Selling Tutorial

Condition: Property Checkup

Ok, it's time to assess the health of your property. Grab a clipboard and walk through your property inside and out. Pay careful attention to those things that are out of date versus things that need to be repaired. Make a list of everything you see and remember that a potential buyer is going to be more scrutinizing than you. You can find great worksheets in How to Sell Your Home Without a Broker to aid you with this process.

If your toilet doesn't flush properly or needs a good jiggle of the handle to stop running, it's time to fix it. These small nuances that you have been living with, could be annoyances to potential buyers. The better condition your property is in, the more capable you are of commanding a higher sales price. In addition, the entire process will go more quickly and smoothly.

If you have completed your walk through and have nothing on your list to repair - wow, you have done an excellent job maintaining your property. Congrats! You may continue onto the next step - Documents.

For the rest of us, there are most likely some repairs that are neccessary. Typically, there are three main types of issues on your list, issues that need cleaning (overall appearance - clutter everywhere), repairing (a toilet), and improving (outdated kitchen). If time is crucial to the sale, you should work from simplest to most involved which starts with overall appearance, then repairs, and finally improvements.

Overall Appearance

Making the overall appearance of your property visually pleasing will be very important in attracting buyers during "by appointment only" showings or open houses. If you have clutter, then chances are, buyers will find it even more cluttered than you - it's time to pick it up.

Don't even think about hiding that clutter in the closets. That's the first place buyers will look. Closet space can be a very appealing feature to potential buyers - they're going to want to open every door and peek in every nook and cranny. If your closets are overflowing with clothes, kids toys, and every holiday decoration your family just couldn't resist giving you, then pack them away. If you're selling your home, then you are going to be moving - start packing now!

Go through your home. Anything you don't use on a regular basis, pack it away. Pack up any personal items such as photos of family and friends, as well as many of your knickknacks. If it's spring, pack up all your winter clothes and move everything out of the house. You may need to put it in storage. Most importantly, just get it out of the house. You want to make your home look very spacious, but not empty.

The goal is to make your property as appealing and attractive to potential buyers. Clean up should be comprehensive to appeal to all the senses of the buyer - let the buyer envision themselves in the home, not see what your life has been like living there. Thus, you should make the house look spotless, smell fresh, and feel very clean so that it truly draws and captivates the attention of potential buyers.

A final word on the appearance of your property. Although these may look nice, if you absolutely had to

• paint the bedroom walls purple to match the linens
• or use ornate wallpaper in the living room

then chances are they will not appeal to the average buyer, and could become a deterrent. The most soothing and inviting homes presented to buyers have very neutral colors for carpeting, walls, and wood framing - shades of white, cream, tan, and grey tend to show best. So, you may want to consider a paint job prior to selling.

Repairs

Most likely, the majority of us need to make important functional and cosmetic repairs that will make the property marketable. Keep these repairs sensible so that they do not become improvements. Ask yourself:

• Do you have broken doorknobs?
• Are there holes in the walls in need of patching?
• Does your toilet never stop running?
• Have any light bulbs burnt out in your overhead lighting?
• Do the juniper bushes need trimming?
• Is it time to paint over the wall where your two year old thought crayon would look better?

Whatever the repair may be, you should concentrate on restoring the house as best as possible without breaking the bank. Also, try to recoup the cost of these repairs from the final sale price of your property.

Improvements

Generally, you can make improvements that will help sell the property by improving its overall value. However, be careful not to over improve or make improvements that place the value of your property greater than those in your neighborhood.

According to a recent study conducted by Remodeling Magazine, the following table contains typical improvements that may help increase your overall property value. The list is based on the U.S. average and ranked by those improvements that yield the greatest return on your investment.

Some of these improvements are very extensive. If you feel like you must make many of these changes, you need to ask yourself why you're moving? If you are moving because you want these things in a home, why improve yours to sell - why not improve it for yourself?

All too often people will make vast improvements to property because they think it's necessary to sell. However, it's a shame they never had the opportunity to enjoy these costly improvements for themselves. The cost of improving may be less expensive than selling and buying another home.

Do It Yourself or Hire a Contractor?

The decision to do the work on your list by yourself or hire a contractor comes down to a couple of factors:

• Do you have the time?
• How handy are you?
• What's it going to cost?

Each of these should be carefully considered. If you do it yourself, your cash-out cost will be low - building significant "sweat equity" into the property. "Sweat equity" is value added to the property by improving and repairing yourself. This minimizes cash, but requires your personal time. If you're handy and have the time to do the necessary repairs, then by all means do it yourself.

If you have a fairly simple project and have decided to do it yourself, you should check out these home improvement how-to guides. The instructions in these listed projects may give you some insight on yours.

• Lowe's How-To List
• Bob Villa's How-To List
• Michael Holigan's How-To List
• The Home Depot's Project Index

If you are not handy or you are short on time, then you probably want to hire a contractor. This will cost more money, so you may want to prioritize your list and get quotes on each item you need worked on. This way you can carefully consider which repairs and improvements you must have done to sell your home.

Next step, gathering your documents -->