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A Farm of My Own:  Seller tips  |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 25 2007 : 2:45:36 PM
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Ok girls, we are getting the house ready to put on the market by April, hopefully? We need a bigger house so in order to get the most out of the house what ideas, tips or suggestions do you have that can help us? I watch all the home improvment shows along with the ones that sell on the show, and I have a pretty good list started but wanna hear from those who have done this before, this is our first time? Thanks!!
Visit me at my blogs:
www.countrypleasures.blogspot.com
www.herbalfarmstead.blogspot.com
www.photo-per-day.blogspot.com
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ddmashayekhi
True Blue Farmgirl
4738 Posts
Dawn
Naperville
Illinois
USA
4738 Posts |
Posted - Feb 25 2007 : 6:40:06 PM
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I worked as a secretary for 10 years for 2 different real estate companies. One of my jobs was to collect the feed back for the realtors on their listings. These was some of the things people always commented about: Housekeeping, a clean house does make a difference. Clutter, make sure the rooms look bigger then they actually are, pack up your stuff & store them at a friends or relatives. Bright and cheery rooms, add a bit of fresh paint where needed. Bathrooms and kitchens, make them look as updated & clean as possible! If you have pets, make sure the house is odor and hair free! When you can bake something quick & easy before a showing, so the house smells yummy! Fresh flowers brighten the place up too, especially at this time of the year. Good luck & watch HGTV for more "Designed to Sell" tips too!
Dawn in IL |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 01:26:30 AM
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| The ideas Dawn has given are right on the money, but hey, she is a real expert! I would also pay a little attention to the front entrance. Look at it with a critical/fresh eye and see what you would add or take away? Maybe the bushes need a little manicure.... Fresh paint on the door, or a big pot or basket of blooming plants (tuck them inside the basket and hide the pot rims with moss) near the door will give a homey good first impression too, I think. Good luck!!! Nance |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 03:04:10 AM
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yep ..dawn sure is right about our beloved 'collections clutter' ... it is the HOUSE people are comng to see .. not our 'stuff' ... i still find it amazing to believe that people dont adore the 'personality' that we each bring to our homes ... that is what i LOVE to see when visiting the homes of friends .. but .. they say .. that people want to see the 'bare bones' of how they can decorate with their own stuff. and CLEAN is extremely important. people want to live in a clean, cheery home .. this is where they will be living their lives ... and it is always nice to know that there is good 'karma' surrounding the home we purchase. xo
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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country lawyer
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
1022 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 04:47:01 AM
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I'm beginning to think about this too. I'd love to make a move. Sue, do you have any other suggestions? I don't watch those shows, so I don't know what they recommend. I'd love for you to post your list.
"The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time."
James Taylor
www.ragstoroses.blogspot.com
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Aunt Karen
Farmgirl in Training
33 Posts
West Central Idaho
USA
33 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 07:58:18 AM
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We sold our house last year and did all of the above. We rented a storage locker and started packing everything we could and getting it out of the house. We held a yard sale on the same day the realtor had an open house. There was fresh paint on the walls and the yard and trees were mowed and trimmed.
Everything was as clean and orderly as I could make it. If I couldn't do it all I hired help (my dh works and works and works, so his helping power was limited). We had a housekeeper come in twice a month. I did everything I could think of and then some to move that house. The market was slow and there was a ton of competition, but we did it.
It was stressful, but very worth it! Our new place is awesome. |
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shelle
True Blue Farmgirl
404 Posts
Shelle
oklahoma
USA
404 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 09:34:38 AM
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We just sold our house and this is what we did. We started going through our closets and sorting through everything throwing stuff away as soon as we decided we were going to sell. We boxed up what we knew we wouldnt be using for awhile. Doing this a little at a time really worked out for us and I never felt overwhelmed. Clean closets, drawers and cabinets make a good impression to people buying too and they will look at them. Next we rented a storage locker and started taking everything that we didnt need or didnt want to have in the house when we showed it. We took excess furniture (like a love seat and our treadmill) and stuff we had already put in boxes from cleaning out closets and drawers ect. If you are planning on a garage sale then this would be the time to have it. We didnt want to bother with it though.
