How to appeal to the buyer when listing your home

Many of today's buyers are first timer buyers and likewise many of today's sellers have gone through the process of being both a buyer and a seller.  It is important to remember that the buyer is your customer and your goal is to sell .  Surprisingly many first time buyers may be the ones who are entering the housing market and may ultimately buy your home, particularly if it falls in the competitive market of my area in the under $1M price range.  For existing homes on the market there is competition and the seller must be positioned to have the best house to offer in the desired price range.  It is a good idea to do an assessment of both visual and structural updates that can make your property appealing to the market.  I always recommend decluttering as much as possible and doing simple upgrades where you can to make the property look fresh and new.    Click here for a great article to get a better understanding of how to prepare your home for this market.  First Time Buyers

I just went through this process myself to sell my parents condo in Florida.  My brother and I inherited our recently deceased parents condo with 80 years worth of life contents.  Finding a home and emptying the contents of the condo to prepare it for the market is worthy of a few other blog entries and you can read much about this in prior posts.  After 18 months of going through this phase we finally had an empty unit on March 1st, 2017 and now wanted to get it on the market.

We met with a local realtor friend of my parents who suggested we could try to sell it "as is" but after careful analysis feared this approach would limit our buyer pool to the lower end of the market.  Although my parents thought the place was immaculate and well kept after completely emptying its contents after an estate sale it became obvious that the place needed serious spiffing up to appeal to someone who would want to move in quickly.   I decided to do a little homework and price out the cost to repaint and recarpet the 1600 sq. ft. condo in the Tampa area.  I found a great painter and he referred me to a few carpet places.  In total, I ended up doing a complete makeover by painting the entire unit ($2200), replacing all the light and outlet covers (total $160) , replacing an outdated bathroom mirror fixture ($60) , replacing a vertical blind for a sliding door at Home Depot ($168) and recarpeting the entire place ($2175) .  I spent close to $6000 and an extra week doing these repairs.

Finally the place was ready to list.  I did a bit of competitive analysis and saw that there were a few condos that were similar to mine and they all sold this past winter.   I learned these had all been on the market for a minimum of 300-450 days.  We wanted to price it to sell quickly and felt that the realtor we were working with perhaps wasn't the right fit.

Thus, I met with a different broker from my company and learned her strategy was similar to my own.   We listed the condo with her and one week later held an open house and got a cash offer within one hour.  The offer was accepted that night.  The feedback we got confirmed that it showed really well.  Although not totally updated with new appliances and cabinets it appeared very well maintained  The money we put in upfront made the sale a quick success and we quadrupled that amount in our selling price.   The buyer was excited to see a place that was in move in condition where everything looked fresh.  The best part is that we got a cash offer with a two week close.  We close now on March 31.

Wendy recently joined Coldwell Banker Needham.  She has been a realtor for over 8 years and knowing the area quite well can share a hands on local perspective.  She has also recently earned the SRES  designation and looks forward to helping other baby boomers as they approach their next transitions.  Feel free to contact her directly or click here http://www.wendybcb.com if you would like to learn more.