You can’t change location. You can but it’s impractical to change the fundamental nature of the house (i.e. 3B/2.5ba/2g) so make it the ideal 3/2.5/2 entry level starter family house. If you have a 3500 sf 4/3 ‘luxury’, then it need to be ‘luxury’.
After that is comes down to making it stand out as the best house at the best price. Price it right from the start to the other homes that have sold recently. If your agent is marking up from comparables it’ll sit, get different comparables because they are looking at the equivalent of an entry level car with all the luxury features poured in which have no resale value.
What new renter said is good, but let’s go with real fundamentals since I’ve walked into so many open houses where the fundamentals were not addressed.
1. Clean it! Make it spotless. No dust, no grime.
2. Declutter. Your personal items that sit on flat surfaces should be removed. A few, meaning minimal, can be left if they are not too personal. This includes daily processing and removal of the mail and papers.
3. Green, trimmed and blooming landscape. AKA, clean and declutter the yards. Trim stuff back appropriately, remove detritus, use some planter space for blooming flowers from HD.
4. Fix all the minor annoyances and complete the minor repairs. No sticky doors, no squeaky floor, kitchen doors should all close easily and completely. No indications of a dripping faucet. Replace the door trim with the kid’s pet hamster chew marks on it.
5. Freshen paint, avoid monochrome white on white. It is cheap and easy.
6. Create space. Put your stuff in storage. This is true for the master closet, office and living/TV area. If your closet is bursting at the seams, they see their stuff not fitting. If you have a pile of DVDs sitting next to TV and a wall full of stuff, they wonder where they’ll put their stuff.
7. Arrange the furniture, remove your worn furniture, and emphasize socialization. Think functional, easy, fun. That’s what a room’s stuff should say. The kitchen should scream easy fun meals. The living room should say relaxation and friends and family.
8. Update fixtures and replace light switches and outlets. Yes, they don’t clean well, show age really well and are easy and inexpensive to replace. Door handles should be clean, matching and if they say 2007 instead of 1977 all the better. Do we need to say any more about plastic ‘crystal’ handles on bathroom sinks?
9. Eyeball your appliances. Are they spotless? Inside and out? Do they match? Do they show any wear? Consider replacement if so.
10. Sidewalk, curb, house numbers and drive. Yes, spotless, no grease, if possible no cracks. Freshen the house numbers on the house. Repaint the house numbers on the curb if you have them on the curb. If people strain to figure out which house is 2288 Bonehead Drive when driving it, you’ve started one step down.
Now if you still want to move, price it right and it will sell.