Decluttering is very important. I made sure I took everything off the kitchen counters and scrubbed the cabinets for a clean look. Shampooed the carpets in the whole house. Scrubbed both the bathrooms till they shined including the floors and mirrors. My Kitchen sink is old porcelein and no longer shiny so I bleached it a lot and then shined it with paste wax. I also put in new strainer baskets. They looked great again!
We chose to buy new green and beige rugs to tone down our pink tub and sink in our main bathroom. I also put out fresh matching towels with a bar of goatmilk soap laying on top of it and a pretty candle (unlit). We painted our daughter's purple bedroom back to a soft white and hung fresh white curtains and staged it as a nursery because our prospective buyers had an infant and we already had a crib for our grandson anyway.
I washed doors, windows and baseboards and cleaned off cobwebs from the ceiling. Cleaned ceiling fans and dusted and used oil conditioner on all the woodwork in the house (we have a LOT of wood work). Cleaned the fireplace and layed in fresh wood in the grate. I also set out a lot of nice candles on the hearth but didnt light them. Also cleaned the air intake grate on our air/heat unit. I also put a coat of fresh paint on the front door and put out a new nice welcome mat. I also set out a few nice afhagans on our couch and one on our bed to give it a comfy homey feel. It was very cold that day I showed the house. I also turned up the heat a notch or two since it was so cold that day just so it would feel welcoming.
Curb appeal is important too. But in the dead of winter there wasnt much I could do. If it had been spring I would have made sure the lawn was freshly cut and planted some nice flowers by the front door. I did make sure the leaves were raked up prior to the snow we had though.
The shows on TV like "Sell this House" also advise you to remove personal things like pictures, certificates or religious items so that people wont make judgements about you. For instance if you were a doctor and you had your medical degree on the wall they might think you have a lot of money and can afford to come down on your price. We took down most of our personal pictures but left up our children's senior pictures and one picture of hubby and I along with a figure of Jesus with a cross. But our buyers were people we knew from our church so I knew those things wouldnt bother them at all.
On the day of the showing, I baked a frozen apple pie (no clean up) a few hours before the couple arrived to look at the house. I also boiled some cinnamon sticks and cloves for a few hours and then up until about 30 minutes before they were due to arrive. It made a wonderful smell in the house!! It smelled so nice I have even done the clove and cinnamon sticks a few times since then just for me.
Dont forget the outside of the house and pay particular attention to the front entrance. We had a light dusting of snow the afternoon of our showing and I went out and cleaned off the driveway. I also parked my car on the street so that they could park in the driveway...like they were coming home.
This is just a run down of things you should do. Declutter, depersonalize and clean everything!! Then you have to keep up your house which is not too big of a deal for us with it just being hubby and I.
Oh one more thing if your appliances are going with the house dont forget to clean them too.
Good Luck with selling your house!!!
http://janzenfamilyjournal.blogspot.com/ |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 11:34:38 AM
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Wow Shelle, thanks for your post!! I'm a housekeeper by trade so the house is always clean but I plan to give it a good spring cleaning. Since we live out in the country and the nearest town is small I don't think I will have to declutter like they say to on the shows. I will make the square footage stand out and the yard will be the biggest clean up since it's 5 acres and a mini farm everything seems to get junked here from the boys, but I 've already warned them that they have one month to get rid of their junk or it goes! Hubby will be a bigger challenge, the shop is a mess, but I'm determined to get a bigger house with a fireplace and a craft room for me so I'm motivated!! Keep the tips coming girls, I love them all. Rebekah, my list is mainly painting touch ups, replacing some trim, major clean up out side, the biggest project which we've started is replacing the old tile ceiling upstairs. I like the idea of having a yard sale the same day as a open house, kill two birds with one stone!! lol
Visit me at my blogs:
www.countrypleasures.blogspot.com
www.herbalfarmstead.blogspot.com
www.photo-per-day.blogspot.com
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Carolinagirl
True Blue Farmgirl
486 Posts
Kim
Rutherfordton
NC
USA
486 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 11:46:55 AM
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Makeyour porch inviting and friendly! CLean it off too. Maybe some flowers in pots would be inviting...
