Preparing Your Home For Sale

Advertising experts have long recognized the impact of light, colour, sound, smells and words in selling products. These techniques have been used for years by marketing experts at major consumer product companies all across the country. From the use of colour to make a package more appealing, to the use of certain smells to increase the sales of automobiles, seemingly small details like these can have dramatic impact on the sale of a product. Homebuyers buy what they see, like, and can afford, in exactly that order. Your house can be priced right, you can do a good job of advertising it, but if buyers walk through your front door and don’t like what they see or feel, your home is not going to sell quickly, or at all. By learning a few simple tips from consumer marketing experts, you can avoid the three traps that most home sellers fall into, and gain a distinct advantage over your competition, many of whom are probably falling into these traps right now.

Mistake #1

As a home seller, the biggest merchandising mistake you can make is to assume that potential buyers will like your home just as it is now, or will like the things you did to improve it to suit your particular tastes. Over-personalizing your home to suit your tastes is a common and costly mistake because it makes it difficult for a potential buyer to visualize your home as his or her home. Think about it. Have you ever walked through a home you were considering buying, but certain sights, sounds or smells gave you an uneasy feeling? Clothes, dishes, toys strewn about, or kitchen or pet odours that made you uncomfortable, almost like you were in an intruder in someone else’s home rather than looking to buy a house to make it your home. If potential buyers feel uncomfortable in your house because it feels too much like your home, they’re not going to buy it.

Mistake #2

The second mistake you can make is the failure or refusal to recognize the weaknesses of your home. It’s often difficult to be objective about looking critically at your home. It’s vitally important to your maximum profit for you to train yourself or hire someone else to look at your home with an impartial eye to spot improvements that you simply cannot or will not see.

Mistake #3

The third most common mistake is to allow your home to get lost in the crowd. To get top dollar for your home, and sell it as fast as you need to, you must gain the advantage over your competition, by understanding how to market and merchandising your home to outshine the competition. To use light, colour, sound, smell and words to make your home irresistibly attractive in the buyer’s eyes so they buy your home instead of the dozens of other homes for sale around the corner.

Have you ever toured a brand-new model home? Ever wonder what it is that makes these homes look so good and why they always sell first and fast? What is it about a new home that makes you feel so comfortable? Well you don’t have to wonder any more. The reason you feel so comfortable is that you have no problem walking openly through the master bedroom, bathroom, or anywhere else in the brand new house. There is no sense or scent that this territory belongs to anyone. It doesn’t look or feel lived-in because everything is new. There are no personal odours, other than a pleasant “new” smell. Look around and you’ll see that the colour of the walls, carpeting and accessories are all neutral, so you don’t feel uncomfortable. It probably doesn’t even sound like someone lives there. The only noise would be the music in the background. The fact that model homes are among the first to sell should say something very important to you about the merchandising strategy of your home. By keeping the sights, sounds and smells of your home neutral, you not only reduce uncomfortable feelings that may be aroused in potential buyers, but actually make it easier for them to picture how their preferred furnishings and decorations would look in the house.

Everybody likes the look and feel of a new home. So let’s start to work now to transform your home as much as possible to look, feel and sound like a brand-new model home. We’ll start by performing a homebuyer evaluation first. For the next fifteen minutes, forget that you are selling your home. Instead, put on your buyer’s hat and transform your mind set into that of a home buying critic on a surprise inspection tour to your neighbourhood and home for the very first time.

Use this chart to list the features of your home down the left hand side of your page, leaving enough space to briefly describe the positive and negative attributes of each feature of your home.

Be honest and objective in listing both the positive and negative features you can see and think of about your home. This may be the first time you’ve ever critically looked at your home from a buyer’s viewpoint, but now is the time to do it before a real buyer sees it. Remember, buyers buy what they see, like and can afford, in exactly that order. To get what you want, namely your home sold on time for top dollar, you need to make sure that potential buyers like what they see when they first see it, and after they walk through it.

