Brenton: Yeah, we talked about a few of the things. We had getting their house ready to be shown. There’s a lot of other little things involved; mainly just maintenance items. Just getting your house ready would be just the basics and I have a laundry list of things that I go through with every client who’s thinking of getting their house ready to sell – from general stuff to airing out the home.
Eliminate odors.
- Get the carpets cleaned.
- Wipe down the wood and using old English or liquid gold to make that wood look new again.
- Replace air filters and clean AC vent intake grids.
- Make everything look clean and fresh.
- Let as much light into the home as you can.
- Have all your lights turned on.
- Make it feel very light throughout the property.
- Dust is a major thing. Clean everything from window sills to plant ledges to windows inside and out.
- Take off screens and wash the windows.
- Pull up the blinds.
- Touch up paint as needed.
- Regrout and recaulk areas around tubs and sinks just to make your home look like it’s in tip top shape.
Organize pantries and closets and drawers. A lot of people come to your home and pull up drawers and the drawers won’t even open because its filled with stuff.
Those are just little things that have helped my sellers be successful in selling their homes quicker for top dollar along with obviously me, walking the home and pointing out items that need to be either repaired or renovated to get them even more money for their property.
You don’t always have to put money into your home like I said. It’s just your prerogative if you want to command top dollar, there’s a few things that must be done, but mainly I would say, just the general maintenance things and just going through your house and organizing, de-cluttering and just getting rid of a lot of stuff that you don’t really need other people to see when they’re coming through your home.
Buyers want to imagine themselves living in a property and they don’t want to see a bunch of your personal items. Just making the home as clutter free as possible is always the best from a buyer’s point of view.
Ken: These are some great tips. There’s one thing that you didn’t mention. You almost touched on it. I want to ask you how you feel about staging a home. I know there’s an additional expense involved and it’s that another company to work with potentially bringing in furniture and making it look like a model home; do you find that that’s worthwhile or if people get more money out of that?
Brenton: Absolutely. We stage a lot of properties. I have 2 professional stagers that I work with here in the valley and I actually got into staging when I was doing a lot of investing. I had 4 entire sets of home stages that I would offer my clients when we were doing a listing. They could utilize my staging as part of the listing included in the fees and it worked out really good until I started getting super busy and that’s when I had to turn to a professional stager to do the job. Staging does work great. Especially on the homes that are vacant or not lived in. It’s a little more difficult in an occupied home with families living in them but definitely we help with staging and we have 2 full-time professional companies we can refer people to. Definitely, it’s worth it. It makes the photography look fantastic. It makes the home flow very nicely.
You have to understand; staging professionals know what looks best in each room and how to set it up to make it flow properly. We do recommend staging highly when it is needed.
Ken: Brenton, tell our listeners and our readers a little bit about why working with a professional like you would greatly improve their chances of getting top dollar for their home.
Brenton: Basically, it comes down to one topic and that’s marketing the property correctly at the right price to the masses online and onsite. By teaming up with my team, sellers get the best marketing possible. I get all my information from NAR, National Association of Realtors. NAR said last year, in 2014, that 33% of people find their home that they purchased from a Realtor. We heavily market properties to realtors with professional photography, with email, flyers, by going to office meetings all throughout the valley, and then in email throughout the world because 33% of buyers are getting their homes through the realtors. NAR also said, 43% of buyers are coming from online searches.
It’s very different landscape now than it was a decade ago. Now ,43% of the buyers that are buying are telling me, “hey Brenton, we want to go see these homes.” 10 years ago when I started, I would say, “Okay, what’s your criteria?” They’d give me their criteria and I’d go out and find homes that fit and I’d tell them, “These are the homes that we’re going to look at today.”
When selling a home, you need a strong online presence. You have to be a superior online marketer for the homes that you are selling, You have to market the right way and do it very well. We have a very strong online marketing presence through 100s of different avenues. I sit down and I go over our marketing plan with every single potential client.
