Necessity VS Desire

Without a fortune to spend sometimes we must compromise on the things we want vs what we need!

Things to consider when buying a home

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Getting Your House Ready For Showings

You've listed your home....Now what?

Keeping your home showing ready in 5 simple steps

You did it!  You finally took that step you've been talking about.....you listed your home for sale.  The pressure is off.....or is it?  Selling your home even under the best circumstances is a long and somewhat stressful process.  There is the decision that you want to sell your home, then the little repairs to get your home ready, interviewing Realtors, settling on a price, and don't forget about the pictures to post your home online. 

Well here's the good news, when you de-cluttered so your agent could come in and take pictures of your home, you primed your house to be appealing to buyers during showings and open houses.  But now you've got the upkeep, and who knows when somebody it going to request a showing!  As somebody who has been through this in the past year here are a few tricks I picked up that help.  

#1 - The Swiffer is your friend!  

I don't think I realized how convenient and effective the Swiffer is until we sold our home. We kept a stash of Swiffer dusters on both floors of the house and one of the mops for the bathroom tile and hardwood floors.  Talk about quick clean up!

#2 - Pets are NOT your friend!

Ok, now don't get me wrong, I love pets! I have three dogs myself, BUT when you are selling your home (especially if they are indoor pets) this can become an issue, mainly the smell.  So here's what I did with my 3 wonderful dogs.  We were selling our home in Wisconsin in the middle of winter (well winter in WI is basically from October-March) but the point is it was much too cold for the dogs to be outside during that time. This meant they were inside stinking up the house...such a turnoff to potential buyers especially if they don't have pets and can't relate.  

So the rule became the dogs were allowed in the basement ( I know something that isn't common here either) and they each had their own rug square to lay on if they were allowed in any other room of the house.  This pleased both the dogs and myself.  Clean-up became picking up the three carpet squares, throwing them in the garage and that was it.....the dog smell was in the cold garage where nobody smelled it.  

#3 - Personal items

This is a hard one, I know.  The idea is you don't want a lot of personal items (photos, kids school work on your fridge,name plates, really anything that is going to remind somebody of you and your family) out on display.  This applies when pictures are being taken AND during showings and open houses.  You want the buyers to be able to picture themselves in the house and these items tend to distract from that objective and put a stamp on the house as being YOURS! 

But you still have to live there while you are selling it and until you find your new home, so where is the balance?  My advice, keep your mementos and pictures limited to certain rooms of the house and when it comes time for showings, have a place that you store all of them.  

#4 - Items of Value (This is not meant to scare.....just a reality)

DO NOT  leave jewelry boxes, cash, or any easily movable or easily hidden items of value laying around the house (especially during open houses).  Although during showings potential buyers will be accompanied by a real estate agent, you have to remember an agent can't be in two places at once and if there are two buyers, which often times there are, and one checks out bedroom one while the other checks out bedroom two that agent can't be with both of them.  

Best case scenario is to either store your valuables during this process somewhere out of your home, such as a safe deposit box, or a family member's home, OR you could invest in an in home safe that you keep those items in during showings and open houses.  Either way protect your valuables and don't forget to add your prescriptions to the list of things you keep out of sight during showings.  

#5 - The Catch All

This is my all time favorite.  Life gets busy and as long as it takes you to de-clutter your life, it can take less than a day for half of that clutter to return!  You won't always have fair warning when somebody wants to view your home and sometimes you may have only 20-30 minutes to get yourself ready and get out of the house for a showing (doesn't leave much time to pick up, right?).  

The Catch All is your solution to that.  Go out and buy yourself a big plastic storage bin with a lid that can easily be "hidden in plain sight" or thrown in a closet someplace.  Then when you have unexpected showings you can throw all the clutter you've accumulated into that bin so your home looks spic and span, and you can sort through it later.  Just put the cover on the bin and you are all set!

Now I know all this may sound overwhelming, but here's the silver lining.  You will get so good at doing this that eventually it should only take about 15-20 minutes to get this done.  The other major plus.....that 15-20 minutes of your time just made your home more appealing to the buyer walking through the door.  

Getting Your Home Ready to Sell - The Pitfalls of Home Repairs

Where do you draw the line when completing home repairs to put your home up for sale? 

Dirty, stained, chipping paint?? This is a must do home repair! 

Recommended Repairs

First let's talk about the things you SHOULD do before putting your home on the market! There are a couple really quick, easy, and low cost things you can do to make your home more attractive to buyers, and get you more return on your investment.  The absolute easiest way to give your house a face lift is to paint!  Now I'm not saying re-paint EVERY room in your house.  Pick the rooms that have dirty walls, or paint chipping (this is especially important when your home is older because of lead based paint issues and FHA financing). If you have 1 or 2 rooms in your home that are very brightly colored you could start there as well.  

When you are painting a few things to keep in mind.  1).  Keep the new color neutral (although it may not be your preference it will be easier for a buyer to envision themselves in the house and also helps makes room look larger and brighter).  2).  Wash the walls before you paint.  This will help the paint last longer, give it a smoother finish, and help freshen the odor of your home as well.  3). If there are any areas where the paint is chipping or there are visible drips from the previous paint be sure to sand out those blemishes before painting.  4).  If you do have a bold color on the wall, splurge and buy the paint that has a a primer in it, there are very few colors this paint will not cover in one coat (and if you're skeptical buy one of the sample containers for $2 and test it out!!)

The next group of must do's are what I like to call sale stoppers.  These are things that are going to stop, or hold up the sale of your home.  These are going to be things like water heater restraints and circuit breaker updates that are going to prevent somebody from getting financing on your home (these will be uncovered in the home inspection so you may as well talk to your Realtor beforehand to make sure you are in compliance with all mandatory codes). 

Tricky and Sometimes Unnecessary Repairs

Moving past the painting and sale stoppers......let's get to the flooring because this is a little trickier.  Hardwood floors that are scratched quite obviously and all over:  repairs on this

Scratched Hardwood floors can be tricky to repair

condition flooring is very hard and expensive, now you could replace it but again that's quite expensive and you run the risk of putting in flooring that a potential buyer may come in and tear out anyways, so then you aren't getting a return on that investment.  So I would tend to shy away from making a large investment like that (especially if those scratches are from pets you still own who could potentially damage the new flooring you put in).  

On the other if the scratches are minor, there are several DIY articles that can show you how to inexpensively repair scratches in your hardwood floors.  If that is the case, take the extra effort and make this minor repair.  That way if you get a nit picky buyer, there is less chance of complaint.  

Badly stained carpeting should be replaced

Carpeting on the other hand is a little less expensive and more important to replace.  A dirty stained carpet appears less hygienic than a scratched floor. Now again don't go overboard with replacing carpeting in every room, but if there are quite a few stains (and I'm talking even stains you know are hidden under furniture) bite the bullet and replace it. It's better in the long run because the more obvious and visible issues, the harder a buyer is going to look for other "problems" to help them negotiate on price.  However if your carpet looks clean and not worn I wouldn't focus on that as a project to take on.  Better to let the buyer decide which carpeting they want to replace.