Tips and tricks on how to sell your house
We have been building, reforming, preparing, photographing and selling houses in Mallorca for the last 5 years. And we have seen it all on the market: beautiful homes that fly off the shelves of the real estate agencies in, practically, days, but also homes that - although in a great location, with beautiful views and set at the right price - linger there for months (some of them for years) and somehow fail to convince the visitor. We have stepped in many times, made small changes with relatively reduced expenses for the owner and...what a surprise ! The house was sold ! Sometimes even for a higher price.
It is not magic, it is not voodoo. Its a few principles, put together, applied to your house, that will make it more appealing to the buyer out there. It will make it easier for the one entering the house to see himself living in there. Having a chat with his friends in the living room, enjoying the coziness of the bedroom or cooking a delicious dinner in that kitchen. But a bit of help is needed in order to get the potential client to focus on that and not on "are those 6 or 7 stairs at the entrance door ?".
Meridith Baer, has home staged and prepared houses for sale on behalf of Hollywood's celebrities since 1998. 175 employees and an enormous warehouse full of furniture, art work and accessories to help turn every residence into a beautiful home, that anybody would want to buy. And although you might not own a mansion with a sea-view or a $17,000,000 home, the principles that she is applying can be scaled down to any property that goes on the market for sale.
Once you have lived in a home for years it is very difficult, sometimes impossible, to see it through the eyes of a complete stranger who comes in and has 15-20 minutes to decide if thats it. If that is the house he is willing to invest in and where he will feel "at home". This is where bringing some one neutral, and yet with a knowledge of what customers are looking for might be useful. And should you decide that such a big makeover is not necessary, you can always try, as a plan A, to apply some of these principles yourself and see what kind of outcome you obtain.
Take a look at abc's recent feature on Meridith Baer's work - and find out how to make your home a bit more appealing to that customer out there. Give the link a bit of time to load the video : http://abcn.ws/1AjaV7A