I dread selling our house, when the time comes. It always seems like such an ordeal!
Good luck!
Kim in NC |
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shelle
True Blue Farmgirl
404 Posts
Shelle
oklahoma
USA
404 Posts |
Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 12:25:29 PM
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Dont underestimate the power of decluttering your house. This is my reasoning: You want people focused on your home's features and not your stuff. I just considered that I was getting ahead in my packing a little bit when I decluttered. But we are moving all our stuff to storage anyway till we get the new house put in so we have a place to take the stuff we packed when we decluttered. You may not have a good place to go with it like we do.
Best of Luck!
Shelle
http://janzenfamilyjournal.blogspot.com/ |
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Lavender Cottage
True Blue Farmgirl
273 Posts
Ellen
USA
273 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2007 : 1:44:17 PM
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| Junebug-glad you asked this! These are wonderful ideas. We have our place on the market now so we can make our move to NC. Thanks on the tips and wish us luck! :) And good luck to you as well! |
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catscharm74
True Blue Farmgirl
4687 Posts
Heather
Texas
USA
4687 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2007 : 2:10:17 PM
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Neutralize the indoor space and maximize outdoor space. One house we sold, we had installed 2 french doors. That alone was part of the major selling point. It maximize space and brought the outdoors/indoors together. Cost to us was about $1500 but pay off was about $5000.
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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Lavender Cottage
True Blue Farmgirl
273 Posts
Ellen
USA
273 Posts |
Posted - Mar 02 2007 : 06:22:32 AM
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Thanks girls-all your tips got me back on track. I'll keep you posted. |
Edited by - Lavender Cottage on Mar 06 2007 07:55:02 AM |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 09:09:22 AM
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We have sold three houses ourselves (no realtors so huge savings!) and sold them all quickly. I love decorating, so I believe that helped, but I definitely incorporated many of the ideas shared . . . the decluttering is the biggy. About 10 or 15 years ago the advice was always to paint every wall white. That is simply not the case anymore. Very few new houses in our area are white. Usually they choose a warm neutral that they carry throughout. A popular color is a warm mustardy-tan color (kind of the color of dijon mustard!) It is very warm and relaxing, but updated, since the earthy "coffee house" colors are so popular today. If you have all different colors in your home, you might want to do something to pull them all together. For instance if your living room is yellow and your dining room is red, have the red repeat as an accent in the living room. A home with three main colors flowing through it (white and black do not count as a color) will read as more cohesive than one that goes from yellow to pink to blue to red, etc. So if you pick three colors (mine are golden yellow, deep red and earthy green) and use them consistently, your home will have a look of being pulled together, though not overdone. One room might be mostly red with green and yellow accents, another might be mostly yellow with red and green accents, etc. Also, overly cutesy details date a home. Flowery wallpaper borders, overly ruffled curtains, etc. say 1980s and look dated. A cleaner more "pottery barn" style has the clean crisp look you want. As a general rule (though I break this constantly!) 3 to 5 items on a surface (table, mantle, etc.) is plenty and usually odd numbers look best.
Anyway, hope this helps a bit. The pie is a good idea, but don't overdue it with candles . . . it makes people suspicious that you are covering up an odor. And if there is something truly wrong with your home . . . a leaky tub for example, be honest about it. Things that are fixable rarely deter buyers, but if they feel you were less than forthright about problems, they may be leary about buying from you.
If you decide to sell it yourself, it is quite simple. Title companies or real estate attorneys will provide the paperwork and walk you through. They can make sure you do it right and answer any questions. We have used both title companies and attorneys. We learned the hard way that we would always use an attorney from here on out. The difference in price was minimal . . . perhaps $200 total, but the advice was so helpful . . . title companies cannot advise you. We had a dishonest buyer (too long of a story to go into) and found the title company unable to advise or help. The attorney was wonderful and made everything work out. Anyway, it is simpler than you think to sell it yourself. The most important thing is good signage and being available to show your home often.
Best wishes and blessings!
