now time to bring on the buyers!
While your Real Estate Agent will be doing most of the marketing, it’s a good idea to know all the avenues to be used. Today’s technology offers many new ways of marketing to give your home exposure to more potential buyers than ever.
To better maximize your potential for success, it’s important to market to three tiers – brokers, neighbours and buyers. To effectively target all three tiers aggressively, the following resources may be utilized: Open Houses, flyers, newspaper and magazine, email and the internet. But since all REALTORS® have access to buyers, they will be especially incorporated into a plan through the local multiple listing service.
Negotiating
When setting the terms of a sale, the thing most people are concerned with is the price. Don't fall into this way of thinking. There are many things to consider other than the price such as the timing and the overall convenience of the offer. Being familiar with the market conditions and keeping your personal motivation to sell fresh in your mind will guide you in the right direction. In real estate- everything is negotiable. You may find that negotiating with personal property such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, and so forth could play a great role as bargaining chips to keep your price where you want it and even keep you from having to move them yourself. Also, make sure to spell out every little detail in the contract. A misunderstanding could end up costing you thousands of dollars and potentially kill any deal regardless of how far along you may be. When you receive an offer you have one of three options. Accept the offer. Reject the offer. Make a counter offer. For all practical purposes a counter offer is basically a rejection-as there is nothing binding the buyer to your property once you make the most minor change on the offer to purchase.
Closing and Moving
Although this is the final step of the process, it is no time to slack off. We will need to stay on top of the mortgage company, all attorneys, the appraiser, the inspectors and anyone else involved in the transaction to ensure that all goes according to plan before you start loading up the truck. Once you know it's clear to move out, make sure you have cancelled all of your utilities and forwarded your mail to your new address. This is the Home Selling Process in a nutshell. I encourage you to jot down ideas, or questions you may have for me when we meet. Also, feel free to pass this presentation to any acquaintances you may have that are considering selling their home now or in the near future. I look forward to meeting with you soon.