Here’s an action list that will help you put your home in top-drawer shape. Most of these things cost little or no money, but they can mean the difference of thousands of dollars more or less in your pocket on closing day, and more importantly, the difference between whether your home sells quickly or not at all.

The first thing a potential buyer sees when they walk in the front door is your foyer. It’s a small area but the first 30 seconds inside your home is long enough for most buyers to make an instantaneous decision about whether they like it or not. So make sure the first impression your home makes is as appealing as possible. Use a bright light bulb in the foyer light fixture. Turn on all lights in the house in the evening to welcome potential buyers. Gently spray the front entrance way with a pleasant aroma of cinnamon or some other fresh accent. Spotlessly clean woodwork, carpeting and windows throughout the entire house. Clear window ledges of all objects to give a nice glimpse inside and out. Repaint walls if necessary, in neutral colours such as antique white.

All right. We’re off to a good start. The three most important rooms in a house to most buyers are the kitchen, the master bedroom and the family room, in exactly this order. If these three areas look excellent, most buyers are willing to overlook small cosmetic problems in other areas of the home. With this in mind, let’s start with the living room and work our way through the entire home to put it in tip-top shape so you’ll be ready for your open house.

Here’s an action checklist for your living room and dining room.

Discard your worn furniture or move it to an offsite storage area. Too much furniture makes your place look small, so let’s get it out of there.
Visit a model home to get decorating ideas. The objective is to make your house look like a model home as much as possible. Everybody wants to buy them, so make your house look like one too.
Clear away books and objects from furniture from around the house
Take down pictures that hide your walls
Patch nail holes and paint
Add lamps and lighting if your living room looks dark — brighten it up
Be sure to keep your curtains or blinds open at all times
Set out some fresh flowers on the table — everyone likes flowers

Here’s an action checklist for the kitchen

Have your oven and stove professionally cleaned
Replace broken appliances
Repair squeaks, drips or binds in cabinet drawers
Clean all appliances inside and out until they are spotless
Discard old food and leftovers from the refrigerator
Clean the refrigerator front of all messages, pictures and magnets. These pictures may look wonderful to you, but not when you’re selling your home to someone else
Clear all magazines, small appliances and cookware from countertops. Stow them away underneath.
If it hasn’t been used for months, put it away.
Wax and polish your kitchen floors from top to bottom so they look spic-and-span

The Master Bedroom is next. Make sure the master bedroom looks absolutely immaculate.

Define areas — sleeping, dressing and sitting, by furniture arrangement. Have the bedroom look as simple and neatly furnished as possible.
Be sure all clothes are hanging up, not lying out throughout the room.
If your closets are cluttered, sell, give-away or stow away your excess clothes before showing the house. Those clothes that remain in your closets should be arranged with maximum neatness so as to make clear there is adequate closet space.

Here’s a quick checklist for bathrooms

Remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs and commode
Put away as much as possible and make each bathroom look like a guest bathroom
Your sinks, commodes, bathtubs, tiles and shower curtains should look immaculate.
Fix all your leaky faucets, rust stains and faulty plumbing that may squeak or bind
Caulk and grout tile or bleach any discoloured grout.
Replace or remove any wallpaper that isn’t neutral in colour. You know what we mean! Phosphorescent wallpaper went out in the psychedelic seventies.
Coordinate towels to one or two colours only
Place softer light bulbs in bathroom fixtures and a scented flower arrangement on the vanity top
Perhaps you’re thinking to yourself, this sounds like so much work. Do I really have to do all of these things? You’re right. It is hard work. But these things need to be done. If you have a take it or leave it attitude about merchandising your home, you’re going to lose out, particularly if you’re in a tough real estate market. Remember, nobody wants to buy a used car that looks like a used car. And nobody wants to buy a used home that looks like a used home. The time you invest now with a little extra elbow grease will definitely help your home sell faster than your competition if they don’t invest the time to do it. So be willing to invest a weekend cleaning up your home from top to bottom, or pay someone else to do it. But by all means, do it.