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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Lavender Cottage
True Blue Farmgirl
273 Posts
Ellen
USA
273 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 10:22:01 AM
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Brenda-thanks for your tips too. We have a showing tomorrow and I'm trying to do all these wonderful suggestions everyone has shared. It is finally sunny and warming up-hit 50 today and I'm hoping that will melt most of the snow so the "lookers" can see and walk the land. I got out today and bought new area rugs-mine were less than presentable and beyond cleaning. I also grabbed a new Welcome matt. I spent less than I thought. I'm going to clean, clean, clean and take anything I can out to the garage.
Ellen :) |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Mar 10 2007 : 10:37:12 AM
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Junebug,
You should try selling it yourself . . . it really is simpler than you think. Good signs are a must and as for the paperwork, a good real estate attorney will answer all your questions . . . as long as they get to handle the closing, they do not charge for these questions during the sale. They will also provide all the legal papers you need. Best of luck!
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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laluna
True Blue Farmgirl
295 Posts
New York
USA
295 Posts |
Posted - Mar 10 2007 : 11:33:23 AM
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| Here's a bit of superstition that is very common in my area - you could always try burying St. Joseph in your yard (and does anyone know if he has to be head-up or down?) ;-) |
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katiedid
True Blue Farmgirl
601 Posts
Kate
West Jordan
Utah
USA
601 Posts |
Posted - Mar 11 2007 : 1:08:51 PM
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We just sold our house. I did alot of the things the gals have mentioned..I think what helped us the most was getting rid of ALOT of clutter. We had a relatively small house, and six people live here, so before we even listed it, I spent a couple of weeks getting rid of stuff...I donated most of it to thrift store, and gave some to neighbors. After we purged, we even put some of our furniture in storage...it really opened up the space and made the rooms look bigger. I took most of the pictures down, and washed all the walls and carpets. I kept *everything* off the kitchen counters because the space is so limited to begin with...
We left when folks came to see the house, BUT I was here and showed the house to the family who ended up buying! So I think it helped to have me point out the good points of the home...(new appliances, new wood flooring etc.)
The farmhouse we are buying needs some TLC, and after the illness I had this winter, I wasn't up to alot of fix up on the home we were selling, so we offered $$ back at closing, to cover new paint, carpet in the basement, or closing costs. This was really lucrative for the first-time buyers who ended up buying it!
Good luck
kate
my new blog http/www.theknifemakerswife.wordpress.com |
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shelle
True Blue Farmgirl
404 Posts
Shelle
oklahoma
USA
404 Posts |
Posted - Mar 12 2007 : 06:16:18 AM
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We sold our house ourselves and it worked out very nicely. That said if we had not sold it as quickly as we did we would have listed it with a real estate agent within a few months. Mostly because a real estate agent can come up with special financing for people that normally could not get their own financing. We lived in an area where there were a lot of lower income people so that was an important consideration.
Shelle
http://janzenfamilyjournal.blogspot.com/ |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2007 : 10:25:10 AM
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Regarding realtors having financing abilities . . . they simply hook up with mortgage lenders, the same lenders available to everyone. They themselves have no more power than any of us to come up with financing. Monstermoving.com can give you the lenders in your area with the lowest rates. If you have poor credit, a good mortgage lender can help you come up with creative financing. It really has very little to do with a realtor. Best of luck.
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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junebug
True Blue Farmgirl
2421 Posts
Sue
West Plains,
Mo.
USA
2421 Posts |
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Lavender Cottage
True Blue Farmgirl
273 Posts
Ellen
USA
273 Posts |
Posted - Mar 13 2007 : 12:56:55 PM
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Junebug-the showing went well-the house was clean and fresh and looking nice and the new area rugs really helped. Unfortunately, the lookers need/want a bigger house. :(
I'm hopefull now that our weather is breaking the right buyer (someone who doesn't mind a small house on lots of land) will come along. I'll keep packing and cleaning and hoping.
It is fun to read your excitement as you get ready and I love reading all the continued advice. My next purchase will be new throw pillows and I'll be able to work on the gardens soon.
If there is anything else anyone can add, I'd sure appreciate it.
Ellen :) |
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A Farm of My Own: Seller tips |
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Seller tips
