Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fully Detached (NewsLetter)

Emotionally detaching from your home is key to remaining objective when setting your asking price and sitting at the negotiating table. Here's how to stop seeing your home as "your" place, and start seeing it as a product to be marketed and sold like any other.

Get packing. Start with the personal stuff: photographs, diplomas, trophies, kids' artwork, souvenirs, knick-knack collections, etc. With these things gone, it's easier for buyers to imagine themselves living in the space – and it's easier for you to picture them there, too. Besides, you'll have to pack these things up at some point anyway.

Redecorate – for buyers, that is. When your property's on market, its décor should appeal not to you, but to the greatest number of potential buyers: think neutral colors and subdued patterns on walls and floors. When it stops looking like your home, it stops feeling like your home – that's a step in the right direction for you and for buyers.

Adopt a show-ready lifestyle. While your home is for sale, you need to tweak your daily routine so as to be prepared for buyers' arrival at a moment's notice. That means making some rooms off-limits, taking the trash out every day, and making beds every morning, for example. With the change in routine comes the needed change in mentality.

Ask your real estate sales rep for a report on comparable sales – current sales of properties similar to yours in terms of square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc. Seeing such a breakdown will help you to paint a picture of your home that's by the numbers rather than one that's drawn from emotion.

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