Return to News Article & Press Releases



Preparing Your Home For Sale Advertising experts have long recognized the impact of light, colour, sound, smells and words in selling products. These techniques have been used for years by marketing experts at major consumer product companies all across the country. From the use of colour to make a package more appealing, to the use of certain smells to increase the sales of automobiles, seemingly small details like these can have dramatic impact on the sale of a product. Homebuyers buy what they see, like, and can afford, in exactly that order. Your house can be priced right, you can do a good job of advertising it, but if buyers walk through your front door and don’t like what they see or feel, your home is not going to sell quickly, or at all. By learning a few simple tips from consumer marketing experts, you can avoid the three traps that most home sellers fall into, and gain a distinct advantage over your competition, many of whom are probably falling into these traps right now. Mistake #1 As a home seller, the biggest merchandising mistake you can make is to assume that potential buyers will like your home just as it is now, or will like the things you did to improve it to suit your particular tastes. Over-personalizing your home to suit your tastes is a common and costly mistake because it makes it difficult for a potential buyer to visualize your home as his or her home. Think about it. Have you ever walked through a home you were considering buying, but certain sights, sounds or smells gave you an uneasy feeling? Clothes, dishes, toys strewn about, or kitchen or pet odours that made you uncomfortable, almost like you were in an intruder in someone else’s home rather than looking to buy a house to make it your home. If potential buyers feel uncomfortable in your house because it feels too much like your home, they’re not going to buy it. Mistake #2 The second mistake you can make is the failure or refusal to recognize the weaknesses of your home. It’s often difficult to be objective about looking critically at your home. It’s vitally important to your maximum profit for you to train yourself or hire someone else to look at your home with an impartial eye to spot improvements that you simply cannot or will not see. Mistake #3 The third most common mistake is to allow your home to get lost in the crowd. To get top dollar for your home, and sell it as fast as you need to, you must gain the advantage over your competition, by understanding how to market and merchandising your home to outshine the competition. To use light, colour, sound, smell and words to make your home irresistibly attractive in the buyer’s eyes so they buy your home instead of the dozens of other homes for sale around the corner. Have you ever toured a brand-new model home? Ever wonder what it is that makes these homes look so good and why they always sell first and fast? What is it about a new home that makes you feel so comfortable? Well you don’t have to wonder any more. The reason you feel so comfortable is that you have no problem walking openly through the master bedroom, bathroom, or anywhere else in the brand new house. There is no sense or scent that this territory belongs to anyone. It doesn’t look or feel lived-in because everything is new. There are no personal odours, other than a pleasant “new” smell. Look around and you’ll see that the colour of the walls, carpeting and accessories are all neutral, so you don’t feel uncomfortable. It probably doesn’t even sound like someone lives there. The only noise would be the music in the background. The fact that model homes are among the first to sell should say something very important to you about the merchandising strategy of your home. By keeping the sights, sounds and smells of your home neutral, you not only reduce uncomfortable feelings that may be aroused in potential buyers, but actually make it easier for them to picture how their preferred furnishings and decorations would look in the house. Everybody likes the look and feel of a new home. So let’s start to work now to transform your home as much as possible to look, feel and sound like a brand-new model home. We’ll start by performing a homebuyer evaluation first. For the next fifteen minutes, forget that you are selling your home. Instead, put on your buyer’s hat and transform your mind set into that of a home buying critic on a surprise inspection tour to your neighbourhood and home for the very first time. Use this chart to list the features of your home down the left hand side of your page, leaving enough space to briefly describe the positive and negative attributes of each feature of your home. Be honest and objective in listing both the positive and negative features you can see and think of about your home. This may be the first time you’ve ever critically looked at your home from a buyer’s viewpoint, but now is the time to do it before a real buyer sees it. Remember, buyers buy what they see, like and can afford, in exactly that order. To get what you want, namely your home sold on time for top dollar, you