20 Selling Tips

• First impressions go a long long way. There is an Irish fighting expression that ‘the first hit is worth ten’. If you are selling your car would you sell it when it was dirty, covered in mud. No you wouldn’t. You would make sure the car sparkled from every angle you viewed it. It would be washed waxed and as good as new. So, why sell a house with a garden that is not landscaped, doors that are chipped, snow on the walkways, leaves lying around, hedges that are not trimmed, obstacles in the way of the door. Landscaping can be inexpensive and worth every penny. Ask me about how to do this. I have a number of great people on my books who could make your house look like new from the outside.

• Clean up. If you clean up the house, I believe you will clean up in selling your home. Clean the house thoroughly. If you are not into cleaning your house then get the professionals in to do it for you. I have been in many viewings where potential buyers have mentioned something that has not been cleaned up properly. Believe me it puts them off from buying your home. Cleaning can be inexpensive and I have some great cleaners who can make the place feel as clean as an operating theater.

• Check for broken items. Faucets and blown bulbs. There is nothing worse than dripping taps or sinks that are turning green or white from water stains. There is nothing more off-putting to your new buyers than when I go into a dark room with them, flip the switch and the bulbs are blown. I have to arrange another viewing with them and have on one occasion had to come back with them with a flashlight! This is very cheap to fix and could lose you the biggest sale of your life.

• Don’t shut your potential buyers out. If the buyers can’t get in, to a closet, a door, a part of the garden or a locked room, they will have to come back to view the house again. If they have to arrange with me to come back then you may have lost a potential sale.

• Safety is number one. As a Realtor, I have to abide by the Owners and Occupiers Act of BC. This means that if I am showing a buyer around your home and they trip up and fall into your pool because you left out the hose in the garden and they didn’t see it, then I can get sued and you will definitely not get the sale of your house. Be careful of slippery rugs, and low hanging lights. Don’t leave out children’s toys on the stairs or wet floors.

• Please give me some space. When I have had my experts home-stage people houses and apartments the one big tip the home-stagers give me is to make lots of space. The bigger your home feels, the less cluttered it is, the more chance you will have of impressing the new buyers with how large it actually is! Please also remove items from the attic and the basement. You would be amazed at how this can make the place feel larger.

• Tidy the closets. Box up the unwanted items, sort and clean inside the cupboards. Yes, buyers do head straight to the closets to see what they can fit in there. If I open it and get buried with your items then the buyers are not going to be very impressed. A cluttered closet also makes the closet space feel much smaller. One gentleman had a den in his apartment which was filled with garbage. When we cleared it out he was surprised at how large his den was. In fact there was enough room for a single bed or desk in there. What a selling feature lost in the garbage.

• Make the bathroom sparkle. I have found that second to the kitchen the bathrooms sell the house. I have shown people around places where the bathroom smelled like something or someone had died in there and have seen things in the smallest room in the house that no human should have to endure. If that is what your agent is experiencing then please don’t let the buyers endure the same thing Make the bathroom sparkle it is so clean. I promise you that this will help the sale of your home. Display towels in a neat folded way. Get new mats and shower curtain. Check and fix the caulking in the bath and showers. I know of one example when a buyer loved the apartment but couldn’t get over the fact that the bathroom needed caulking. What a waste for a $20 fix!

• Create dream bedrooms. Clear out the bedroom of excess furniture and create as much space in there as you can. Put a colorful bedspread and pillows and make the room fresh with flowers and new curtains. If your buyers like the bedroom this goes a long way towards them wanting to wake up in their new house.

• Open up the curtains. Sometimes I have to do viewings during the day with potential buyers. Quite often I am walking into a house with the blinds and curtains closed. It is dark and unwelcoming. Help me by making sure that all the windows and blinds are open so as much light as possible shines in. It makes for a welcoming viewing and means that I can spend as much time with the buyers as possible without having to go around your house and open up the curtains. A bright and cheery home is far more likely to sell in my opinion.

• Brighten up the night. Turn on the buyer’s excitement by turning on your lights inside of the house and outside. Lights add some warmth and color to the house and done correctly can make the home feel like a cozy welcoming place to come back to at night. Quite often I find that Realtors in luxurious West Vancouver and North Vancouver will do their listing photographs at night. This gives the impression of luxury, and shows off the house in a ‘different light’.

• Avoid being there when I have viewings. I have experienced viewings where I have opened the door and not been able to enter the house fully as there have been so many members of the seller’s family and friends in the room. This creates a bad impression for the potential buyers and makes the room seem smaller. It is also a distraction to both buyers and sellers as they often get into conversations which do not involve the sale of your home.

• When Pets become Pests. One house I sold had such a vicious dog that when we had buyers come around they were so terrified to walk through the front door some of them declined to go in. Lost sale. The dog was only ten inches long but the aggression was much bigger than that. Please make sure that your pets are either taken care of during viewings or tied up so they cannot ‘eat’ potential buyers. Also pet odor can be a problem. One house I took my buyers to look around had dog feces on the floor in one of the rooms. This poor Chinese gentleman stood in the poo and walked it all around the home. As a result he did not want to put in an offer on this house. Also, some buyers have allergies. Please be as considerate as you can to potential buyers by vacuuming up pet dander and hair and aerating the room as much as you can.

• Turn down the music. I did one open house for a lady in a luxury home in West Vancouver. The only problem was that she was rather deaf. Her classical music could have been heard several doors down. Ironically she had put the music on to ‘create an impression’. Only impression it created for the buyers was one of shock. To add to this she had lit some scented candles, in every room, so the place smelled so overpowering that if the buyers did not have asthma before the viewing her house they sure would have after.

• If you are at home please RELAX. Nothing worse for an agent you have hired to sell your home, than a client that decides to make conversation, often awkward forced conversation, with the potential buyers. It is quite often the best thing to be away from the home when future buyers are being shown around. Two or more people selling the house can be quite overpowering and off putting for the potential buyer.

• Please don’t apologize. I have been in viewings where potential buyers have made a comment about a possible shortcoming of the home and had the sellers start to apologize for this. Not only does this reduce the price of your home, by the minute, but quite often the buyers are trying to tactically knock off money from the asking price by downgrading features of the home. Stay quiet and let me as your Realtor deal with this.

• Stay low key. If you are at home when I am showing around buyers then please do yourselves a favor by staying in the background. I deal with buyers every day. When buyers and sellers, as well as their agents, get involved in conversations about the sale the negotiation process can be badly affected.

• Don’t sweat the small stuff. I was once showing a very distinguished gentleman around a very expensive home. We met up with the sellers who were still at home. The sellers then proceeded to try and sell items of furniture in the house along with the home sale. Because the buyer spent so much time talking about the sale of the sofa, he completely forgot about why he was really there… to buy the house. If you have items to sell then please put them in an inventory at the beginning of your listing.

• Defer to me. Let my experience work for you. When buyers start talking about price, terms and other real estate matters let them speak to an expert. You could be talking your way out of the sale of your house without realizing it.

• Help me as your agent. If you and I both know when viewings are to take place then many of the above problems can be avoided.

If you find my tips helpful and would like to know more then please contact me