Getting Your Property Ready to List

When I visit my clients' homes with my stager, I make sure to tell them that how you stage a home to sell if much different than how you live in it. Our goal is to make the broadest appeal to the most buyers as possible by decluttering, neutralizing colors/styles, and addressing repairs.

As a seller, it's in your best interests to know your property's weaknesses before being surprised by buyer feedback or inspection requests. Your agent should give you her opinion on your market challenges, such as backing to a busy road or having outdated finishes, and help you adjust your listing price accordingly. I always recommend that a seller pretend they are a buyer and walk around and through their house with a critical eye, trying to find anything a buyer could pick on. Often we live in our house and don't notice little things like missing trim or a leaky faucet. Not only could these things possibly result in a lower contract price but they can make the buyer wonder what else in the home has not been maintained that they can't readily see.

It's important that your major components are functioning correctly, like your HVAC system, roof, plumbing, etc. Buyers almost always ask for the HVAC system to be cleaned and serviced, so you might as well get it done before listing. This way, if you discover a needed repair you can also take care of it right away - if the buyer finds it during inspection, they may request a whole new system or a significant monetary credit. If you think there may be hail damage to your roof, you will then have time to put in a claim to your insurance company. A brand new roof is a great thing to advertise to potential buyers. If your systems are old but functioning fine, offering a home warranty for the buyer's first year may give them some peace of mind.

Some areas, like many of our Colorado neighborhoods, have issues with expansive soils. These can present as cracks in the drywall, sinking sidewalks, heaving garage floors, or worse - foundation cracks and shifting structures. Many properties here have cracks in their garage floors or walks, and sometimes it may be a good idea to have them mudjacked or repoured. If you've had to address structural issues in the past, it's worth it to hire a structural engineer for a current report that says everything is still performing well. Structural issues are the biggest red flag that buyers run away from, so doing your homework ahead of time will save you time on the market and dollars on the table.

Minor repairs may not seem like a big deal to some sellers if they've been living with them for a while. It's a used house, after all, but these are the kind of things that make buyers wonder if you have paid attention to regular maintenance. Plus, they are fast and relatively inexpensive things to take care of yourself or hire a handyman to do. Scrape and retouch any peeling paint on trim or siding. Make sure your toilets are tight to the floor and your downspouts have extenders. Remove moldy caulk and tighten that loose railing. Paint that red accent wall white and cover the exposed weedblock with more mulch.

If you tend to have a lot of furniture or accessories, removing everything you don't need for the next few months is the way to go. You're going to have to pack it sooner or later, so doing it now will allow buyers the mental space to picture their own furnishings in the home. If you have an off-site place to store things that's ideal, but the garage will work in a pinch. Just be sure that buyers can get into the garage and see the floors and walls during inspection. Having a few family photos up in okay, but take down that gallery wall in the hallway and fill all the nail holes. Remove religious or political items, and hide the deer heads in the basement for now. Stagers can help you rearrange furniture so that the rooms looks as big as possible, and add artwork and color to the spaces to give it a final polish before photographs and showings. 

Everyone wants top dollar when they sell; using a critical eye and being a ruthless buyer for a few minutes can help get you there. My stager and I are happy to come to your home and help you make a to-do list, even if you aren't going to be ready to sell for a while!

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@elevatedrealestate.com

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It's Who You Know

A benefit of working with a larger real estate office is the network of professionals that get established. Staufer Team has a resource manual, filled with contractors and resources for everything from carpet cleaning to real estate attorneys, from inspectors to sewer repair companies. Our agents regular weed out the underperformers and add new people with whom they've had a good experience.

When clients begin working with me, I give them access to various service providers that they will need for the homebuying process, starting with mortgage lenders. There are no kick-backs or rewards for me when my clients go with my associates, other than knowing that the transaction will be handled competently. There are real benefits for my clients, though, and while I don't try to talk them out of using their Uncle Willy's old frat buddy, I recommend that they at least give one of my guys a call and compare experiences and rates. 

My lenders, stagers, inspectors, attorneys, accountants, surveyors and insurance agents know that they must do a good job for me to retain my business. They know the state and local laws and tax implications, and how the Colorado homebuying process works. They know that we are tough on vendors who mess up, and they bend over backwards to be communicative and professional. I get fast and straightforward answers, and I can often get special accommodations for tight timelines or unusual requests.

In the end, my clients have the final say on who they hire, but I am proud of the network of professionals that we have built up over the years. Even if you haven't been a client of mine, I'm happy to give you contact information for your next real estate need.

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@stauferteam.com

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Setting the Stage

Staging a property to sell is more than adding a few candles and throw pillows.  It's about maximizing a home's best features and minimizing the less than ideal.  This can involve such things as rearranging furniture to improve traffic flow, harmonizing a room's color palette, removing clutter and distracting items, and guiding potential buyers to see themselves living in the home.

Vacant properties are a wonderful opportunity to bring personality to a clean canvas.  Sometimes, sellers are hesitant to spend money renting furnishings for staging as they aren't sure they will see a return.  However, there is plenty of evidence that staged homes sell faster, and the sooner homes go under contract, the more likely they are to get a higher price.  Properly sized and placed furniture can reveal just how large a room is, and what the best use for a space might be.  Randomly placed plants or chairs add nothing and might even detract from the space.

From a recent showing in Denver - an example of what not to do...

Staging doesn't always have to cost big money, though.  As part of my listing services, I provide a professional stager early in the process to consult with the seller.  We take a tour of the property together, making a list of items that should be repaired or improved, and our recommendations for priority.  The seller can then decide which items to tackle before listing the property.  Paying attention to items before listing usually gets the seller more money - if a seller identifies an item needing attention, he can repair it.  If a buyer finds it during inspection, they may want it replaced instead.

Cleaning, decluttering and painting to make the best first impression possible is important.  If a buyer sees a lot of repair items - even small ones - they will begin to mentally subtract those costs from their offer price.  Additionally, they may begin to worry that there are other items they can't see that have been neglected, possibly discouraging them from making an offer at all.

The final stage before listing involves the stager coming back to stage the property for photographs and showings.  She will use some of the furnishings that are already there and add to them with other things she feels are in keeping with the character of that particular home.  A well-staged home can make buyers want the lifestyle represented and make an emotional connection with the property.  Remember - the way a home looks while you are living in it is often much different from the way it should look when it is up for sale, just like how your children look when they come back from the park and when you ready them for family portraits.

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@stauferteam.com

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