need to make sure that potential buyers like what they see when they first see it, and after they walk through it. Here’s an action list that will help you put your home in top-drawer shape. Most of these things cost little or no money, but they can mean the difference of thousands of dollars more or less in your pocket on closing day, and more importantly, the difference between whether your home sells quickly or not at all. The first thing a potential buyer sees when they walk in the front door is your foyer. It’s a small area but the first 30 seconds inside your home is long enough for most buyers to make an instantaneous decision about whether they like it or not. So make sure the first impression your home makes is as appealing as possible. Use a bright light bulb in the foyer light fixture. Turn on all lights in the house in the evening to welcome potential buyers. Gently spray the front entrance way with a pleasant aroma of cinnamon or some other fresh accent. Spotlessly clean woodwork, carpeting and windows throughout the entire house. Clear window ledges of all objects to give a nice glimpse inside and out. Repaint walls if necessary, in neutral colours such as antique white. All right. We’re off to a good start. The three most important rooms in a house to most buyers are the kitchen, the master bedroom and the family room, in exactly this order. If these three areas look excellent, most buyers are willing to overlook small cosmetic problems in other areas of the home. With this in mind, let’s start with the living room and work our way through the entire home to put it in tip-top shape so you’ll be ready for your open house. Here’s an action checklist for your living room and dining room. Discard your worn furniture or move it to an offsite storage area. Too much furniture makes your place look small, so let’s get it out of there. Visit a model home to get decorating ideas. The objective is to make your house look like a model home as much as possible. Everybody wants to buy them, so make your house look like one too. Clear away books and objects from furniture from around the house Take down pictures that hide your walls Patch nail holes and paint Add lamps and lighting if your living room looks dark — brighten it up Be sure to keep your curtains or blinds open at all times Set out some fresh flowers on the table — everyone likes flowers Here’s an action checklist for the kitchen Have your oven and stove professionally cleaned Replace broken appliances Repair squeaks, drips or binds in cabinet drawers Clean all appliances inside and out until they are spotless Discard old food and leftovers from the refrigerator Clean the refrigerator front of all messages, pictures and magnets. These pictures may look wonderful to you, but not when you’re selling your home to someone else Clear all magazines, small appliances and cookware from countertops. Stow them away underneath. If it hasn’t been used for months, put it away. Wax and polish your kitchen floors from top to bottom so they look spic-and-span The Master Bedroom is next. Make sure the master bedroom looks absolutely immaculate. Define areas — sleeping, dressing and sitting, by furniture arrangement. Have the bedroom look as simple and neatly furnished as possible. Be sure all clothes are hanging up, not lying out throughout the room. If your closets are cluttered, sell, give-away or stow away your excess clothes before showing the house. Those clothes that remain in your closets should be arranged with maximum neatness so as to make clear there is adequate closet space. Here’s a quick checklist for bathrooms Remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs and commode Put away as much as possible and make each bathroom look like a guest bathroom Your sinks, commodes, bathtubs, tiles and shower curtains should look immaculate. Fix all your leaky faucets, rust stains and faulty plumbing that may squeak or bind Caulk and grout tile or bleach any discoloured grout. Replace or remove any wallpaper that isn’t neutral in colour. You know what we mean! Phosphorescent wallpaper went out in the psychedelic seventies. Coordinate towels to one or two colours only Place softer light bulbs in bathroom fixtures and a scented flower arrangement on the vanity top Perhaps you’re thinking to yourself, this sounds like so much work. Do I really have to do all of these things? You’re right. It is hard work. But these things need to be done. If you have a take it or leave it attitude about merchandising your home, you’re going to lose out, particularly if you’re in a tough real estate market. Remember, nobody wants to buy a used car that looks like a used car. And nobody wants to buy a used home that looks like a used home. The time you invest now with a little extra elbow grease will definitely help your home sell faster than your competition if they don’t invest the time to do it. So be willing to invest a weekend cleaning up your home from top to bottom, or pay someone else to do it. But by all means, do it. Return to News Article & Press Releases
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