Three Steps to Get Your Home Ready For Market
Have you experienced the dreaded moment of watching the mountain of moving boxes slowly reach a tipping point in your garage? Before you even reach for the first roll of packing tape, here are three steps to remember when getting your home ready for the market.
The Showroom Experience
Picture this — You’re walking from the hot parking lot into an upscale furniture store. You’re not sure why you’re there — you don’t even need a new couch and you can’t even afford the cheapest option in this store, but here you are. The moment the glass doors slide open, you’re greeted with a cold burst of air carrying the smell of leather and mint into your nostrils. The hair on the back of your neck stands up and the tension in your shoulders slips off of your back. You suddenly find yourself walking towards the nearest gallery of couches and sit down on the one with the plush cushions.
Unbeknownst to you, your decision making senses were serenaded by the geniuses behind Scent Marketing.
The vigorous research done by billion dollar companies on staging and scent marketing alone should encourage you to do the same when getting your home ready for market. You have the same opportunity as these high end businesses to influence every shopper walking through your front door. Your now in the business of creating an experience — not just giving buyers access to your home so they can see if the pictures they saw online really do hold up.
Each of your rooms is just like a section in that upscale store — you want the buyers to have an emotional connection to the space they are walking through, so that they can imagine their future selves living in your home. A well staged home that features comforting smells can psychologically alter a consumer’s experience, encouraging them to stay in your home longer and create a memory. This alone will put your home above the rest.
Camera, Lights, Action!
Next time you have a few minutes to walk through your home uninterrupted, pull up your camera app and begin taking pictures of all the rooms as they are. This may cause a mild case of anxiety as your fears of letting people see your messy and cluttered house are unlocked. Don’t worry, you will be deleting them shortly after taking them.
What you are doing is creating a scene of each room that prospective buyers will see in a few weeks when your house officially goes on the market. This task can be a bit painful as homeowners realize the way they utilize their house is not how they would want it seen on the internet. This step will encourage you to de-clutter and de-personalize your home. Remember to think “showroom”.
The best way to create that showroom experience on the internet is by hiring the best photographers and stagers in your marketplace to help your home gain the most traction when it is listed on the MLS.
Recent statistics have shown that sellers who utilize professional photographs in their listings get more views online and sell faster.
Speed reading, swiping up, and doom scrolling has become second nature today. The sad truth is that the average buyer looking at your home will spend less than 5 seconds per photo and will likely not reach the end of the album before swiping to the next house.
This means that you have to grasp their attention in the first three photos.
Each home is competing with others like it’s on a modern-day dating app. So, how do you make sure that your home stands out among the rest? You shine all the natural light you can on it. Aim to bring as much sunlight into your home as possible. Take down your window screens, open up the curtains, and raise those blinds. Humans love natural light — we’re mysteriously drawn to it like flies to a candied apple.
At the end of this process, you’ll have buyers sitting on their couches, scrolling through Zillow, stopping at the picture of your home and shout, “This is the one!”
Seek Truth in Value
It’s no secret. There are over a dozen websites available at your fingertips that you can use to gain an understanding of your homes value. More isn’t necessarily better. The abundance of resources can be overwhelming and may actually distract you from gaining real valuable knowledge. I call it analysis paralysis.
You are welcome to seek out the third party valuation websites that spit algorithms and crunch data for your home value, but at the end of the day, a house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
No two homes are created equal. This is due to the fact that they are each located on their own lot and have subtle nuances from the builder that make them unique. This is why it is important to seek out a knowledgeable and honest real estate agent when finding the fair market value for your home.
You want a professional walking your home who understands the local market and can offer you staging suggestions and create an accurate CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) that you will have in hand when deciding ultimately what price you would like to list your home for sale at.
Remember, real estate agents don’t make the market conditions, we are in the business of help sellers and buyers navigate the unfamiliar waters as they try to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.
I hope you find this article encouraging and helpful. Good luck out there as you continue your journey in buying and selling real estate. It is still one of the best wealth building tools to this day.